When Sonakshi Sinha flagged on social media how the “nation’s heart broke” when protesting students in Delhi on a July 20 peaceful march to the Parliament, were beaten up, her post went viral.
People cheered her on for daring to speak out, especially, in an industry paralysed into silence, and hunkered down for a while now. And, her cocky sign off in the end that she is no ‘anti-national’ quickly won her a lot of hearts.
Shortly after, the floodgates opened – other actors like Preity Zinta, Pratibha Ranta (Laapata Ladies fame), Rajkummar Rao, rapper Hanumankind, Seema Pahwa, Zoya Akhtar, Richa Chadha, and Diljit Dosanjh, too signalled their support, and actors like Huma Qureshi took off to Delhi to participate in the protest.
Spearheaded by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), the students are demanding the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over irregularities in the exam system, including NEET paper leaks.
Veterans Shabana Azmi and Prakash Raj also joined the demonstrators at Jantar Mantar. Their support, however, came as no surprise, given that they, alongside peers like Swara Bhasker and Naseeruddin Shah, have consistently been vocal critics of the ruling BJP government.
Salman Khan to Madhavan
What raised eyebrows now is that popular stars like Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Alia Bhatt and even actor and current FTII chairman R Madhavan (who allegedly always toes the official line) appear to have crossed over.
Maybe, Madhavan had to be mocked by FTII students for going “ghayab” (disappeared) to pitch in, but Salman Khan, who is always dogged by controversies ranging from black buck hunting to threats from gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, stepped up to give his approval to the protest.
On July 22, he wrote on social media, “This andolan, this protest, is the right way to go about it.” Further, calling it a “peaceful movement”, he said his “heart goes out to the students and their families who were hurt”. He also felt “so sad that it had to take a violent turn”.
Was this unprecedented outburst triggered by his ‘Dabangg’ co-star Sonakshi? Whatever may have been the reason, Salman became the first of the Khan troika, which includes Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, to openly back the students in a carefully worded statement. “This issue is between the students and the educational system, it should not be hijacked politically…,” Salman added.
Kareena Kapoor chips in
Kareena Kapoor was not to be left behind.
The actor dived into the chorus stating, “I’ve sat with this for a few days, but I can’t sit with it any longer. The voices of so many young people asking to be heard are impossible to ignore… and they shouldn’t be.”
“…When an entire generation speaks with one voice about its own future, listening isn’t a courtesy we extend. It’s an obligation we owe them.”
Alia Bhatt hit straight. Stating that she stands “by and for the students”, she said that their “resolve” is a mirror held up for all of us. It asks whether we are listening to them at all.
Meanwhile, Madhavan played it safe. Even as he noted that examination paper leaks deeply undermine public trust and damage the dreams of young individuals and their families, and asked the government to prevent future lapses, he warned students not to allow “vested interests” to hijack their movement.
Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali shared articles and photos about the protests and wrote, “All we have to do for our future is to listen to it. #onenation.” His contemporaries, parallel filmmakers, Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane have already spoken out for the students demanding accountability.
South stars extend solidarity
Meanwhile, several prominent South Indian film personalities, who never really came out in support of female films during the MeToo movement, found their voice.
Vismaya Mohanlal (daughter of superstar Mohanlal), actor Tovino Thomas, director Pa Ranjith, and actors Parvathy Thiruvothu, Revathy, and Kunchacko Boban and others have publicly extended their solidarity to the ongoing student-led protests in New Delhi.
The artists strongly criticised the heavy-handedness of security forces against demonstrators. Vismaya Mohanlal warned that suppressing citizens’ voices with overwhelming force threatens democratic values, noting that “tomorrow, it could be your own family asking to be heard.”
While Tovino Thomas asserted that the “right to dissent is one of the foundations of democracy” and that using repressive force against the younger generation erodes faith in the system. Acclaimed filmmaker Pa Ranjith slammed the government for trying to substitute accountability with brutal repression and praised the global solidarity from the Indian diaspora.
A nation has failed…: Kamal Haasan
Tamil superstar and politician Kamal Haasan did not mince his words.
“We should have listened to when one child cried. Instead, we waited until far too many of our children died. A system where coaching replaces learning, anxiety replaces curiosity, and criminality replaces merit is rotten. “A nation has failed when its children are met with barricades and batons instead of answers,” Haasan strongly wrote on X.
Stars who remain silent
Yet, even as Bollywood celebrities are lining up to offer their support, there are many A Listers who still remain silent.
The silence of Bollywood’s patriarch Amitabh Bachchan, superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, appear to be deafening, as they refuse to join this stream.
Many may argue that Shah Rukh had his share of suffering, after he voiced his concern over “policing food habits” and “growing intolerance” in the country, and backed people returning government awards in protest, back in 2015.
He was compared to the terrorist Hafiz Saeed by senior BJP leaders then and told that his “soul is in Pakistan”. For he had courageously said, “It is stupid to be intolerant. Religious intolerance and not being secular in this country is the worst kind of crime that you can do as a patriot.”
Shah Rukh continues to be in the radar of the right wing groups even till today. He gets boycott calls for his film ‘Pathaan’, his son was jailed on charges of possession of drugs and was later released. Recently, he also got flak from right-wing groups for his IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders signing on Bangladesh cricketer Musafizur Rahman.
While Deepika Padukone’s high-profile visit to New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), where alleged members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) brutally assaulted dozens of students and teachers in 2020, got her branded as an ‘anti-national’. The backlash was swift: her movie ‘Chhaapak’ was boycotted.
Aamir Khan too is often the merry target of right wing groups. He was recently accused of practising ‘love jihad’ after his third marriage. Aamir was forced to clarify that his third wife is a Christian and his first two Hindu wives never converted.
Yet, in this murky milieu, actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Konkona Sen Sharma, and Anurag Kashyap, and others continue to raise their voices.
In 2019, along with nearly 50 prominent celebrities, they wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister demanding accountability and swift punishment for mob violence in the country.
‘Dog with a bone can’t bark’
In an interview with WireNaseeruddin Shah, has now slammed top film stars for choosing not to speak out, on behalf of the protesting students.
Shah remarked, “There’s a saying: a dog with a bone in its mouth can’t bark. As soon as the bone drops out of their mouth, or it breaks their teeth, then they will bark.” He felt that these celebrities are actively suppressing their conscience because they benefit financially or socially from their silence.
Shah also released a separate, emotional video statement extending full support to the students protesting the NEET-UG paper leak. In the video, he stated that his “blood boils” seeing the youth being mistreated by authorities, comparing the actions of security personnel to masked agents in America.
Shah urged the protesting students not to lose hope and to keep fighting, noting that the nation’s youth have his full confidence. He closed his video with a direct warning to the government, saying, “Everything will be remembered.” (Everything shall be remembered)
Why Bollywood keeps mum
Unlike Hollywood, film stars in India maintain a low profile on burning political issues. Be it the farmers strike, the Citizenship Amendments Act (CAA)protests, the ‘intolerance’ in the country, curbs on freedom of speech, Bollywood stars steer clear. There is no Meryl Streep or Robert De Niro here, who regularly call out President Donald Trump at film festival podiums.
In India, Bollywood’s massive studio heads and mainstream commercial directors avoid speaking out against the ruling dispensation.
According to film experts, India’s topmost commercial superstars mostly avoid commenting on politically sensitive topics or mass protests to protect their massive brand endorsements, corporate tie-ups, and film releases from potential political backlash or boycotts. For them, there is too much at stake.
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