NEW DELHI (dpa) – It is not in the cinema halls but in the police headquarters in Bombay where the drama unfolds and the plot thickens.
With the Hindi-language film industry in India frequently running into trouble with the law, it is not film posters but pictures of actors being escorted by policemen that are making a splash around town.Actors of the Hindi film industry are finding it increasingly difficult to live up to their “reel” image in real life.More and more good guys of the big screen are finding their way into the bad books of law enforcement agencies in Bollywood, Bombay’s version of Hollywood.Tax evasion, links with the mafia, poaching and even obscene photographs have landed a lot of young stars in trouble. The law seems to have finally caught up with the gallant heroes and the petite heroines of Tinseltown.Producer-director Mahesh Bhatt explains the trend, saying it is “natural that if the social, economic fabric of a nation is contaminated, it is going to affect everybody, including the performing arts.”The most recent case involves up-and-coming actor Fardeen Khan, who was arrested for buying cocaine in Bombay not long after his new film was released. While he cooled his heels in prison for a week before being granted bail, fellow actors were also facing the rap.Actor Salman Khan has spent much time in a small interrogation room, instead of the sets of a blockbuster, explaining tax evasion. He is also facing charges under the Wildlife Protection act for killing black bucks during a shooting schedule in Rajasthan in 1998.On March 28 this year, actress Sonali Bendre was arrested for an “offensive picture” on the cover of an entertainment weekly. She was wearing a short, ochre-coloured top inscribed with Hindu religious phrases.The police arrested her for “deliberate and malicious acts intending to outrage religious feelings”.Murder also figures on the Bollywood charge sheet. Music director Nadeem has been accused of murdering his partner Shravan, some say, in a fit of jealousy.“Nothing unusual,” says trade analyst Amod Mehra. “It is true that the last decade has seen an increasing number of cases, but then they have all involved individuals. This is about the new-found power that the new generation of actors is experiencing. It is just bratish behaviour.”Bollywood in trouble with the law first became a news issue with the arrest of actor Sanjay Dutt during the Hindu-Muslim riots in Bombay in 1992 after the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya.Caught with illegal arms, Dutt was said to have connections with the Indian underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.It was the first time the Bollywood-underworld nexus had came out in the open. With the arrest of film producer Nazim Rizvi on February 12, 2001, the extent of the murky dealings were exposed. Recorded conversations indicate that Rizvi funded his film with mafia money.The Hindi film industry has been the underworld’s best bet to launder black money ever since the construction industry in Bombay went sour. Today, Dubai-based Ibrahim is said to control the purse strings of Bollywood.The underworld script is simple. It begins with a few extortion calls and ends in murder. Producers and actors who don’t respond to the calls risk the chance of facing some live action.The bigger the film, the more the chance of a visit from the local hitman. Bollywood survived a spate of killings in the mid-90s and then decided to patch up its relations with the underworld.The result: a lot of mafia money is circulating in the industry and the police are catching on.Taking a moral high ground, Bhatt defends his community: “The crisis is not only in Bollywood, it is in society. Unfortunately, everyone is only badgering Bollywood. The ghetto mentality operatesin the industry and people are frightened.”Despite everything, Bollywood is still making money. Outdoor shoots in exotic locales like Switzerland are still on, the audio industry is still making huge profits with Hindi film songs and the larger than life image of actors is still intact.Mehra adds: “The moviegoer has a very short memory. Besides, crime is no longer a taboo and nobody is ashamed of it or questions it. The Hindi film industry will survive and this year is expected to see a boom.”A record number of big budget films are expected to hit the silver screen this year. And actors are just juggling frequent visits to police stations with the half-a-dozen films they are shooting for at any given time.The frequent brush with the law has not meant a break in the making of Hindi films, known for their colourful song and dance sequences between all the high-voltage melodrama. The industry is learning to cope with the laws of the real world.
