Can stars shine even after breaking the law?

‘The Devil’ hits screens next week, even as its hero Darshan is behind bars, awaiting trial in a murder case. Its box office prospects are in focus amid debates about fan adoration for stars accused of heinous crimes.

Darshan was arrested in June 2024. He and his associates are accused of torturing and killing Renukaswamy, who allegedly sent lewd messages to co-accused Pavithra Gowda, Darshan’s friend and co-actor.

Darshan completed shooting for the film when he was out on bail. ‘The Devil’ is directed by Prakash, who made the 2007 hit ‘Milana’ starring Puneet Rajkumar.

Back in 2011, Darshan was arrested on charges of domestic violence. Two weeks after his arrest, his film ‘Sarathi’ was released, and it became a commercial success. Extra screens were added to meet fan demand. The charges against him had not affected his box office appeal.

Sanjay Dutt case

In April 1993, when Sanjay Dutt was arrested for illegal possession of arms, he was shooting for Subhash Ghai’s ‘Khal Nayak’. He was out on bail 15 days later. The movie hit screens in October and was a blockbuster.

“The film would have done well even under normal circumstances, it was a much anticipated movie. But going forward, the arrest impacted his career badly. He was at the peak of his career when this happened,” a film industry insider based in Mumbai says. 

Some of his earlier films like ‘Saajan’ and ‘Sadak’ had been massive hits. But his arrest — the ones who had given him the arms were associated with the 1993 Mumbai bombings — slammed the brakes on his box office popularity, and he could not sign new films.

The projects he had signed with big producers were shelved. There was so much uncertainty about his status that no producer was ready to sign him, says an analyst.  “He had to take up smaller films. He would come out on parole to finish his projects,” they say.

Dutt’s only hit after ‘Khal Nayak’ — and Rajkumar Hirani’s ‘Munnabhai’ franchise — was his own biopic, ‘Sanju’ (2018), released two years after he completed his term in prison. Dutt tried to white-wash his image with the film. The biopic was again directed by Hirani, who had a squeaky clean image because of the feel-good ‘Munnabhai’ movies.

“It was a well thought out plan. The same technique was used by Aaryan Khan with ‘B***ds of Bollywood’. Instead of being defensive, they get aggressive. In ‘Sanju’, Dutt took it out on the media and tried to portray an innocent image of himself,” a Mumbai-based film critic says.

A younger hero, Ranbir Kapoor, played Dutt. “The film was validation for him but for most of the audience, it was just a big movie,” they say.

Salman’s comeback

Salman Khan’s career, however, was not affected by the two cases he was accused in — killing of a black buck in Rajasthan while shooting for ‘Hum Saath Saath Hai’ in 1998, and culpable homicide for negligent driving in which he allegedly ran over five people and killed one in 2002. 

“He was scared when the black buck killing incident took place because there was enough proof for it. He still continues to receive threats from Rajasthan from those who revere the black buck,” the journalist adds. But eventually, the case did not dent his popularity.

Sanjay Dutt had a terrorist tag attached to him but nobody saw Salman Khan as a murderer who had killed someone deliberately. It was seen as an accident, the critic says.

Murder of journalist

Another interesting case dates back to 1944, when M K Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, Tamil cinema’s first superstar, was jailed for the murder of a journalist.

His ‘Haridas’, released in the same year, ran for three years at a theatre in the then Madras presidency. The singer-actor was in jail during this period. He was acquitted and released in 1947. “On his release, he did not get a grand welcome, and neither was he remembered as a superstar. And the films he did afterwards were rejected at the box office,” film historian K Puttaswamy says. Fan culture was not so intense in those days, he observes.

Polanski on the run

Polish-French filmmaker Roman Polanski who made ground-breaking films like ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968) and ‘The Pianist’ (2002), has been accused of sexual assault and rape over several decades.

He is a convicted felon in the United States, having pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor in 1977. He fled the country to avoid further jail time. He remains a fugitive in the US. However, to this day, film festivals, including prestigious ones in Venice and Cannes, continue to screen his films. 

In 1980, Puttaswamy recalls, Polanski was invited to Filmotsav 1980, a fortnight-long international film festival in Bengaluru. “His ‘Repulsion’, ‘China Town’ and ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ were screened and he attended the screenings. He travelled with bodyguards from Europe. A huge crowd gathered to see him. It is difficult to understand when a film celebrity is rejected and when he is celebrated,” he says. 

Fan culture 

The need to admire, respect or be in awe of anything or anyone is an inherent need in all, says Mala Sridhar, who used to teach psychology at NMKRV College for Women in Bengaluru. “This awe assures us that we are capable of admiring and appreciating good things in life. This is vital in forgiving errant behaviour,” she says.

Public memory is short, and fans are capable of continued adoration. “The initial shock and disbelief leads to a string of emotional responses, including denial, blaming and being doubtful about the star’s direct involvement. When authentic evidence piles up, a mild shift occurs: he may have been a victim of circumstances. And empathy rules,” she explains. 

According to Tissy Mariam, socio-psychologist based in Kerala, fanhood is just social behaviour. “Individuals try to identify with a reference group, often connected to a celebrity. This parasocial relationship, common in collectivistic societies, leads to idol worship and loosening of individual identity and moral standards. The inhibitory control in the brain is weakened, allowing fans to accept the actions of their idol, even if they contradict personal values,” she says.

Fan loyalty, she argues, reflects “identity confusion and the need for belonging, which can lead to intense obsession and a disregard for personal standards”.

Fan culture also varies from one society to another, she says, citing the example of Malayalam star Dileep — arrested for the abduction and sexual assault of actress Bhavana in 2017. The case led to the formation of the Hema committee last year to look into cases of sexual harassment and working conditions for women in the film industry. “After this, all his movies turned out to be flops because nobody was ready to watch them,” Mariam says.

Sociologist Sudha Sitharaman, who teaches sociology at Pondicherry University, says, “Popular public figures strongly influence society, yet much of this influence is emotional, not grounded in evidence. In a system shaped by patriarchy and such other power structures, facts often get sidelined — and we must consciously bring them back.”