Bollywood’s battle against paid trends
_____ • _____ A record-breaking hit for Shahrukh Khan’s Pathaan will perhaps ensure organised and politically-motivated harassment wanes
Shahrukh Khan, 57, part of the Khan trinity of superstars who have ruled India’s collective imagination for decades, has all his star equity riding on the upcoming movie Pathaan. First, Khan refused to blink and took on his detractors over the manufactured controversy of Besharam Rang. You could fault the song for being banal and trite, but it was hardly an insult to a particular religion, as claimed by vociferous critics.
For the past several years, every Khan film release in particular and others not kowtowing to a particular ideology face severe backlash when they are at their most vulnerable: that’s when a film with a giant fortune attached releases. I can confirm that this campaign is not organic. It is organised and coordinated for big bucks..
The campaign against Bollywood has huge financial chops attached to it. The people involved have set up thousands of social media handles, some bots with a huge number of fake followers, to ensure that their bigoted take trends. It is a huge echo chamber against Bollywood and picks out selective scenes to harp on the anti-Hindu nature of movies.
Yes, you read that right, “anti-Hindu” films. Some blackmail superstars and say they will seed negative tropes about the film on social media and YouTube; some go to court on specious grounds seeking payoffs and hunting for headlines claiming their sentiments are hurt or a story or a song is plagiarised. Recently their ranks have even been joined by state ministers who function as full-time trolls and threaten Bollywood.
Even the campaign against nepotism in Bollywood is, to a large extent, funded, as my investigation reveals. Yes, all the anger and outrage you see is bought and paid for, barring a few who act as propagandists for a political party. The daily hashtags ban Pathaan and boycott Bollywood are also a part of paid trends to trigger impressionable minds into disliking something that they had loved.
The attack on Bollywood is mounted with a desire to control the industry, which rules the heart of Indians everywhere. It aims to control the magic of stories and put out propaganda against “problematic” historical giants to turn them into pygmies.
Star power has to be subservient to political power and must work to enhance it, which means Bollywood and Mumbai should play second fiddle to Delhi and its political leaders. This might happen as the three Khans who ruled the screens and our hearts for decades are fading out, laid low by age and organised harassment every day. A similar campaign was launched against the well-known Indian painter M F Husain who finally left India because of the incredible number of cases filed against him.
Khan is one of the most cerebral Bollywood actors, and he knows who pulls the strings to shut down Bollywood. A lot rides on Pathaan. Perhaps, a record-breaking hit will ensure that organised harassment wanes and magical stories can still be told. See you in the theatre.