Bollywood’s Eerie Silence Over Hardik Pandiya’s Comments

That cricketer Hardik Pandya’s utterly crass and  vulgar statements  on women and womanizing on Karan  Johar’s  talkshow Koffee With Karan has snowballed into a  major  controversy is  not surprising.

Even  the Bollywood fraternity’s silence  over the issue is not a surprise.Who wants  to get  into the  bad books of Karan Johar?  Not all those actresses, for sure,  who have been  so vocal in slamming Alok Nath ? After all  Alok Nath makes a  much softer target than  Sajid Khan(brother of  Farah  and  cousin of Farhan) or Karan(godfather  of numerous).

What  is  surprising is the fact that these remarks were allowed  to  be made on the show in the  first place.Where was  the editorial  prerogative being exercized  when these remarks showed  up on  the edit table?

A source reveals that Karan  Johar has decided to be really discreet  about the content of his talk show from now on.

“He never saw  it coming. The same  chichora(skittish) tone has been  used on  Koffee With Karan since  its  inception. We had Deepika Padukone talking about condoms and Badshah making out  in the open fields. The cricketer(Hardik Pandya) was  being true to the  mood and spirit of Karan’s show,” says  the source.

While other  prominent member  of the  film fraternity maintained a stony silence , producer Sheetal Talwar and writer ApurvaAsrani did speak  out.

Says Talwar, “It is irresponsible for anyone to propagate sensationalize such statements.As a role model Hardik should realisethat he should not have made any statement objectifying women but the real responsibility of self censorship of this lies withKaran, and he should have actually insisted on this statement being edited out of the show. BCCI has taken a timely step on this.”

Adds Apurva Asrani, “In a way I’m glad that everyone can see the misogyny that’s so ingrained in our society. Atleast this way it can be assessed and countered.”