There is a series of short blind items below that was posted on SKJ Bollywood News. It is all heard of, except for that story of the brother of Bollywood’s showman. This we have never heard before, so it’s a little surprising. The rest, you have all heard of it so it’s not really surprising anymore.
Like SKJ says, the big guns will not be outed this soon in this #MeToo. Only someone with guts and who is brave can out them without fearing anything. We are waiting to see that happen because someone has to bring these powerful men, who abuse their power like this. It has been going on for too long and now is the time, but who will do it?
Anyways, check out the short blind items by SKJ. Thanks to the reader, who shared it.
Bollywood Blind Item
There was this Showman , one of Bollywood’s most honoured filmmakers who would sleep with all his heroines, would get drunk and slobber over women’s bosoms which he affectionately called ‘duddhu’ .His cronies smirked and chuckled. You see they too had no choice. They had their careers to think of.
By the way, in some parts of the world “doudou” means breast.
Male actors have considered it a matter of entitlement to do what they like with women who work with them. A very prominent leading lady of the 1960s tell me, “Of course it happened. The bigger they were the more entitled they felt.”
By bigger she means the heroes’ stardom. There was India’s dancing star, coincidentally the brother of the ‘duddhu’- obsessed hero we just spoke about, who was “extremely rough and crude with the heroines who didn’t oblige.”
Or take the biggest hero of them all, India’s first superstar who had the girls across the country in a collective swoon. His behaviour with women was so shocking and shameful he would most certainly qualify as a prominent harasser in the current Me Too movement. During his time heroines giggled when he pinched their bottoms.
Back then such behaviour was an accepted part of the entertainment business. There is a story(unverified) of the legendary Raj Kumar sitting with a journalist-friend, getting a call from an iconic heroine known for her tragic image.
Mr Kumar finished the call, turned to the journalist and grinned, “Unless I go to her she won’t be able to sleep.”
Heroes openly bragged about their conquests. Indian cinema’s he-man would turn the pages of film magazines and point to the heroines he had conquered.
They still brag. The dark intense hero cracks up telling his friends loudly about the women he has slept with.
The irony of this deep rooted misogyny is that some of the big names filled with righteous indignation about those culprits who are named and shamed, are themselves guilty of widespread exploitation.
A very big leading lady told me, “Of course I’ve been through it. But I can’t complain. I am where I am and it’s best to not rake up the past. No one rapes anyone. If you feel like giving in, you do. It’s as simple as that.”
So only those who have not “made it” will come forward. Their voices are being heard, of course. But none of these has the clout and power to push the movement to the next level.
Swara Bhaskar spoke about a director who harassed her during a long outdoor shooting. Why doesn’t she call him out? “Because he is not doing any work as far as I know. I don’t want him to get publicity if I call him out.”
I am sure the director must have wiped the sweat from brow on hearing this. But if selective shaming and that too via several anonymous accounts, is all that the MeToo movement has to offer in Bollywood, then I am afraid the movement will die down for the want of heft.
