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'Dirt', 'Filth', 'Scum', 'Druggies'...Bollywood Strikes back!
After SSR’s unfortunate death, the electronic and social media have hurled many serious accusations on Bollywood including calling them “dirt”, “filth”, “scum”, “druggies” and using expressions such as “it is Bollywood where the dirt needs to be cleaned”, “all the perfumes of Arabia cannot take away the stench and the stink of this filth and scum of the underbelly of Bollywood”, “This is the dirtiest industry in the country”, and “cocaine and LSD drenched Bollywood”. Sumita Chakraborty investigates why Bollywood decided to say, “enough is enough” and fight back.
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Over the decades, the Hindi film industry has always been the “favoured child” of the nation. Adulation, applause and accolades were showered on the bold ‘n’ beautiful actors of the industry. Of course, there were brickbats too but not extreme enough to tarnish the glittering gold nameplate at Bollywood’s door. Indeed, the larger than life Bollywood Gods and Goddesses had the Midas touch and everything they touched turned into gold. Until… 2020!
That’s right, 2020 sure has been a horrendously traumatic year for Bollywood. First, there was the horrific pandemic that struck the entire world like scourging plague, threatening the very being of existence. It was a global catastrophe. And of course, Bollywood too was scarred by Covid19’s aftermath. The industry along with every other business in the world too came to a grinding halt with the Government temporarily closing down theatres and shoots – films, TV and web-series were cancelled totally. Covid 19, the dreaded equaliser, made both the superstar and small-time actors sit at home literally twiddling their thumbs. Already, there was a deep pall of gloom when suddenly there was a spurt of sad demises of illustrious artistes and phenomenal talents like Sushant Singh Rajput (SSR), Irrfan Khan, Rishi Kapoor and so many others… The ebbing deluge of losses refused to end as one by one known and unknown actors died of natural causes, Covid-19 or horrifyingly suicide. Reeling under this devastating blow, a crippled Bollywood was brought down to its knees and was still trying to cope with the irreplaceable losses when a thunderous vicious black cloud engulfed Tinsel Town yet again.
And this time it was SSR’s untimely death that opened up a can of worms that was earlier perhaps swept under the carpet. A lot has been said about the unfortunate death of SSR and as motives, theories and even far flung claims shrouded the case making it more and more menacing and mysterious, a new scandal popped up. “Drugs”! The electronic media went into a tizzy as they dug up deleted whatsapp messages of alleged key players in the SSR case. Jaya Saha, SSR’s manager and an employee of talent management Kwan was hauled over burning coal by the electronic media’s “zealous” investigation, and through this, names of top actors from Bollywood spilled out as drug takers. Karan Johar’s June 2018 video which had gone viral as a raging fire on the Internet showed actors Deepika Padukone, Arjun Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Malaika Arora, Shahid Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Zoya Akhtar and so many others. Many netizens insisted that the actors looked “high” not on life but other things. One Punjab MLA even filed a FIR but of course, at that time Bollywood could do no wrong and so the entire thing was forgotten conveniently off. Until 2020, the equalizing year of “cleansing” snared Bollywood by its horns. Of course SSR’s death was the catalyst but the shocking and scandalous “breaking news” moments for the ecstatic electronic media that popped up had the NCB (Narcotic Control Bureau) march into Tinsel Town.
Shockingly, the heroines in Bollywood were hauled by the NCB (Narcotics Control Bureau) first – Deepika Padukone who allegedly whatsapped Jaya Saha whether she has “maal” further specifying “hash, not weed” was brought to the NCB for questioning. Shraddha Kapoor who allegedly asked Jaya Saha for CBD oil was summoned too and so was Sara Ali Khan and Rakul Preet. The electronic media was on fire. Scandalous leaked information that included retrieving deleted whatsapp conversations from 2017 onwards were dug up and news anchors became ‘judge, jury, executioner’ conducting a media trail that put the entire Bollywood in the dock.
The bold ‘n’ beautiful Raveena Tandon averred, “Our industry has done a lot of great things, unfortunately for the sad, sad episode of SSR’s death which was very unfortunate- and I know the family is grieving - but I do believe the media has made it into a circus and I’m not sure whether even he would have wanted his memory to be tarnished this way - more so with the kind of allegations that are being cross flung on everybody. True, the image of Bollywood was indeed tarnished. Nasty trolls put up vitriolic comments on many actor’s posts. Mean memes were forwarded on Bollywood on the whole. When Jaya Bachchan tried to defend the industry in the Parliament, trollers had a field of a day making snide comments and vile threats so much so that Amitabh Bachchan had to increase the security at his place. Agreed, the law is the same for everyone and perhaps the electronic media and social media were just doing their jobs but things did become rather OTT.
Until Bollywood cracked under the constant pressure and said “Enough”! In a new development, Bollywood came together as a force and announced that they had come together “to seek redress against the irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory reporting by certain media houses”. In a press release, they unitedly said, “Today, a civil suit has been filed before the Hon’ble
Delhi High Court by four Bollywood industry associations and thirty four leading Bollywood producers praying the Hon’ble Court direct Republic TV, Mr. Arnab Goswami and Mr. Pradeep Bhandari of Republic TV, Times Now, Mr. Rahul Shivshankar and Ms. Navika Kumar of Times Now, and unknown defendants as well as social
media platforms to refrain from making or publishing irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks against Bollywood as a whole and members of Bollywood, and to restrain them from conducting media trials of Bollywood personalities and interfering with the right to privacy of persons associated with Bollywood. The Plaintiffs are also praying that the Defendants abide by the provisions of the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994, and to withdraw, recall and take down all the defamatory content published by them against Bollywood.
“This comes in the wake of these channels using highly derogatory words and expressions for Bollywood such as “dirt”, “filth”, “scum”, “druggies” and expressions such as “it is Bollywood where the dirt needs to be cleaned”, “all the perfumes of Arabia cannot take away the stench and the stink of this filth and scum of the underbelly of Bollywood”, “This is the dirtiest industry in the country”, and “cocaine and LSD drenched Bollywood”.
“It is pleaded that Bollywood is a distinct and well recognised class, comprising the Hindi film industry in Mumbai. Since several years Bollywood is a huge source of revenue for the public exchequer, earns significant foreign exchange for India by way of revenue from overseas releases of films, tourism etc., and is a big source of employment, with various other industries also being largely dependent on it. Bollywood is unique and stands on a different footing from any other industry inasmuch as it is an industry that is dependent almost solely on goodwill, appreciation and acceptance of its audience. The livelihood of persons associated with Bollywood is being severely impacted by the smear campaign being run by the Defendants. This is in addition to the ongoing pandemic which has resulted in extreme revenues and work opportunity loss. The privacy of the members of Bollywood is being invaded, and their reputations are being irreparably damaged by painting the entire Bollywood as criminals, seeped in drug culture, and making being part of Bollywood as synonymous with criminal acts in the public imagination.”
Almost all the well-known names in Bollywood are represented through the Plaintiffs, including: The Producers Guild of India, The Cine & TV Artiste Association, The Film and TV Producers Council, Screenwriters Association, Aamir Khan Productions, Ad-Labs Films, Ajay Devgn Films, Andolan Films, Anil Kapoor Film and Communication Network, Arbaaz Khan Productions, Ashutosh Gowarikar Productions, Dharma Productions, Excel Entertainment, Filmkraft
Productions, Kabir Khan Films, Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures, Red Chillies Entertainment, Reliance Big Entertainment, Rohit Shetty Pictures,Roy Kapur Productions, Salman Khan Ventures, Sohail Khan Productions, Vinod Chopra Films, Vishal Bhardwaj Film, YashRaj Films and so many other production houses… practically the entire film industry.
The press release furthers stated, “It is interesting that this is not the first time that legal action has been initiated against the Defendants. On several previous occasions some of the Defendants have been penalized and reprimanded and have had orders passed against them by Courts and authorities for irresponsible reportage and defamatory content and have been found guilty of broadcasting unsubstantiated and incorrect news. For example, even after the case involving the unfortunate death of actor Mr. Sushant Singh Rajput (which appears to have triggered
the diatribe against Bollywood) was transferred to the CBI, these Defendants indulged in what could be aptly described as a frenzy suggesting that the CBI would start making arrests. That has still not happened.
“Some of the Defendants are also openly flouting the Programme Code framed under Section 5 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 contained in Rule 6 of the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994, which governs the television channels owned and operated by these Defendants. These Defendants are conducting and publishing parallel private ‘investigations’ and effectively acting as “courts” to condemn persons connected with Bollywood as guilty based on what they claim is “evidence” found by them, thereby trying to make a mockery of the criminal justice system.
“The Plaintiffs are not seeking a blanket gag order against media reportage of the investigation in the cases relating to the death of Mr. Sushant Singh Rajput or of FIRs No. 15 and 16/2020 filed by the NCB, Mumbai. The Plaintiffs are merely seeking perpetual and mandatory injunction against the Defendants from carrying on reportage and publication of material that violates applicable laws.” The suit has been filed by DSK Legal on behalf of the Plaintiffs.
An ecstatic Swara Bhaskar hailed this move by tweeting, “Bollywood hits back with a suit in Delhi High Court seeking to restrain Republic, Times Now from making derogatory remarks.” On the other hand Ranvir Shorey also claimed, “I have said this repeatedly, Bollywood may have its issues, but they pale in comparison to what news media has become. That’s where the real cleaning needs to happen.”
Lady in white Simi Garewal tweeted, “#BollywoodStrikesBack About time too! These news media channels had crossed all limits. Using stars and abusing them for TRPs!! Why should it be tolerated?” However, Bollywood’s one woman army Manikarnika Kangana Ranaut who was one of the first whistle-blowers, however, made a caustic tweet, “Bullywood the gutter of drugs, exploitation, nepotism and jihad. Its lid is off, instead of cleaning this gutter #BollywoodStrikesBack well file a case on me also, till the time I am alive I will continue to expose you all #BollywoodStrikesBack.”
It’s good to see Bollywood unite in the face of dire adversities but perhaps they should stop having blinkers at the vices within the industry and instead of sweeping issues under the carpet, they should rather try cleansing up the system from within. …Perhaps that’s when the hashtag #Bollywoodstrikesback would be more effective.
