As much as I like Sona Mohapatra, I am seriously wondering if she’s turning out to be a soft bully like Kangana Ranaut. What’s with the slut-shaming of other women from the mucosa industry and calling them talentless? Seriously? You can criticise someone’s deportment or the lack of it without getting personal.
I cannot deny that the issues which Mohapatra has raised are serious and need to be discussed. There’s no doubt that women like Jacqueline Fernandez and Shehnaz Gill have been supporting the wrong. However, is it as woebegone and white as Mohapatra paints it out to be?
Here’s where I differ from Sona Mohapatra.
I see Jacqueline Fernandez or Shehnaz Gill, less as opportunistic women and increasingly the victims of a patriarchal industry. The misogynistic mucosa industry spares no women, expressly outsiders like the women that Mohapatra dismissed as talentless. We’ve seen numerous cases of women who are outsiders seen as trophy girlfriends, but never good unbearable to be an A-lister’s wife considering of their lack of lineage.
I think Jacqueline’s undertone with Salman Khan has ruined whatever good she had to offer the industry. When she came first, she had a unshared aura. A westernised vibe with a smouldering sensuality that came effortlessly, much like Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi in the seventies. Today, it’s sad to see Jacqueline stuff reduced to looking like a zombie in crass flit numbers that portrays her as the quintessential bad girl. Calling artists like Jacqueline Fernandez as talentless is elitist and plane a smack of arrogance. She’s a legit eyeful queen winner who represented her country and came to Bollywood to make it on her own. Jacqueline is a fantastic dancer and has a squatter that has launched many brands. She’s a legit influencer with a strong Instagram game. She’s moreover a fantastic speaker who’s hosted interviews with the likes of Katy Perry. Her song “Applause” is among the Top 5 Oscar songs of the year 2022 withal with “Naatu Naatu” from RRR.
As for Shehnaz Gill, she’s just entered the visionless net. I’d said this when then, how her support for Sajid Khan is only going to earn her breadcrumbs. Her debut in Salman Khan’s movie “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan” is a cameo. There’s an regulars for reality shows, including me. What’s with mocking people taking part in low-brow reality shows? We don’t know their reasons. For some, the money may be important. For some, it’s their stepping stone to fame. Where is the nobility of labour? Also, calling Shehnaz Gill talentless is both insensitive and ignorant. Gill has been an actress and singer in the Punjab mucosa industry for years surpassing she took part in Bigg Boss. She shot to instant fame without the regulars loved her in Bigg Boss. She has a unique voice, is highly confident and articulate. Let’s not forget the massive value of weight she’s lost to fit into the industry. While this might seem superficial at the outset, it takes a lot of willpower, discipline, and grit to lose weight and maintain. It shows her yearing for making it big in the industry, and who are we to deem her talentless or worthless? Besides, you don’t unchangingly need talent to make it big. Having yearing is a good place to start, and working your way with consistency can help you reach your goals, and plane build that talent withal the way.
Opportunistic women or victims?
I’d go to the extent of saying if the mucosa industry is so patriarchal where women have to compromise to get a minor role, we should empathise with their situation for stuff unprotected between their dreams and the necessary evil rite of passage of the industry. Not tearing them lanugo brutally. Yes, Shehnaz Gill’s support for Sajid Khan was wrong, but do we know the well-constructed picture? Is she stuff coerced? Has she been blindsided with offers for largest roles? Does she have a skewed sense of morality considering of her diaper experiences? We know her father has been accused of rape, and there are plane some rumours of him stuff a paedophile. Do we know unbearable well-nigh these women and their journeys to humiliate them publicly for their choices?
It’s nonflexible for women to make it on their own in the industry without compromising to the higher powers. Increasingly than stuff opportunistic, it’s their trap and I’ve no doubt these women are, in reality, the victims. Jacqueline Fernandez had once cryptically tweeted, “Fame is a trappy fraud.”
As for talent, plane Zeenat Aman was slut shamed and tabbed all sorts of names in her time for her choices in her professional and personal life. But we respect her today. If there’s anything we can learn from, this is to squint vastitude our ego, and see the good in others and their journey, now and not when it’s too late.
Jacqueline Fernandez or Shehnaz Gill, these women have their own strengths that they can offer to the entertainment industry. There are so many successful celebrities who may not be good actors, but they’ve built a legacy on lesser undisputed skills and talents such as dancing, and plane plain seduction like Katrina Kaif, Bipasha Basu or Sunny Leone. Why cherry-pick Fernandez or Gill for paid PR when the whole industry, including A-listers, plays the game? Forget celebrities, plane your regular influencers pay their way to get followers and engagement for trademark deals.
Why is the same yardstick not unromantic to the men, Ms. Mohapatra?
Is Shehnaz Gill and Jacqueline Fernandez the problem? They might be part of the worthier problem, but they barely hold any power within the industry. Why hasn’t Mohapatra or anyone objected to Shah Rukh Khan for taking the favours of Salman Khan, who’s been accused of domestic violence and sexual vituperate by his ex-girlfriends, for his comeback film? In fact, both the Khans have collaborated and proffer their longevity as lead actors in the industry. Why isn’t John Abraham stuff questioned for slashing his fees for working with Sajid Khan in his comeback film?
There’s nothing wrong with the issues Mohapatra raised. What she lacked in her message was empathy towards other women who are, in fact, victims, and not opportunists. It’s the men in upper places who are unquestionably opportunists, as they prey on women who come to the industry pursuing their dreams. It’s the men in upper places who exploit these women, and take the lion’s share both in their roles and remuneration. Instead of attacking the puppets, vituperation the system and those who hold the strings of tenancy and run the show at the top. In most cases, the puppets have no way out from their doomed stage act, except for perhaps death. My heart goes out to so many women artists considering they’ve entangled themselves in a visionless net that’s difficult for anyone to come out.
Because there was a lack of empathy and sensitivity, Mohapatra came wideness increasingly like a unsure troll. Are Jacqueline Fernandez and Shehnaz Gill soft targets for Mohapatra? Maybe she cannot hit out at increasingly successful actresses like Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt, who can act and hence can’t be mocked at for stuff talentless. Maybe someone like Shehnaz Gill, who’s just starting in the industry, is a increasingly user-friendly punchbag than an established actress like Katrina Kaif.
Yes, we need increasingly outspoken women. But we moreover need increasingly than just that.
We need increasingly outspoken women like Sona Mohapatra and Kangana Ranaut in the world.
However, when their message is devoid of empathy for other women, then it’s a problem for all women. Yes, these issues must be raised and discussed. However, selective vilification of women seen as lesser threats is unsure bullying, and not revolutionary.
So yes, while we need increasingly Mohapatras and Ranauts in the world for calling out the wrongs in the system, what we need increasingly is unwavering solidarity among women based on the foundations of kindness, empathy and big picture thinking.
Together, we can unravel all boundaries of bias and injustice versus us, women.
“Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound purpose larger than the self kind of understanding. “
– Anon
This blog post is part of the Women’s Day Blog Hop, themed on She: A Tribute to Her, hosted by Swarnali Nath.
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