Delhi Diary: Hollywood Sex Abuse Puts Spotlight On Bollywood's Harvey Weinsteins

By Shakir Husain NEW DELHI, Jan 22 (Bernama) -- Bollywood is a portmanteau word created from Bombay, now known as Mumbai, and Hollywood. Mumbai is where most of Hindi cinema's directors, producers and actors live. Some see the word Bollywood as belittling India's thriving commercial film industry, which has its own independent identity and has achieved success beyond the nation. However, it is also true that Bollywood has sought inspiration from Hollywood not just in the art of making movies but in lifestyles as well. It was no surprise that when the claims emerged about prominent Hollywood filmmaker Harvey Weinstein's sex abuse of film stars, questions were raised about similar goings-on in Bollywood. Lurid details about Weinstein's alleged abuse, including rape, of Hollywood women who depend on men like him for work have shocked the Western world. People in the West were either ignorant about what was going on in their industrial zone of cultural exports or they pretended everything was well. And now Hollywood looks like a huge Chernobyl-scale sex abuse disaster. In India, Bollywood women have reacted to the Weinstein scandal with revelations of sexual harassment in the domestic entertainment industry. It looks like female stars have to operate in a dangerous terrain dominated by predators. Actress Shenaz Treasury told an Indian newspaper that the power-balance in the entertainment industry is tilted in favour of men. Recounting her experience of working in Bollywood, Shenaz said she lost some roles because she refused to go with directors to an Arabian Sea island near Mumbai, where some film celebrities have homes. "I have lost some roles because I refused to go to Madh Island to hang out. Yes, there are many Harveys around here. And I hope we can start taking names soon," she was quoted as saying in a newspaper. Both Hollywood and Bollywood are similar in seeking access to power and big money by using their mass appeal. Their power allows them to ride roughshod over weaklings complaining against exploitation. Sexual harassment and "casting couch" experiences are not limited to the Hindi film industry but infect commercial cinema in other Indian languages as well. South Indian star Sruthi Hariharan recently said an influential Tamil film producer, who had bought the rights to her Kannada film, once threatened to "exchange" her with five other men, according to an Indian Express report. The fear of losing films or not getting work keeps most victims from speaking out on the issue. "In Bollywood, sexual harassment is insidious and ubiquitous. In fact, the Bollywood tradition of mothers accompanying the actresses to the sets is chalked up to this. Stories of how stars such as Rekha and Madhuri Dixit were harassed during their struggling days have made it to books and media," journalist Jyoti Sharma Bawa wrote in the Hindustan Times recently. Women generally refrain from mentioning names when they speak publicly about the unpleasant things that happen in the movie business. There is a fear amongst Indian actors to mention names because they do not want to be ostracized by Bollywood, Shenaz said. -- BERNAMA