The Harvey Weinsteins of The Indian Film Industry – Sexual Harassment In B-Town

Sex Is The Name of The Game While Sexual Harassment Is The Prize – The Dirty Picture That Is The Indian Film Industry

Sexual Harassment in the Indian Film Fraternity

There is nothing new in hearing that women have been at the receiving end of inappropriate sexual behaviour from hedonistic cads in every industry, be it a corporate multinational or a government office. It has been happening since time immemorial. The new-age, technologically-advanced 21^st Century is no different.

Thanks to the New York Times and The New Yorker, the real face of Harvey Weinstein, a prominent American film producer, was exposed in early October this year. Till now, more than 80 women in Hollywood have subsequently accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, sexual assault, or rape. And, thanks to Harvey Weinstein’s ouster as a sexual predator, a large number of women have spoken out about the depravity that is known as ‘casting couch’ in film industries all over the world.

The Weinstein Effect – Sexual Harassment in Film Industries

The Weinstein Effect, as media likes to call it, has taken the world by storm. The Harvey Weinstein Effect has sparked a global debate about sexual harassment by men, with further cases emerging almost daily. Prominent examples include Anthony Rapp, who alleged that the Oscar-winning actor, Kevin Spacey (House of Cards), had made a sexual advance toward him when Rapp was 14. The list also includes funnyman Louis C.K. who had five women publicly accuse him of asking them to either watch or listen to him masturbate. Also, six women have accused filmmaker Brett Ratner (Rush Hour) of sexual harassment. The accusations against top celebrities seem to climb exponentially, every hour of every day.

The Weinstein Effect has reached international scale, too. In Europe, allegations of sexual misconduct against various British politicians became a public scandal involving dozens of women accusers across decades and political parties. In all cases, the disgraced degenerates were publicly ousted and promptly boycotted by their respective industries.

The Unchecked Sexual Harassment In The Indian Film Industry

Now comes the million-dollar question(s): How many such instances have you heard in India? And, in how many such cases has justice been served? How many celebrities went to jail for their sexual depravity? How many superstars have been boycotted by the Indian Film Fraternity?

We know the answers to these questions already, don’t we?

For a land which reluctantly woke up from its blissful sleep of ignorance in furious anger and fierce indignation at the rape of one Nirbhaya, we sure seem to have no problem going back to sleep once that chapter was resolved, others be damned. How many Nirbhayas are made every day? How many souls are desecrated every day? We know the answers to these questions too, don’t we?

We all know, though we voraciously deny (some going as far as killing), our ‘tolerant’ India is a haven for sexual predators; they are found in every city, in every alley. From the homes of wealthy business magnates to the poor homeless vagabonds – they are everywhere. You might even know some of them; they are your colleagues, your neighbours, your friends, your relatives.

We read or hear stories of abuse, rape and torture almost every day; yet, do nothing about it. Why should we? She wasn’t my sister/mother; let her brother/father deal with it. Our favourite form of denial is victim shaming – “Of course she was raped! Just look at her. Bloody slut.” “She’s asking for it by wearing such revealing clothes! Who can blame the guy?”

Our religion is rife with such devilry, not Hinduism, I’m talking about Bollywood. For that is our real religion, innit? We worship our stars more than we pray to our gods! We build temples in their name and will blindly go to war if need be, for our superstar gods. They can do no wrong. Period.

Why There Is Little or No Noise About Sexual Harassment in India

 

The Indian Film Industry is filled with the likes of Harvey Weinstein. But, rarely do we witness anyone from B-Town accusing prominent celebrities. Vidya Balan (Kahaani), a well-known Bollywood actress, confessed in an interview that many top actresses choose to keep quiet for decades about sexual harassment fearing reprisal, which goes to show how safe women feel about reporting such issues.

If you look at the trend in Bollywood, you will quickly start to notice an emerging pattern. It’s not like actors and actresses deny the presence of deviant sexual behaviour in the film industry, it’s that most members of the film fraternity have stayed mum or deflected such queries fearing persecution. After all, the people who engage in such atrocities are high up the food chain and have considerable influence, thanks to their equally corrupt political connections.

Following the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, a crowd-sourced list of more than 60 Indian academics accused of harassment appeared online but was later taken down. It is no secret that Bollywood has its own share of sexual predators. For decades, women in Bollywood have warned each other about men who use their positions of power to harass and use women as and when they wish sexually.

The Harvey Weinsteins of the Indian Film Industry

Are they guilty?

 

There are several cases of such villainy in India, Shakti Kapoor being the most prominent. Kapoor was caught red-handed asking for sexual favours from an undercover reporter posing as an aspiring actress in return for entry into the film industry. His only defence? He hadn’t signed the release form required for the tape to be aired.

There are several Shakti Kapoors in Bollywood, some much worse than Kapoor. A Delhi high court acquited Mahmood Farooqui, the co-director of Peepli Live, for raping an American national. The reason? It seemed to the judge that a “feeble no” is actually a “yes” in the “instances of woman behaviour”. In another instance, Vikas Bahl, the director of acclaimed films like Queen and Shaandaar, was accused of sexual assault by an employee of his production house.

Another gripping case is that of Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan Pillai, a famous actor in the Malayalam film industry best known by his stage name Dileep, who was arrested by police along with several others for kidnapping and molesting an actress. Elected MLAs and filmmakers aligned in the actor’s camp had already started the character assassination of the actress as soon as the news was out in a desperate bid to malign the woman’s image in hopes of discrediting her testimony. What is even more depressing about this affair is that Dileep’s fans cheered and distributed sweets as he walked out on bail.

And who can forget the famous rape allegations made against Shiney Ahuja by his maid? The list goes on – from Chennai Express producer Karim Morani to acclaimed director Madhur Bhandarkar, even the supremely irritating and untalented Kamaal R Khan – the directory of ‘presumed’ sexual deviants in Bollywood is endless. Sexual harassment can take several forms, and this is just the tip of the iceberg!

Have you seen justice prevail in these cases? Have the culprits of such sadistic behaviour received the punishment due?

No! Forget boycotting them, Bollywood has been reluctant even to name or shame the perpetrators.

Why?

We Know Why Sexual Harassment Is Overlooked – It’s Our Fault – Yours & Mine

The vast majority of Bollywood’s biggest producers and filmmakers are men, many from prominent film families who until recently controlled most of the industry. These men have connections with major political leaders and are not afraid to use the influence to save their legacy of shame.

There is an unspoken truth accepted by us Indians – powerful men in India are above the law. They do what they feel like, take what they want and go where they please. If you accuse them of any wrongdoing, you will be swiftly demeaned and disgraced. Some accusations are suppressed out of fear, while in other cases, the accused walks free, because the legal system is callously bent for such influential people.

The problem is much bigger and goes deeper than we can imagine. Authorities, including the police, often deliberately impede sexual assault investigations. When exposed, each and every one of them has the same excuse, “I was under orders.”

The Harvey Weinsteins of the Indian Film Industry are also protected by the culture of victim shaming. This makes it very hard for people, especially actresses, to speak openly about their experiences or even to come together collectively to identify a sexual predator in the industry. The general public doesn’t care either; in fact, they go nuts if you dare smear the name of their beloved ‘role model’. Anyone remember Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh?

Though there has been an increased conversation about the ‘sexual harassment’ problem in recent years, it still persists. While the #MeToo hashtag did trend in India, it was rallied by the small, educated minority who drive such trends in our populous and tolerant nation.

Women have to make compromises if they want to succeed in the Indian Film Industry. And, by compromise, I mean women have to subjugate themselves to the demands of creepy old (married) producers who hold considerable influence in B-Town and are not bothered with finding talent, only the gratification of their putrid selves.

The Film and Television Producers Guild of India, The Association of Indian Motion Pictures and TV Programme Producers have been, so far, unequipped to handle cases of sexual harassment complaints. Are they really unequipped or are they complicit because of their incompetence?

One article on Firstpost claims:

There is a much-married, 50-plus character actor who recently forcibly tried to kiss his manager’s assistant; a debutant who ran away from her film shoot because she was on the verge of a breakdown after regularly being sexually abused by her director; an actor-director who liked to boast about the size of his penis to the women in his crew; an old-time producer who used to insist on special story sessions in a room that only has a wall-to-wall bed; and, female assistant directors afraid to enter a young A-lister’s make-up room because he likes to sit around in his underwear.

This Aggression Will Not Stand, Man!

These stories don’t even seem far-fetched. Knowing the crude mentality of Indian men, it is totally believable. In our incredible India, powerful men for centuries have assumed sexual entitlement, and that is going to take decades to change. And for it to change, the common man needs to wake up from its shameful slumber of denial and stop worshipping flawed human beings. We, the people, need to take celebrities down from the high pedestal that we put them on. It needs to be done, and, we are the only ones who can make it happen – you and me.

Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Rajkumar – none of them deserves to be worshipped. They are human beings, flawed Homo Sapiens, just like the rest of us.

The Harvey Weinsteins of this world are a very real and existing problem that has been swept under the rug for far too long. Time to wake up, India.

Time to take some responsibility.