Here Is Why We Think That The #Metoo Movement In Bollywood Might Have An Expiry Date

It started with a small yet bold attempt by a lesser known actress who dared to speak up against one of the most influential men in Hollywood, Harvey Weinstein. What followed was a barrage of women coming up with their own stories of harassment in the hands of many bigwigs of the industry and an even stronger voice to ensure a safe working atmosphere for women in showbiz.

It took about a year or more for this India to catch momentum in Bollywood. The nation was hardly ready for the explosive interview of Tanushree Dutta and her fearless act of calling a veteran actor like Nana Patekar for sexual misconduct. Emboldened by her courage many other women have spoken up and surprising names like Alok Nath, Rajat Kapoor and many more have already come up and there is probably a new name cropping up every few hours.

While this spirit is the dose of empowerment we all needed, there is always a cynic inside us that keeps questioning that if #metoo will actually achieve its objective or continue long enough to make a lasting impact.  There are certain factors that are keeping the cynic in us unsatisfied.

The names that have come up so far, although shocking, are hardly people whose absence will be felt by fans at large. Imagine someone coming up with names like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan or god forbid, Akshay Kumar or Salman Khan. The backlash by the loyal fans of these larger than life personalities would be too tremendous for any movement to deal with.

One can only imagine what the fans would do to someone accusing the ‘Khans’ of sexual misconduct when the fans of Salman Khan stooped to the level of giving out rape threats to Sona Mohapatra for simply calling out Salman for making the insensitive ‘raped woman’ comment.

The entire nation saw the inappropriate behavior of Akshay Kumar with Mallika Dua and there were hardly any consequences that he faced.

It would take a lot to stir the comforts of a nation that has been conditioned to enjoy harassment and objectification of women on-screen as popcorn entertainment for ages.

Come to think of it, apart from Shiney Ahuja, there has hardly been any Bollywood celeb who has actually faced the consequences of their sexual harassment and no one could ever claim that he was an A-lister by any stretch of the imagination. But there is hardly any dearth of serious allegations that have been made against so many well-known names in Bollywood.

There has been cases against so many known names in Bollywood, but until we, as a nation and Bollywood fans cannot go beyond the awe-inspiring personalities of our stars and accept them to be flawed human, the #metoo movement in Bollywood will only last until names of A-listers start popping up.