In the Mohanlal starrer Lucifer, the directorial debut of Prithviraj, there is a character intro given to all the main characters by Indrajith’s character, Govardhan. In the monologue he delivers, there was a line about how politicians get away by doing anything illegal or wrong, while “soft targets” like those from the film industry are wrongly targeted. While the movie in itself was brilliantly executed and has great repeat value, this one line forcibly inserted by the writer and director literally made me laugh out. Soft targets! Those who belong to the film industry!! What a joke!!!
For obvious reasons, every Indian’s brain would automatically redirect to the face of Mr. Bhai when laughing about people from the movie industry being soft targets. DUI, manslaughter, hunting of near-threatened species in the wild, physical assault of significant others… the list is longer than my monthly grocery list. Not only has this gentleman ever faced the music, but he is still portrayed as the next best human being to have graced our little planet after Jesus Christ.
Oceans away, in Hollywood too, things are not different, with wife-beaters, rapists, pedophiles, racists, and all sorts of vermin leading a life of no consequences and still enjoying celebrity status and even lifetime achievement awards and standing ovations.
But we don’t have to go anywhere far to prove that those belonging to the movie industry are anything but soft targets. Our quaint little state, Kerala, and its cozy little movie industry are testaments of how people belonging to the movie industry can do anything and still live on as if nothing has happened.
My very first memory of a known actor being accused of a major crime came when I was in school. It was related to a sex racket where an underage girl was presented to several men over a month’s period or so—men who ripped her apart despite being her dad’s age. Among these was a very famous actor who is still lauded as one of the greatest actors that Malayalam cinema has produced, a comedy king who, despite being disabled and retired, is still honored with lifetime achievement awards every now and then. There was never enough proof to convict him for dragging the girl out of her bed and raping her, and he still lives as a legend.
We don’t have to time-travel all that much to go back to the sexual assault of one of the leading actresses in Malayalam in 2017. Despite her public standing, she still hasn’t received justice, only because on the other side is an actor much more, famous, powerful, and stronger. There was an outpour of crocodile tears from the fraternity in the days following the assault. But as the picture started becoming clearer of at least an indirect link to the celebrated “hero,” everyone changed their tune. Almost 8 years later, she is still fighting to ensure that the case is not closed without a proper conclusion.
While I hardly see this actress in Malayalam movies anymore, an actor I see in almost every other mid- or low-budget movie that comes out is someone who has been arrested multiple times for stripping in front of school girls and passing lewd comments at them. It won’t be an overstatement if I say that he is one of the busiest actors doing side roles in Malayalam cinema.
And it is not sexual harassment and pedophilia alone that are rewarded in this little industry; it is drug abuse too, maybe more than everything else. And by rewarded, I literally mean post after post on social media by colleagues and supposed fans hailing those who have been arrested for drug abuse, inappropriate behavior on movie sets, and influencing the younger generation within and outside the industry to get into drugs as modern-day Bhagat Singhs, beacons of hope in a bleak future, epitomes of strength, and whatnot—only because the movies they directed were hits, the lyrics they wrote were what people wanted to hear, the interviews they gave were fun… Oh dear Lord!
Even as I write this, there are posts and interviews coming out in hundreds defending these people. I am not joking when I say that one of the comments supporting a person arrested literally said, “When they are fighting against centuries-old caste injustice, they will need weed and drugs.” That is the level of blatantly hypocritical support that these people get only because of their stature of belonging in some form to the movie industry. Despite repeated complaints and issues, they keep getting chance after chance, where they repeatedly come to work under the influence of drugs and create problems. Imagine if this was happening in a regular corporate office? Would there be any action lower than firing and blacklisting them from the industry?
What’s more? To defend an actor under the influence of drugs who made inappropriate comments about an actress and created an unsafe environment for her, there were “senior” actresses jumping in with “useful pieces of advice” like the importance of laughing off sexual harassment, ignoring inappropriate advances, and thinking of such instances as part and parcel of the job. Because what better way is there to cement your position in the industry than pandering to the perpetrators, right?
And these are not even the big names in the industry I am talking about. If people lower than even, let’s say, tier 3 are given this privilege, what is the privilege of the tier 1 and super-VIP celebrities? And then, they have the audacity to whine about being “soft targets.” Man! Have some shame! If you guys were ever really targeted and punished for the wrongs you have been doing, you would have stayed home for the rest of your lives instead of churning out movie after movie and attending inaugurations and public functions as “role models.”
Also published on Medium.
Leave a Reply