Last week, Sanjay Leela Bhansali got attacked by the members of the Karni Sena for the supposed distortion of history in his upcoming (or possibly shelved?) Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh starrer Padmavati. Was it a victory for the Liberals, after Bollywood collectively condemned the attack? Or one for traditionalists after Bhansali caved in? We’re not in a position to answer that, but the clear winner of this bout is surprise entry Sushant Singh Rajput, who, as we all know, dropped his last name from Twitter as a mode of protest.
As far as lip-service goes, Bollywood and Twitter is no stranger to 140-character sympathy-dropping. Everyone from Alia Bhatt to Priyanka Chopra condemned the attack before moving on to promote their Badrinath Ki Dulhanias and Quanticos, while Bhansali scrambled to make a peace treaty with the violent members of this self-appointed law-making group. Yet, Sushant’s gesture made him trend on social networks more than the incident itself.
We’re not saying that this was a self-promotion scheme, slicker than the Raees by Rail campaign, that Sushant thought up of. In all probability, Sushant thought he was doing his part with the name change, but the move has certainly thrown him into the spotlight as a Twitter hero. And who’s to say that it won’t go unrewarded in the film fraternity, even if that was never Sushant’s intention?
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As far as taking a stand goes, if Sushant felt so strongly about it, why couldn’t he do something for those people who suffer because of their surnames? One has to appreciate Shahrukh Khan’s resolute silence on such matters or even Salman Khan’s (when he isn’t busy breaking some law) – no one can tell them to put their money where their mouth is, since they barely open their mouths on such things.