Vilification of Bollywood

I remember in school, in a chapter about anesthesia, there was a paragraph, about how Dentists used to have an assistant hiding under a chair, who would pinch the bottoms of the patients, to distract from the pain caused during a tooth extraction. I thought it’s a great idea and whenever I went for an injection, I’d pinch myself, a trick I still try sometimes. The vilification of Bollywood is exactly that.

Bollywood sells. Top star, new star, struggling star, stars cook, driver, trainer et al. People love Bollywood so much that everything about it sells. So Bollywood is used to sell products, campaign for elections, run IPL & Kabbadi teams, social campaigns for state and union governments, family planning etc, there’s nothing that Bollywood hasn’t sold successfully.

Everything about Bollywood sells. Which actress goes to which gym is something every reporter and cameraman will know, but ask them which sportsman/woman goes to which gym and they’ll look at you with an expression that says ‘do sports people go to gyms?’

Not just stars, their babies. Taimur. Wonder whether his sibling will receive the same attention.

Are there some rotten apples in Bollywood? Sure. Every industry has a few rotten apples. By saying this I’m not doing the by now famous ‘what aboutery’. I’m merely stating an obvious fact. Every organization, company, industry, family has a few or at least one rotten apple, Bollywood is no different. It’s just that our rotten apples are being compared to oranges and are being judged by some really sour grapes.

In the last few months Bollywood has fallen from grace. Everything about us is bad and evil. We are not good people any more. Even our cooks and drivers are a menace to society. So, from loving Bollywood and their children and their cooks, how has Bollywood suddenly become this big bad place where everyone is taking drugs and murdering people? Has it got something to do with that man sitting under the chair distracting you with a pinch on your bottom while the dentist extracts your tooth? Scarily, the bottom here might just be an innocent person, and the pinch an end to a few careers.

Kunal Kohli is a Bollywood filmmaker