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  Opinion   Edit  09 Jan 2020  Deepika, others take a stand

Deepika, others take a stand

THE ASIAN AGE.
Published : Jan 9, 2020, 12:44 am IST
Updated : Jan 9, 2020, 12:44 am IST

The government is unlikely to be amused by our celebrities stepping out of their comfort zones.

Deepika Padukone
 Deepika Padukone

Three prominent film and stage actresses — Tripti Mitra and Damyanti Sahni, who made a name for themselves decades ago, and more recently Shabana Azmi — had a background in left-wing politics, and were known to actively associate themselves with protest movements.

Not so Deepika Padukone, a first-rank star of Hindi cinema, who turned up unannounced at the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus in New Delhi on Tuesday to stand in solidarity with students’ union chief Aishe Ghosh, injured in Sunday’s attack by suspected right-wing masked goons, and others who rose in protest.

Ms Padukone’s bold action invites attention because she chose to follow her feelings — and her sense of right and wrong — when she felt injustice occurred, and was in the ascendant, making young people across the country break the normal middle class pattern of dissociating with protests unless their own particular interests were involved.

A day earlier, in Mumbai, some of the most famous names in Bollywood — among them leading directors and actors Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj, Anubhav Sinha, Dia Mirza, Rahul Bose, Sudhir Mishra and Zoya Akhtar — sat in peaceful protest to express themselves in favour of the JNU students in the line of fire from the right-wing.

Public protests by top names of cinema suggest that we are living in an extraordinary period where the rich and famous have dropped their reserve to join street demonstrators against government policies and to express themselves against pro-regime socio-political outfits even if they brandish “nationalism” at the drop of a hat.

It is also remarkable that top Bengaluru entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw spoke out in praise of Ms Padukone for showing courage in visiting the JNU students. The government is unlikely to be amused by our celebrities stepping out of their comfort zones. A crypto-fascist group has threatened the boycott of Ms Padukone's films. But this is what they are about — using force to intimidate fellow citizens, usually with the government’s backing.

Tags: deepika padukone