Bollywood banking on public ‘amnesia’

INDUSTRY FACING GROWING HOSTILITY AFTER ACTOR’S DEATH

by ASJAD NAZIR

THE Hindi film industry is facing a crisis of historic proportions and it is trying to use an age-old strategy to deal with it.

It is a plan that has been employed by high-profile individuals for decades, and now Bollywood is hoping it will stop the giant tidal wave of hate generated against it after Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.

The industry’s master plan, bordering on arrogance, is simply to do nothing and rely on the public having a short memory.

This has worked for scandal-hit stars in the past, who would have been banned for life in Hollywood for the abhorrent things they did, including going to prison for criminal behaviour. They relied on the public quickly forgetting about their misdemeanours and it worked because practically all of them were back working in films after a period of time elapsed.

Although many big names like Karan Johar have seemingly gone into hiding and switched off comments on their social media handles after receiving a tsunami of hate online, the power players within Bollywood are convinced that once cinemas open up fully, the public will once again ignore their misdeeds.

They reckon a blockbuster will make audiences forget about the huge nepotism debate and how late star Sushant Singh Rajput may have been wronged by the industry.

Most in Bollywood are relying so heavily on this ‘amnesia’ led strategy that they will delay films until the dust has settled and are planning big-budget projects with star children in them. Other producers are dumping current releases onto streaming sites and are convinced the public would have moved on by the time their next project arrives.

But the Sadak 2 trailer becoming the second-most disliked YouTube video of all time shows there is something bigger happening against Bollywood. To put it into perspective, the now third most disliked You-Tube video of all time is Justin Bieber song Baby, which took 10 years and 2.2 billion views to reach 11.6 million dislikes. In comparison, it took Sadak 2 less than a week to fly past 12 million dislikes and it achieved that in less than 62 million views.

Meanwhile, the likes of star children Alia Bhatt, Sonam Kapoor, Athiya Shetty and others have either limited or switched off comments on social media. Sonakshi Sinha went a step further and deleted her Twitter account. There were even reports that Mahesh Bhatt paid for an article in a high-profile newspaper to clean up his image after the barrage of hostility he has received in recent weeks.

All the high-profile films that have been released in recent months directly onto streaming sites have largely been ignored despite being easily accessible, which also shows the kind of trouble Bollywood is in.

In addition, international media, which has never really written about Hindi cinema, is now covering what is going on in India and many who have never watched a Bollywood film suddenly hate the industry.

Feelings towards Sushant and the current investigation into his death are so strong that the trouble facing Bollywood won’t go away any time soon, which will result in more damage because it looks like people aren’t ready to forget. So this arrogant policy of relying on public amnesia is unlikely to work in the immediate future.

This looks like a historic moment in time and if Hindi cinema doesn’t take it seriously there will be a lot of casualties, including financiers losing money, more stars becoming outcasts and a significant downturn in audiences.

With the coronavirus crisis already affecting business with cinema closures, Bollywood can’t afford to ignore the protests against it that are happening across the world.

Just as Hollywood admitted to being “too white” and started becoming more multicultural, Hindi cinema can address the issues instead of waiting for it to go away.

Bollywood can pledge to treat ‘outsiders’ better, to be less nepotistic and to no longer take audiences for granted. They can collectively ask for a fair investigation into the death of Sushant Singh Rajput.

But the entitlement is such that Bollywood will carry on regardless, while the fire rages out of control. This was perfectly illustrated by a highly placed source, who said, “All these people who are protesting are crazy and will soon get bored. The industry will carry on as normal.”

I don’t think they will be able to, though, because this kind of feels like the Arab Spring of Bollywood, and it should not be ignored.