With 2019 coming to an end, here’s hoping Bollywood actresses’ token feminism ends as well

The year 2018-19 in the Hindi film industry will always be remembered. After #MeToo movement did shake up the entire industry but it’s sad that it failed to generate the desired impact. There has been not a single case which followed the laws of the land and set an example. All the alleged molesters went into hibernation for some time and are now back claiming how the movement affected their livelihoods.

Only during the initial stages of this movement, we heard actresses coming out and pledging their support. But all those promises and anger turned out to be just token. In the West, after the movement gained momentum several prominent actresses came out forward and they offered not just verbal but monetary support to the survivors. In Hollywood, several A-lister actresses pledged to pool in money and go to any length to bring the culprits to book. But look at Bollywood, here people think that a solution for any issue can be simply achieved by Tweeting. Yes, they simply want to participate in every single issue just by being an armchair activist. After all, why would one want to get entangled in someone else’s mess, right?

We have so many so-called “feminists” in our B-town. How many of them do you know have actively participated in the Movement or offered to support the victims in their fight to seek justice? We do have actresses like Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra featuring in World’s Highest-Paid celebs list but what’s the use of all this achievement when you can’t stand for your own fraternity? We had actresses taking a pledge of “not working with proven offenders” but then tell me a single accused’s name who was found guilty?

The powerful men miraculously got their names cleared by setting up quasi-legal complaints committees. So by the end of the day who exactly benefitted from this movement? The victims who called out the predators gained nothing, in fact by sharing their stories they have made themselves more vulnerable.

These days, all the A lister-actresses are portraying themselves as woke and fierce feminist. Check out any of their interviews, they all will be seen emphasising on how female empowerment and gender equality is important. But hardly any of them has set any example or actually walked the talk. So if these are not symptoms of being token feminists then I don’t know what else can be?

We are making films like ‘Bala’ which tells us how embracing your inner beauty will bring you peace, but then isn’t it ironic that Bhumi played a dark-skinned lawyer instead the makers could have easily cast an actor with actual dark skin? The film’s other actress Yami Gautam continues to skin lightening creams in real life.

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What’s the point in preaching when you yourself can’t practice it? The whole message of the film is wasted when you have actors not adhering to any part of it in their real lives.

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Can’t our actresses stop relying on stars and be their own hero? We have several actresses venturing into film production, but how many of them delivered a single film which brought some of the best female talents (both fresh as well as a veteran) together?

Hollywood actresses like Reese Witherspoon have not only started her own production house but has also started working with the female-only crew, all coming together to tell stories of women. I wonder how long it will take for our Hindi film actresses to rise above the situation and instead of playing second fiddle to the male superstars make films which actually show their talent.

It’s 2019 man! Running around the trees, playing the damsel in distress waiting for the prince charming to come to your rescue, for how long are we going to tolerate the same shit?

Why can’t Bollywood produce a superhero film with a female lead or an actress playing the lead in a spy film? Or something like ‘Charlie’s Angels’ (I am not referring to the recent film). For how long we will have to tolerate the ‘abla naari’ narrative?

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I agree in recent times we did have films like ‘Kahaani’, ‘Mardaani’, ‘Queen’, ‘Saand Ki Aankhn’, ‘English Vinglish’ but out of thousands of films being produced by our industry if only 4-5 female-centric films release in a year, what kind of balance does that provide?

How long will it take for actresses like Deepika Padukone, Kangana Ranaut, Kareena Kapoor, Anushka Sharma to feature together in a film revolving around badass women? I don’t think that would be anytime soon.

I am badly hoping with the arrival of the new year we will see a rise of actual feminists. Let’s kiss ‘token feminism’ a goodbye the way we all will be leaving the year 2019 behind. Am I hoping for too much? Maybe I am, but don’t you guys feel the same way?

Also Read: Not Kabir Singh, these are the male characters that our films need to glorify

Pooja Sharma

Cinephile. Bibliophile. Pluviophile. Selenophile. Autophile. Aesthete. Blood group- Tea positive. Poetry lover. Sucker of rom-coms.

PS: Sharmaji ki Ladki sucks at writing bios.
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