Open Letter: Me Too India Aftermath; when Alok Nath takes De De Pyaar De too literally

I still remember the extreme distress and uneasiness I felt when I first encountered the New Yorker's series of articles by Ronan Farrow which had women accusing Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape. No one could imagine that a name as big as Harvey Weinstein would be targeted and that his outing would lead to a revolution like no other. Me Too was already a movement set in motion against sexual misconduct, but it was in October 2017, after the accusations on Weinstein that #MeToo grew in hundreds, thousands and millions. Just like that, a Hollywood mafia was brought down to nothing and the power of truth prevailed. On May 25, 2018, Harvey was charged with "rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse and sexual misconduct for incidents involving two separate women." An empire snapped to dust and now, there's barely a semblance of the powerful white man Harvey Weinstein once was. It was a hard, earned victory for those who were wronged. 

With the #MeToo uproar, more Hollywood big names started surfacing with the most shocking one being, Kevin Spacey. It was actor Anthony Rapp who accused Spacey of sexual misconduct when he was just 14 years of age. Fifteen more people came out with their own Me Too stories and Kevin Spacey was immediately removed from the cast of the popular show, House of Cards. Spacey was also going to be a part of Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World, but post the allegations, he was replaced by Christopher Plummer, who reshot the scenes already filmed.

Hitting back home, in October 2018, Tanushree Dutta recalled an incident that took place a decade ago on the sets of Horn Ok Pleassss (2009), involving Nana Patekar. Tanushree alleged Nana of sexual misconduct, and in the process, she single-handedly spearheaded the Me Too movement in India. Slowly, more and more women became more open about their encounters with sexual harassment. The chills that ran down my spine while reading producer Vinta Nanda's detailed Facebook post was something felt by thousands of women, who have at some point encountered sexual harassment of some sort. Vinta accused the 'sanskaari' actor Alok Nath of sexual abuse and rape, which went on for years. Why? Because he was a powerful man!

As a pessimist, my heart refused to believe that the Me Too movement which went rampant in Hollywood would even touch Bollywood and that truth will triumph evil. It's the pressure of 'what will people say?' that discourages women from opening up. In her Facebook post, Vinta revealed that when she told her friends about her sexual abuser, they told her to keep quiet and move on. There's the harrowing feeling of people not believing you, or worse, putting your job at stake. Vinta went on to file a police complaint against Alok Nath while CINTAA (Cine and TV Artists Association) expelled Alok Nath from the organisation. That seemed like a tiny victory but it would not last for long. 

A few days back, the trailer of Ajay Devgn's De De Pyaar De came out and to the shock of everyone, including myself, Alok Nath made an appearance in the trailer. A man, who was accused of rape, was a part of a big feature film that could very well be a 100-crore club film. The uproar it caused was deafening and at the trailer launch, Luv Ranjan (who is also accused of sexual harassment) was asked about Alok's appearance in the film. Before Luv could respond, Ajay replied, "This is not the right place to talk about it." Typical Bollywood answer! If this platform is not the right place, then where? How could you deem it humane to have an actor accused of sexual assault still be a part of such a big feature film? You can't help but compare this predicament with the likes of Kevin Spacey. If Kevin can be replaced in a movie by another actor and have his scenes reshot, could the same not have been done with Alok, who is not even the lead of the De De Pyaar De?

In what is a very snobbish move, all you learn out of this is that YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH IT! For all those women who finally had the tiny semblance of courage to open up will fall back into their shell. Looking at the fate of Alok, one would wonder, is justice ever going to prevail. The predicament of Alok is extremely precarious and showcases why the Me Too movement is on the downfall in India. And that will not do! Proper legal action needs to be taken and Bollywood has to buckle up their shoes and take stringent actions against those who have wronged and will continue to do so.

You can't encourage predators from furthering their advance because they feel that they are untouchable. Me Too can't just involve victims' testimonies, it has to also be about justice. The powerful can't win the battle! The fear needs to stop and justice, justice and justice need to be served. So, to the makers of Alok Nath's feature film, stop taking the phrase De De Pyaar De almost literally.