Bollywood must speak up more strongly

Bollywood superstars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan made some remarks that are relevant to the film industry, the world of art and to society as such, at the inauguration of the Kolkata International Film Festival last week. Bollywood actors do not usually express their views in public on sensitive matters. The departure from the norm of the two big stars from two generations of the film industry is therefore welcome and important. Bachchan, who is always circumspect, was moved to express concern over challenges to freedom of expression and questioned the demand for bans on films after they have been cleared by the Censor Board. He also raised the issue of increasing human rights violations. Khan talked about the toxicity of social media and rightly said that “negativity increases social media consumption, and thereby increases its commercial value as well. Such pursuits enclose the collective narrative, making it divisive and destructive”.

The comments have to be seen in the context of the calls for a boycott of Khan’s upcoming release Pathaan and for a ban on a song sequence titled Besharam Rang in which actor Deepika Padukone briefly wears an orange outfit and Khan a green shirt. Many elements of what makes anything anathema in the current milieu are there in it: the claimed insult of a ‘sacred’ colour by its use in a sensual setting, the romance between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman, and the wrong politics of the actors. None of this should be a reason to seek a ban on or boycott of a film or a play or to pour calumny on their actors. These have passed without a problem in art and life in the past but in the present times, they are turned into weapons for attack on people and their words and actions.

It is not the first time Khan and Padukone are being attacked. Khan has been targeted for his religious identity and Padukone for her politics. Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra, who made loud protests against the film, also called Padukone a member of the “tukde-tukde” gang. The policing, the threats and the intimidation are not just directed at individual artists, they are also aimed at Bollywood as such. Taming the industry, which carries enormous soft power and touches millions of people inside and outside the country, has been an aim of the present establishment. So, the attacks are on freedom of expression as a right, and on individuals and institutions which can thrive only in a milieu of freedom. The attacks are magnified many times in the social media. Some in Bollywood have given in. Those that haven’t are being targeted.