Who The Fudge Is Padmavati?
Thought Leadership For Reflection - Controversy sells! This maxim has been understood best by Bollywood Badshahs like Sanjay Leela Bhansali (SLB) who create controversies around every movie (Google Ram-Leela and Bajirao Mastani controversies). You will notice a pattern and SLB’s penchant for fuelling controversies for cheap (or rather expensive but free) publicity.
The movie business has no scruples and ethics is a word that is alien to most (not all) people. As an entrepreneur who has dabbled in an entertainment venture producing movies and music, I know how PR agencies and publicists convince you to create a controversy to sell your movies and music. So let us understand this. I learnt the inside story from a senior team-member in one of the companies that produced Padmavati.
So how was it done? SLB and his publicists spread the word to incite fringe groups like Karni Sena. It was a win-win for these publicity hounds. The movie would get free publicity. The little known sick outfit (all puns intended) called Karni Sena would gain more visibility like other rogue outfits, Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (who were involved in the Bajirao Mastani controversy in 2015). And the lore called Padmavati would become the new godesss and mascot of Rajput valour. (Padmini is a fictional myth created by Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi.)
And this happened! So, suddenly everyone was beating their chest about Rajput valour and how they cannot have their women dishonoured. These are the same hypocrites who treat human beings as lower castes and untouchables, kill their unborn daughters, beat up their wives to put them in their place (which is to be subservient to the man) and indulge in marital rape since they own their wives. Even in 2018, these hypocrites think that women are lesser mortals than men. If they had their way, these pompous arrogant hypocrites who murder people in ‘honour’ killings, would have their wives burnt alive and practice Sati even today. These same double-dealers, who wax eloquent about honour, attack school buses to terrorise children and then deny it to save face.
What SLB and his publicists did not anticipate is the lust of the Karni Sena for power and political clout through vote-bank politics. When the Karni Sena realised it could polarise other sick-minded upper-caste groups, it got over-ambitious and started lobbying for political tickets with whichever party (BJP, Congress or whoever) was willing to co-opt it. And the brilliant strategy of creating a controversy to sell the movie backfired.
#IdeasForAction - I think it’s time for dimwit Bollywood Badshahs to realise that fires stoked to create controversies and sell movies can also backfire and a carefully created controversy can come back to haunt and cause big losses. Please follow a moral code and be responsible as creative filmmakers by not indulging in incitement of any unnecessary communal violence that leads to loss of precious human lives and public property. As movie-makers, people like SLB should rely on their talent to sell movies. I have never understood why these talented, creative people need controversies and item-numbers to sell their movies.
