Over the weekend, at the IIFA awards, three men (one mediocre director, one mediocre actor and one watsisname) got together and dissed a woman who had worked very hard to get where she is today. Not to mention, she is also one of Hindi cinema’s finest actresses today.
If you don’t know what happened, let me bring you up to speed quickly. Karan Johar, Saif Ali Khan and Watsisname, I mean Varun Dhawan put together a sketch for the IIFA show where they ragged on Kangana Ranaut and her statements on nepotism in the Film Industry. The sketch ended with three of them of chanting “Nepotism Rocks.” Now, all three of them had an easy foot in the door because the families they come from when they first entered the film industry. Ranaut, on the other hand, has clawed and fought her way with her incredible acting chops and her intense honesty to get where she has. Her honesty, ironically enough, has got her into loads of trouble and scores and scores of fans have dragged her name through the dirt to defend their idols.
“Nepotism Rocks.” I watched that clip and thought how did several levels of checks allow this to get to a point where it was presented on a world stage (sort of). First, the person who scripted this nonsense, then the person who approved this and finally the person who directed those three idiots to put it on. I am assuming they were equally involved in the process, so I am pretty sure they must have told the women (and men) in their lives about the performance. Did everyone just think it was really funny and let it go? Did no one have the sense to say, “Hey this is entitled nonsense”? In a country that’s reeling from dynasty politics, and opportunities opening up because of connections, how can three grown men stand up on stage and say nepotism is completely cool? Not only that, how can three men who have all the privilege of a) being men, b) family name and c) decision makers in the industry run down a lone woman who puts her nose to the grindstone and delivers one good movie after another? Khan, Johar and IForgetHisName couldn’t have proclaimed their insecurities louder than if they had hung placards around their necks that said, “Kangana Makes Me Insecure.”
Ranaut, on the other hand, minces absolutely no words when she says what she has to say, case in point, her bringing up film families hogging all the jobs in the Hindi film industry. To add to this, she has worked hard without anyone to back her, except her immense talent. Clearly, as you can tell, I am a Kangana fan. But that isn’t the only reason I find that silly sketch the three men put up offensive. Lack of forethought, immaturity and pettiness aside, what the three of them did reeks of misogyny. To name a colleague, an accomplished one at that, and to ridicule her perfectly valid truth when she wasn’t there to defend herself is, frankly, the epitome of privileged male entitlement and the peak of regularly keeping women down with misogynistic jibes. Not very different from the way all of Bollywood functions, no?
But Kangana has had the last laugh. When news and social media came down hard on the act, all three of them have had to step back and apologise. Dhawan tweeted a general apology to the public saying he was sorry if he hurt anyone (*eyeroll*), Khan said he had texted an apology to Kangana, explaining that the Joke got out of hand. Yeah, right. And Johar tried to be magnanimous taking responsibility for the idea of the joke and saying “the joke didn’t go right.” Bro, there’s no way you could have delivered that joke and have it “go right.” I am thinking all of this apology business could have been entirely avoided if they had all put their brains to use and not let their insecurities get the better of them. These are men in their 40s (except Dhawan) who cannot use immaturity or inexperience as an excuse for their repulsive behaviour. These are men who have mothers and wives and sisters and women best friends (I don’t know how the last one is possible though). And yet, the first opportunity to run a woman down, and they jump at it in the most juvenile fashion. Nicely done, Bollywood. Wake me up when you turn out men who know what respect means.
Feature Image Source: Deccan chronicle
