Finance
By: Shree1news, 30 DEC 2020
This was the year Bollywood leapt from the leisure part to top of the national information agenda with the grit and dirt of political acrimony and crime tarnishing the glitter of the glamour industry that never actually recovered from the suicide of certainly one of its own- Sushant Singh Rajput.
From Deepika Padukone’s go to to JNU at the beginning of the year and the traumatic fallout of Rajput’s death to Kangana Ranaut’s run-in with the Maharashtra government and a host of stars being questioned for his or her alleged use of drugs, the problems came flooding in. And the industry faced the brunt of the public’s harsh scrutiny rather than the adoring gaze of fandom it was used to.
There were no new films as the coronavirus pandemic halted production and theatres closed down, however the Hindi film industry and its stars remained under a relentless spotlight that showed up its many faultlines.
As Bollywood looked for bigger support in its struggle towards incessant vilification, actor-MP Jaya Bachchan spoke out within the Rajya Sabha concerning the unfavourable highlight and mentioned she fully disagreed with those that termed the entertainment industry a gutter.
The news cycle started early within the year when Union minister Piyush Goyal met Bollywood personalities on January 5 for a discussion on the Citizenship Amendment Act. The meeting got here close on the heels of major industry people, including Anurag Kashyap and Zoya Akhtar, taking part within the nationwide protests against the contentious act.
The very next day, Deepika Padukone set off a firestorm with a surprise go to to the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus in New Delhi to precise solidarity with students who have been attacked by a masked mob. She didn’t communicate and stood silently behind student leaders, however the action, the first time she had taken a political stand led to requires the boycott of her movie Chhapaak.
Union minister Smriti Irani attacked Padukone and mentioned she selected to face next to people who wanted the “destruction of India”. The ripple effect of the CAA debate continued, polarising the film industry with acrimonious debates on Twitter and elsewhere.
Then came Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. On June 14, the M S Dhoni: The Untold Story star was found lifeless in his Bandra house. The untimely loss of life of the 34-year-old led to anguish of course, but also deep angst with questions on nepotism, Bollywood power structures and the gate-keeping attitude of the industry. Many viewers and even some in Bollywood believed Rajput was “targeted” for being an outsider.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on June 15 tweeted that Mumbai Police would probe the angle of “professional rivalry”, which according to reports, was the cause for his alleged “clinical depression”.
Amongst these questioned were Yash Raj Films’ top honcho Aditya Chopra, filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Sushant Singh Rajput’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty. But that was solely the start of it. The case took a political turn when more than a month later, on July 25, Rajput’s 74-year-old father K K Singh lodged an FIR towards Chakraborty and her family in Patna in connection along with his son’s death.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recommended to the Central government that the FIR be transferred to CBI for a probe. A bitter political row between the governments in Maharashtra and Bihar ensued. The two police forces became parties in a case filed by Chakraborty within the Supreme Court.
Chakraborty and her brother have been subsequently arrested and political events throughout the spectrum received into the discourse too because the investigation started.
Premier government agencies, including the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Enforcement Directorate and the Narcotics Control Bureau, joined the investigation. Sushant Singh Rajput’s case turned the biggest national headline and remained so for months.
The NCB expanded its probe into an alleged use of drugs in the film industry and questioned a number of Bollywood personalities, including Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor, Rakul Preet Singh.
As a section of national TV media termed Bollywood “immoral and unlawful”, its artistes, particularly the women, have been subjected to intense trolling on social media and outside too.
The industry found itself in a lonely battle against prime powers within the system, compelling the Producers Guild of India to issue a statement slamming the media coverage of Bollywood and the intense trolling of its artistes.
The fraternity then took the legal route, with main Bollywood producers, including the three Khans Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir as well as Karan Johar and Akshay Kumar approaching the Delhi High Court towards two TV channels and their editors for allegedly defaming the industry with terms such as “scum” and “druggies”.
The lawsuit, by 4 industry associations and 34 producers, sought the court’s route to TV channels in addition to social media platforms to refrain from making or publishing allegedly irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks towards the industry. It was a rare occasion of industry’s diverse members coming together.
As Bollywood was subsumed in conspiracy theories and allegations on Sushant Singh Rajput’s loss of life, the late actor’s family and fans found solid support in actor Kangana Ranaut, on the forefront of the “Justice for SSR” campaign. She also spoke of alleged drug use in a bit of the film industry and went on to criticise Bollywood and even Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his government.
Ranaut likened Mumbai to Pakistan occupied Kashmir and mentioned she feared Mumbai Police. She was given Y-plus category security thereafter.
Days later, her office-bungalow faced action for “illegal” alterations by the Shiv Sena-led Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which triggered further uproar.
The year that started with Bollywood’s support for intensified opposition to CAA is ending with backing for another movement — the farmers’ protest.
A number of personalities such as Hansal Mehta, Swara Bhaskar, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Richa Chadha have joined Punjabi stars Diljit Dosanjh, Guru Randhawa and Gurdas Mann to lend solidarity to the protest against three farm bills.
And as soon as more, there was a public spat involving Kangana Ranaut, recognized for her provocative statements. She got into a Twitter row with Dosanjh, who took the actor to task for sharing a fake tweet and utilizing derogatory language to explain an elderly female protester.
What followed was a bitter exchange with Ranaut calling Dosanjh filmmaker Karan Johar’s “pet”, a “bootlicker” and asked if he wasn’t ashamed of defending somebody who “instigated” the Delhi riots earlier this year.
For most part of 2020, tensions brewed between the industry and the top state powers but there were also attempts to join hands with the country’s soft power.
Amid a sustained anti-Bollywood sentiment within the nation, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath rolled out an ambitious plan to arrange a movie city within the state in September, at the same time as Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut mentioned it was not easy to shift Mumbai’s Movie City elsewhere.
Source: A-N
