When Outlook magazine reached dead set some celebs within the industry to speak about Shah Rukh Khan, within the context of of his endless trolling, 90% of them failed to respond, and some who agreed to speak backed out at the eleventh hour. Except social media, hardly any Bollywood celebrity has spoken in support of Shah Rukh Khan publicly. I found it quite strange that not one Bollywood celebrity has publicly stood by King Khan, who has fostered careers of such a large amount of present-day actors, within the context of his endless trolling ever since his son was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau earlier this month. And so, I made a decision to achieve bent actors, directors and several other others in Bollywood to grasp why they were so tight-lipped about this whole issue.
First things first, yes, I need to admit i'm not saying this from any misguided place of entitlement, that after I texted Bollywood celebrities, they must have texted back. And yes, 90 percent of them didn't even respond, which is okay with me. But I used to be surprised with those that initially decided to come back onboard for this text, only to prefer at the moment with some really ingenious excuses.
Example: A young actor, who was launched by SRK, refused to talk to us through his publicist, citing a death within the family. A veteran actor, popular for his negative roles, first agreed and later refused to comment saying “personal problems” were making it difficult for him to speak to us. Another popular filmmaker, first agreed to talk with us, and later simply stopped receiving calls and didn’t bother replying to countless reminders. one more actor, who at the beginning of early 2000s lobbied to be within the so called ‘SRK-camp’, agreed so jetted off to Dubai. There was another interesting incident, which involved a really popular ad guru. He decided to show the tables on us. We reached intent on the person for a column on his views on SRK’s brand value, amid the continued trolling, and the way it'll be affected thanks to it. Around quarter-hour after texting the person, my phone rings and this rather popular ad guru accused me of not being “brave enough” to mention that SRK is being targeted thanks to his political allegiances. This individual went on to mention that we are “scared S***less” that the authorities will take action against us, if we “report the truth”. At this time, I noticed that the individual was trying to search out ways to not be part of the article. an easy no, would are far better. Even ghosting would have worked, prefer it did for the 90 percent of celebrities whom I had reached bent on.
What breaks my heart is that amid all the conversation around how the Bollywood fraternity lacks a spine when it involves talking about socio-political issues, they're not even ready or brave enough to support someone from their own industry to supply succor to him at a time when he needs it the foremost. What good is that this ‘fraternity’ if it can’t stand by one amongst its own? Food for thought?
Excerpts from a writing
