In the era where celebrities are expected to turn activists for every 'important' topic, 2015 definitely proved to be a key year. Bollywood celebrities have often hesitated to form their views on various prominent topics due to the consequences they’ve to face when they speak their mind.
While a lot of actors decided to stay mum on certain crucial issues, 2015 witnessed a transformation with some of the main cinema actors voicing their opinions on thought-provoking issues.
From tackling the deadly issue of depression to raising their voices against intolerance, Bollywood finally spoke up on the issues that really matter. As the year comes to an end, we take a ride back to the time when Bollywood celebrities made us proud by taking stands on various substantial issues.
Intolerance row
Just a few days back, no matter which place you were and whom you met; the only topic of discussion was the intolerance debate. When writers and filmmakers returned their National Awards to address the 'growing intolerance' in our country, many celebrities including Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan shared their opinions due to which they also received tremendous criticism.
While Shah Rukh alleged that there was 'extreme intolerance' in the country by saying, "Religious intolerance and not being secular in this country is the worst kind of crime that you can do as a patriot", an ‘alarmed’ Aamir confessed about his wife's inner fears of staying in India. "When I chat with Kiran at home, she says 'Should we move out of India?' That's a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make. She fears for her child. She fears about what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day."
No matter how much we profess our country’s freedom of speech, celebrities in the end, have to bear the repercussions of what they say; sometimes coming from the common people, sometimes from the fraternity.
Many known names from the industry including Anupam Kher, Rishi Kapoor and Raveena Tandon slammed Aamir Khan by asking, "When did incredible India became intolerant India', still others touted Shah Rukh as an 'anti-national', a 'terrorist' or a 'Pakistani agent.'
Gender-based pay disparity
While Hollywood actresses Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep took the first step and spoke about the wide wage disparity existing between men and women in the industry, back home our leading ladies decided to follow their suit and finally spoke out in solitude. Shedding some light into the prevailing 'rampant sexism' in Bollywood, Kangana Ranaut revealed that 'female actors don’t get paid even one-third of what male actors get' and Priyanka Chopra referred to this gap as ‘insane’. Believing that there should be ‘some semblance when it comes to the current generation of stars', Deepika Padukone quipped that payment disparity though is a concern, but it shouldn’t become a cause for conflict.
'NH 10' actress Anushka Sharma deserves a special mention not only because she broke the ice and talked about relevant issues such as discrimination, sexual objectification of women and how a male and female newcomer will be paid differently but because she brought into notice the fact that being partial is not something Bollywood tries to do or thinks about, it’s simply ingrained in it.
Despite the existence of several obstacles in the struggle towards gender equality, it's pertinent to recognize the wins as well. Highlighting the scenario, many actresses including Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha, Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra were quite vocal about the gender-based disparity in the showbiz industry with agreement from their male co-actors Shah Rukh Khan and Farhan Akhtar as they urged Indian men to step forward in the struggle of achieving gender equality.
With many women centric films bagging accolades in the year, 2015 can easily be summed up as the year of women, by the women and for the women.
Depression
In a media frenzy world where even the tiniest things about celebrities make up for detailed dissection in public, actors like Deepika Padukone opened up about their personal experiences of having suffered from depression and anxiety.
Drawing from her experiences, 'Bajirao Mastaani' actress even admitted to have taken medications to fight the battle of depression. Spreading the importance of mental health, Deepika took a step forward and launched her own NGO 'Live Love Laugh' this year.
FTII issue
Not a lot of stars from the industry usually comment on an issue that is deeply related to politics, but the year 2015 saw Ranbir Kapoor’s fresh conventional break amidst the safe players of Bollywood by supporting the rights of the students. “Don't think what the students are asking for is illogical; don't think they are asking for the moon. They are just asking for a fair chance, a fair opportunity, correct faculty, correct syllabus," said the ‘Tamasha’ actor. “I think all they require is an inspirational figure to look up to, someone with a large body of work. When you come from an institute of art, there needs to be freedom of speech," he added.
For the uninitiated, the Film and Television Institute (FTII) students, who were agitated against the dubious appointment of actor Gajendra Chauhan as the Chairman of the new Governing Council went on an indefinite strike. With this controversy, more and more Bollywood celebrities including Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Anupam Kher, Rishi Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Amol Palekar, Resul Pookutty, Kiran Rao, Rajkummar Rao, Sudhir Mishra, Sayeed Mirza and Piyush Mishra joined the people arguing that Gajendra Chauhan does not merit the post of chairman institute going by his body of work. However, National Award-winning filmmaker Shyam Benegal felt that he needn't resign and students should 'sit and discuss things' with him.
Not only this, many celebrities took to twitter to share their displeasure even on topics that bears no direct affect on them; including China’s Yulin dog and meat festival and beef ban in India.
May 2016 be full of more opinions and even some path-breaking righteous stands!
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