Open Letter: Will the Me Too movement in India affect women being hired especially in Bollywood?

Just when the producers’ guild is issuing statements that they want to make the Hindi film industry a safer place for women, I met a female production assistant who informs me that production houses don’t want to hire girls post the #MeToo movement uproar. She said, "I suggested my friend’s name to the production house the answer I got was we are not hiring girls, we prefer men."

It does look like the Me Too movement is going to go against the girls who are aspiring to work in this film industry. It seems to me that nothing has changed in the film industry - like Vinta Nanda and Tanushree Dutta almost went jobless after they made allegations against the powerful men in the film industry.

Girls may lose work… and it has begun….

Apurva Asrani said that he had suggested Flora Saini’s name for a role but the answer was she is trouble. Women who speak up still are troublesome to the men in power. I have seen Flora all bruised and beaten up and it was not easy for her to take action against the man she loved - when he even character assassinated her. Flora fought her case and today has finally found work for herself. It has been a tough journey for her.

There are some who came to the film industry to be an actor but couldn’t make it so preferred to be the girl of the rich producer or a provider and I happened to meet one of them at a party. She was unrecognizable...her lifestyle had changed and her language had improved. She knew exactly what was the right way for her to act and being a part of the industry, even if she is was a glorified girlfriend of the one in power, she was fine with it.

But CEO of the Producers Guild Kulmeet Makkar said girls need not worry and should continue to work in the film industry.

Though Makkar and the actors association are promising safety - one recalls an article of Global News (Canada) titled Me Too Backlash that has women worried about losing career opportunities globally.

Some allowed themselves to get exploited and some quit while others' lifestyle changed.

There are others who did not want to continue and returned home. I met this girl at a publicist's house when I was doing the story on the Lokhandwala film industry (that is the word Sudhir Mishra used ) in 2008 and I met this young aspiring and a very promising singer with her boyfriend who narrated her story to me.

She was reluctant but I probed her and promised to not mention her name in my story and guess what she told me about a music reality show on a channel which was also the first GEC to enter the entertainment space. She said, "I entered almost at the last lap of the show and was being considered to be a potential winner. The masterji who was tutoring me came with a message that I had to spend time with the director of the show - I refused to do it and the result was being eliminated from the show in the next round. I don’t want to continue with this industry anymore." All through the story, she kept holding on to her boyfriend who too was struggling to make it as an actor.

I have seen the transition that happened in the film industry and the media as well.  What Imran Khan has said that actors did want to work with actresses who did not agree to sleep with them is absolutely true.  A senior actress told me that they would sleep with them and the next day, would discuss with their friends on the sets embarrassing the girl. The girl kept quiet and if she didn’t they gave her hell. There are producers who had their fixed girls who played heroines in their films because he had a thing for her and she too behaved as she was his property.

Of course, there were cases when the girl did take advantage of the man who was besotted with her. A case in point was a film that launched the career of a VJ who had the filmmaker wrapped around her finger. She would sit on his lap and order and the actor who is now a superstar couldn’t do much but just smile and continued working on the set. Dancers and junior artistes too have been exploited, chorus singers too aren’t left in the film industry. A good looking girl, even if she was a bad dancer was promoted by the actor in the front row just because the actor wants it and there have been many cases when one dancer suddenly became special for a choreographer. 

Coming to the reports of journalists joining the Me Too movement and talking being harassed by their seniors; there is always an editor’s pet in the media organization be it print or broadcast. Having worked for over 25 years as a journalist, I have witnessed too much. There are those who pick their bait in such a manner that there is no chance of falling into the trap. I was working with one of the top newspapers a few years back when I got a call from someone who wanted me to speak to a model who happened to have gotten pregnant with the owner’s child and was not admitting. Only after she threatened him about going to the media he settled the case by throwing Rs 5 crore at her. The story ended there and now this man gets consent papers signed from the girls before indulging in any form of relationship.  

While Tanushree Dutta's case has turned into an FIR, I am afraid if whether any other case will reach the police station or not. In fact, the buzz is that an industry that boasted of growing number of women crew members on set and backstage may suffer a setback. A senior producer said, "There used to be about 5 percent women on set earlier but in the last one decade and it had increased to about 50 percent in films and nearly 70 percent in TV but now producers are wary of hiring girls for the fear of the Me Too Movement.

Fear of Derailment

I fear if all the online complaints by women don’t culminate into official complaints they are only going to derail the movement as any all and sundry are speaking up and it is increasingly getting difficult to pick the real from the fake. The media also needs to filter, check and corroborate his or her report.

While we'll have to wait and watch to see where the Me Too movement in India goes in terms of justice, here's hoping that the Me Too movement takes its true form and actually help women from all walks of life.