Mob molests girl outside pub: Bollywood leads backlash

For an industry that has gained notoriety for allegedly showing the casting couch to young hopefuls with starry dreams in their eyes, the volte-face is a refreshing change as the Bollywood film fraternity came out in droves to condemn the ‘shameful’ Guwahati molestation case that has shocked a nation.
 
Calling the incident simply ‘horrid’, superstar Amitabh Bachchan led the call of support for the young 17-year-old who was molested and attacked by a gang of men for nearly 30 minutes without anyone coming to her aid, last Monday.
 
Bachchan took to mirco blogging site Twitter to say: “Horrid visuals on TV of molestation of young girl... But just a point: How does TV crew know of it live and why don’t they intervene? [sic]”
 
Actress Bipasha Basu also shared her shock, tweeting: “Guwahati molestation of a 17-year-old girl for 29 minutes on the road! Shameful! These monsters have to be punished.”
 
Film and TV star Mandira Bedi said: “Shameful. Disgusting animals who gloated while they molested a woman and played to a camera while at it. Sickening.”

Award-winning music composer Vishal Dadlani said: “I apologise to the girl on behalf of this evidently depraved nation. Can't even imagine her trauma. I swear I’ll never be a bystander while an innocent person needs help, no matter what the risk.”
 
“My country gives me millions of reasons to be a proud Indian. But it also makes me feel ashamed to be one on many occasions,” actor Anupam Kher said.
 
However, actor Rahul Bose posed the one question that has mystified most Indians who can’t fathom that no bystander or even the police stepped forth to hep the teen in distress.
 
Bose said: “Saddened to the point of despair that none came to her rescue. How much more violence against women must we see before we realise it will end civilisation as we know it.
 

“What makes men silent onlookers to such carnage? What delight in seeing a 17-year-old girl brutalised?”
 
Almost a week ago, a 17-year-old teenage girl had gone to a pub with a friend; upon leaving, when 11 men pounced on her.
 
While the friend managed to escape, the girl in question was attacked for 29 minutes in front of onlookers but no one stepped forth to help her or call the cops.

A video clip of the girl being molested was caught on camera and went viral on the net.
 
Can Bollywood be blamed?
 
“As an industry that is largely in the business for objectifying the female form and further titillating the audience with so-called ‘item’ dance numbers, is it any wonder that the moral values of this country have gone for a toss?” questioned Jhanaki Kakkar, a 32-year-old Dubai resident who spoke to Emirates 24|7.
 
Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur took a similar stand on Twitter, saying: “As a society we must take collective responsibility for Guwahati for making incidents like this acceptable and rampant.
 
 “Constant bombarding of female image as mere object of sexual titillation is bound to alter perception of the immature male.”
 
Anahita Makhija, a 27-year-old Dubai resident said: “Why am I not surprised over Guwahati? Maybe because we are talking about the same nation that stood in silenced while a young model Jessica Lal was shot dead for refusing a politician’s son a drink. So why take a moral high
ground now?”
 
Makhija added that Lal’s murder, which united an outraged India in bringing culprit Manu Sharma to justice, occurred in the “jet set world of the Bollywood glitterati and the Page 3 socialites.”
 
She added: “Why is Bollywood practicing such hypocrisy now? Had this molestation case occurred in front of their very eyes, almost the entire lot would have walked away from the scene or turned into hostile witnesses as was the case with Jessica.”
 
Mapping a change
 
Despite several thinking otherwise, this current case has many in the film industry asking for a social change before morality is completely thrown out the door.
 
Actor-director Farhan Akhtar said: “Guwahati pathetic! Shameful! Indian women better realise that they are on their own.”
 
Pritish Nandy: “Disgusting, the molestation of a girl in Guwahati by a mob of 30. No one stopped them. Shame on those who molested the girl. Shame on those who saw it, did not intervene. Shame on police who have done nothing since.”
 
R Madhavan said: “Guwahati is a bitter reminder of how socially we are still a third world or worse country. If any genuine progress is to be made, then a drastic social change in mindset has to be enforced.”

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