Trial By Media

Ever since Sushanth Singh Rajput's demise, news and social media have remained flooded with articles and debates on nepotism. The sudden death of an actor - so young and talented - has brought a storm in the industry amidst a pandemic that the entire world is already suffering from. The outrage has led to a CBI enquiry and unlike other social media trends, this has continued for more than 2 months now. While there might be mind boggling revelations that come out of the enquiry, we need to hold our breathe and hope for an unbiased report.

Sushanth began his career with television dramas and a dance reality show. His first appearance on the big screen in the movie Kai Po Che fetched him the prestigious Filmfare nomination for the best debut actor's role. After few more movies, he had rocked the entire nation with his fabulous performance in the M S Dhoni biopic. His hard work to make the movie feel real cant be appreciated enough. It feels weird that an actor whose career was just taking off would leave so soon by choice - but on the other hand, how much do we know about what is going on within a person's mind and heart?

Nepotism isn't a new affair in Bollywood. Right from our childhood, we have known actors and actresses who either belonged to the same family or married with one another to extend their common families. Whether it be the Kapoors or the Khans, the industry has always been about giving a break to one's friend and family. However, one must not forget that this notion is not limited to Bollywood but also other businesses. Why is it that an owner's inexperienced son is chosen as the managing director over a hardworking loyal employee who has been with the organisation for most of his life? One might argue this with the laws of inheritance, but note that the question is about running the organisation and not its ownership.

While nepotism allows directors and producers to launch their relatives and friends in the industry, not all are able to grab the opportunity in their favour - after all if the movie fails to make an impact, no one would want to waste their resources on the same actor or actress. For example, Abhishek Bachchan had started his career with Refugee but failed to make an impression until his first successful movie - Yuva. Thereafter he did have a short dream run with Dhoom, Sarkar and Guru but the impact faded very quickly. On the other hand, his sister has chosen not to be a part of the industry at all.

Alia Bhatt, in another example, had made her debut as a child artist but was a total disaster in her first movie as a lead artist - Student of the Year. However, she came back rock solid in Highway - a critically acclaimed movie. Her showcase of talent in Raazi and Udta Punjab - movies that she led from the forefront - have been outstanding. While she might have got few opportunities because of the family name that she carries, there is no doubt that there have been very few actresses in the modern day industry who have pulled movies single handedly like she has in Dear Zindagi. As far as the public image of her father Mahesh Bhatt is concerned, we need to ask ourselves whether we'll hold ourselves responsible for what our parents do at this age and if we'd not defend them?

While Sushanth's case might open up a pandora's box of the good and ugly side of Bollywood, the hype about the case in itself is an example of nepotism - for there are hundreds of such deaths which are not given the attention that they deserve. While it is definitely a start towards uncovering such cases, we need to ensure that the same happens for a common man too in the future. We need to understand that news media is always biased towards the political party that funds it, that their only job is to report the facts and that a trial by media to sabotage anybody's image is not acceptable. While there is a possibility that Rhea Chakraborty is indeed guilty, there is also a probability that she is not and that she is being framed too - we need to hold off convicting her with the limited details that we have. While all of us believe in being human, we need to ensure poor folks who do not have a roof over their head are safe. While we wish that the case is solved in an unbiased manner, we need to understand the implications of judging someone a felon on media. One morning, if we wake up to find a suicide caused by mental torcher because of judicial enquiry on social media, who would be the real culprit?