Bollywood Finds Its Tongue

What Sonam, Deepika and Vivek have in common

For an industry where a man’s word means very little, Bollywood sure takes words seriously. Rishi Kapoor’s response to his son’s trash-talking ex-girlfriends on Koffee With Karan was so over-the-top, it was filmi. Infuriated by the swipes they took at Ranbir, he said he would pull out of Karan Johar’s Agneepath. (A fortnight later, he was still part of the movie.) What Sonam Kapoor and Deepika Padukone said was hardly extraordinary, but still, you’ve got to hand it to them. One is a stranger to the industry, while the other belongs to a film family; neither was intimidated by the thought of going up against one of Bollywood’s biggest actors and the family behind him. By doing this, they broke away from long-standing industry convention. Vivek Oberoi knows the price for doing this is a heavy one, even if you’re right.

Mumbai’s film folk, all frenemies, manage to get along by falling in line. This means looking the other way when a powerful producer-director filches ideas from here and there, including one from a close friend, also an influential producer and director (who did not speak up). It means ignoring all kinds of inconvenient things.

The industry has used this fear as an excuse to pardon far too many things. Aborted careers, sexual harassment and the non-payment of salaries continue to remain hidden from public view because people fear the repercussions of speaking up. The industry works on all kinds of connections; the ones who try to test these tend to lose out.

There’s a larger thing at stake: the truth. Journalistically, this sense of self-preservation is disastrous. No one, least of all the reader, knows what’s really going on. Senior actors continue to work their legend, confident that the truth about their on-set harassment of actresses and assistant directors will stay in the realm of innuendo. Producers continue to be arbitrary in their financial dealings with their employees. These are issues Bollywood would rather not address.

Rishi Kapoor was upset because things weren’t done the way they usually are—quietly, in the dark, where people’s actions and reactions reveal who they really are.

About The Author

Rahul Bhatia