Bollywood Bandwagon by Bharat Gupta: 'Choice'

Bollywood Bandwagon by Bharat Gupta: ‘Choice’

The one word that has taken over social media at the moment is ‘choice’. Social media has given a platform for everyone, literally everyone to voice their opinion, or more often than not, gauge the generally consensus and make that their opinion. For eventually, it is their choice.

For over hundred years that Bollywood has been entertaining audiences in a country where actors play the role of demi gods, what they say becomes a topic of social relevance. From the time of independence and before, they have become social commentators and facilitated the action of making people ‘aware’. But are the actors voicing their own opinion, or are they mere actors in a video narrating dialogues given to them? Are they hanging on a thin tightrope balancing between what is reel and what is real?

Entertainment comes with responsibility. Art gives you the freedom to express any situation as you perceive it. So when one decides to make a dark video to express their thoughts on women empowerment, it is at their own liberty. It is our choice to watch it and our choice to either enjoy it or loath it. Whether the content of the video is intended on dictating people’s behavior and forcing women to feel empowered, or giving them the freedom to express their frustration and anguish is left to the viewers’ discretion.

The onus of eleven men losing in a cricket match is put on an actress has no logical explanation. How are we empowering women when we trivialize their attendance at a cricket match as ‘distraction’. She has made a ‘choice’ to sit as a spectator, whether as a girlfriend of a cricketer or just as an appreciator of the game. Without screaming out from the balcony or in a video, she has made a clear choice, and sensationalism can do nothing to change it.

Bollywood films have showcased women in all their shades. In the recent past, women centric films have taken center stage and brought socially relevant situations to the forefront. Actresses have voiced their opinion on equal pay as their male counter parts, men have started playing second fiddle to lead actresses and it isn’t a male dominated industry anymore. What was considered ‘off beat cinema’ every time a woman played the protagonist has been brought to ‘mainstream’.

And when India’s Daughter is banned, we are again put in the spot whether we are shying away from reality, or is it that the reality is shown from a side that doesn’t deserve it. So when the audience is more aware, it is time for the film industry to make the ‘right choice’. Bollywood no longer plays the role of just an entertainer. For an industry that has grown tremendously and has viewership globally, eventually does have a stronger reach to influence the thought process of the masses. So when actors decide to take on the role of public speakers, when filmmakers step out the fictional entertainment segment and document socially relevant situations, what they say will have an impact on people. Whether the public then respond positively or negatively, that is their choice.