Bollywood movies
have a history of showing villain getting killed by the hero. These movies have
given birth to immense faith on the hero coming to save the country and people.
The fan followers not only copy the style of their favourite heroes but also
believe that their heroes can never do anything wrong. The movie when Tere Naam
and Ghajni released the hair salons did a good business in styling their
client’s hair in the same way.
In
Kolkata, Sanjay Austa, one of the fans of Amitabh Bachchan, has even built
“Amitabh Bachchan temple”. He bought a chair from the set of one of Bachchan’s
movies. The shoes that Amitabh wore in one of his movie sits on the chair (just
like in Ramayana Bharat placed his elder brother Ram’s paduka on the throne).
There is also a portrait of the superstar on the chair. Sanjay and his son
worship Amitabh Bachchan in this temple. The yellow shawl has ‘Jai Shree
Amitabh’ emblazoned on it. Sanjay has even prepared a special prayer or
‘Amitabh Chalisa’ for Big B. He says Amitabh is a living breathing god in their
midst.
While
stardom is a fickle kingdom wherein not many stars survive for a long period of
time, yet the stardom of a handful of them remain unchanged. They are the idol
of many Indian households and dialogues of their films are quoted again and
again. Amongst them feature the Big B – Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh
Khan and not to forget our Sallu Bhai aka Salman Khan. However, over the years
these superstars have indeed fallen into bad light like when Shah Rukh Khan got
into the controversy of accusing and manhandling a security guard in Wankhede
stadium.
The
year 2015 has made the Bollywood celebrities burn the midnight oil because of
Salman Khan’s hit and run case. As the day of final verdict by the lower court
neared dua for Salman went up. A wait of about 13 years Salman Khan got 5 year
jail term in the famous hit and run case and soon the fan followers and the
Bollywood celebrities took up the task of protesting and praying for his
release.
Some
Bollywood stars like SRK, David Dhawan and Sajid Nadiadwala rushed to back the
actor. Upon sentencing, actor Arjun Kapoor tweeted: “It doesn’t matter what
anyone or any court says he doesn’t deserve this at any level.” Member of Parliament
and former actress Hema Malini said: “I am feeling bad about it. I am very sad.
My sympathies are with Salman. I will pray that he gets less punishment.” Another
MP and Bollywood singer Babul Supriyo said, “Heart-wrenching, but law takes its
course. But in the past judges reduced punishment keeping in mind humanitarian
work”.
Actor
Sonakshi Sinha said it was “terrible news”. “Don’t know what to say except that
will stand by [Khan] no matter what. He’s a good man and no one can take that
away from him,” she tweeted. Parineeti Chopra added: “Hurts to think of what
could happen. We will always be with you. Hope the judge sees the beauty of a
human being that Salman Khan is.”The film industry supports him not
only as a friend but like a family member.
After
hundreds of tweets and prayers for Khan, god finally answered the prayers with
Bombay High Court suspending the order of the lower court. To this, like many other
actors, Daisy Shah, co-actor of Movie Jai Ho, tweeted “The kindness of a man has been
judged by the god himself... Good deeds never go in vain. Thank you 1 n all for
the prayers n love.”
In this case the thing that popped up regularly or rather it was
mentioned frequently was his setting up of NGO - Being Human - and through it
helping many underprivileged children. Being Human was intiated by
Salman Khan to support the underprivileged by giving portion of sales of its
branded T-shirts and other products online. The Foundation focuses on two
things – Education and Healthcare.
However, it will be wrong to say that all actors supported him while
overlooking his hit and run case. It is because Alia Bhatt was the only one who
said that Salman was wrong and how she felt sad to know that “their own” is
punished. “It hurts when your own are punished, even if they are in the wrong.
We love you and are standing by you,” she tweeted.
The
confusion between Salman the superstar and Salman the citizen gets reflected
when his fans overlook the hit and run case. His supporters defended him
vehemently by either shifting the blame for the accident to government for
failing to help homeless people or citing the Salman’s contribution in Being
Human. Salman’s work for his Being Human charity
is offered by his followers and
flatterers as if it were some sort of penance for youthful misdemeanours
(he was 37 at the time of the accident). Though Khan’s work for underprivileged
children cannot be denied but after the hit and run case he seems to be a part
of those people who do illegitimate things and then visits Vaishno Devi or
holds Jagaran as a part of their penance to god.
However,
amidst all these tweets and debates people seem to have forgotten the victims
and their economic conditions. Many speculate that this 13-year-long case can
easily get stretched to 13 more years to come. After all these years those
victims had to live their life in poverty while simultaneously fighting case
against Salman Khan. And here is the irony – the owner of Being Human and a
‘bhai’ of all people not once thought to support those victims.
