Perils of idolizing a Cine star

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Salman KhanSalman during the promotions of 'Sultan'


Bhai is not exactly known for being articulate, neither as a descent actor. Salman Khan, unarguably the biggest and the most bankable superstar at present, is hailed as the ultimate savior. Messiah for the new actors and faded starlets (most of them who do not possess any talent, neither work towards acquiring it!) who in my opinion, love to cash in on nepotism and brown-nosing. The Godfather of strugglers, the one’s he fancies, not everyone. Everybody wants to be a part of Bhai’s inner circle. It’s no news that Salman Khan’s infamous rape analogy had attracted a widespread outrage. But why were we surprised or even offended for that matter.

The man is notorious for pulping his past girlfriends, running over poor people while driving drunken, killing an endangered black buck, and threatening fellow artists if they don’t please his whims and fancies. Salman is known for his mercurial display of rage. But his well-oiled PR machinery creates an image of a rather misunderstood, misinterpreted, golden-hearted bear, who just wants to live his life by helping others. During the peak of his romp with life, allegations of harassing his then girlfriend, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her family, also the reported underworld links, and the vicious of them all, the 2002 Hit-and-Run case, gathered like a black cloud over his stardom. He was nicknamed the ‘Bad Boy’ of Bollywood, but then steadily there were murmurs of his kind heart and the supposed clandestine charities. Even a child could make out that there was (still is) a deliberate attempt by his battery of PR soldiers to salvage Khan’s drowning career. His negative image of a lotharios, abusive, mercurial man-child added to his questionable star status. It would be an understatement to say that they did a fantastic job with him.

Cut to present, people throng multiplexes with packed shows and shower their love and admiration for his movies, may be because they naively believe in all his “charitable deeds.” I am not taking away anything from him. He might be a King in the terms of charities and may be he's a genuine, sensitive, human being. Although, playing that card every time to excuse him of his appalling behavior, like running over a poor man with a car in a drunken state, and then fighting tooth and nail to prove his innocence, doesn’t exactly serve the purpose of being human.

The testimony of a person’s goodness is in holding on to his/her sanity, patience, kindness and the most debatable of them all, morality, even in the most adverse situations. There’s nothing like absolute morality, and to err is human. But it isn’t a matter of addition and subtraction. Since I killed a man, I would compensate the wrong done by handing out a few goodies to the poor and needy. Sorry, it doesn’t even out like that.

Coming back to his horrible analogy, comparing himself to a “rape victim” (specifically a woman) while describing his taxing shooting schedule in the now Blockbuster hit Sultan, while promoting the film at a press conference, was insensitive to say the least.

Verbatim of Salman Khan’s rape remark: ‘When I used to walk out of that ring, it used to be actually like a raped woman walking out….I don’t think I should have (pauses). It feels like the most difficult….I couldn’t take steps. I couldn’t take steps.’
In the same interview, Khan said he was able to quit every "vice" - like cigarettes, alcohol and coffee - except women.

The above lines clearly indicate Salman considers rape only as an act of physical trauma, nothing more. That’s the worst way of trivializing an abhorrent crime like rape. Secondly, he feels only a woman can be raped.  The statements give a sneak peek into his misogynistic mindset and as a man he considers himself privileged, powerful and authoritative. The moment he compares himself to a “raped woman” he feels weak, ashamed and at loss. But let’s be fair to this man, it’s not like we are not guilty of such insensitive display of behavior. Rape jokes are not a new phenomenon. Our beloved ‘Thinking Khan’ aka Mr. Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots, which is considered one of the path breaking movies of our time, had a rape joke.

We all laughed our hearts out at Chatur’s speech debacle. We didn’t take stand then, neither did we take offence to that rape joke. I do realize my mistake after Khan’s rape analogy and accept that rape culture persists in our society. Either we slut-shame or body-shame a woman, remind her of her place and her domestic responsibilities, and reprimand her for being “too ambitious”, which is basically code for being selfish. In an unintentional or may be an intentional manner we contribute to this mindset. These statements can either be taken with a pinch of salt or deliberated upon and reflect on ourselves.

Fanaticism is a dangerous path. Idolizing a person or a thought process, leads to an overdrive of blind following. It is hard not to judge, when a superstar openly subjugates women and terms them as one of the vices. It is indeed alarming that his fans blindly follow him, cheer him, and defend him for such mentality and grotesque display of masochistic behavior.

When did we become this society, which worships movie stars like Salman Khan and hails them as national icons. It is high time we start introspecting, whether we are choosing wrong persons to be our heroes. Admiring a favorite movie actor/actress is understandable, but defending their actions no matter how atrocious or incorrigible, is downright stupidity. This only fills our hearts with hatred and leaves no room for reasoning. Cyber bullies are just that bunch of people who aim at going on a PR overdrive and end up translating the entrapment of virtual world into our reality. Therefore we must choose our heroes wisely.

Heroes don’t have to be rich, mighty and spoilt. They can also be humble, grounded and wise.


Salman Khan's Verbatim Source: Indian Express.


About Post Author

Lola is a journalist,who used to work For All India Radio.In addition to pampering her two petdogs she blogs her opinions on lifestyle.

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