Bollywood # MeToo going nowhere

Bollywood’s # MeToo movement seems to have been stillborn. Brave Tansuhree’s allegations regarding sexual misconduct by the renowned actor Nana Patekar have not only been greeted by legal notices from Patekar as well as Vivek Agnihotri but she has also been threatened by a political party and slut shamed by many on the social media circuit, including film folk. The survivor seems to have become the victim of a circus that has come to protect the famous male star. Far from setting up a mechanism to investigate the allegations and find a way to settle the matter, there has only been a disappointingly aggressive male chauvinistic reaction. The actress is alluding to an event 10 years ago when her car was also attacked as she tried to leave the set on which the event was supposed to have taken place but they are not even looking into it.

Contrast this with what happened in Hollywood in the year since allegations of harassment and sexual assaults were made against the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein who lost his job, his wife and much else besides. Hollywood is reported to have made a number of changes after more powerful figures were ousted. They have established hotlines for survivors of sexual attacks to register their complaints and also revised their handbooks of rules of conduct. There has been a huge cultural change with sexism banished from movie sets and offices and in the industry itself. But then India is still very much a man’s world and all judgments on gender equality may mean very little if male objectors are allowed to have their way.