Hema committee report: Why are India’s biggest film stars silent?

In Tamil Nadu, actor-politicians Kamal Haasan and Vijay’s silence has been noted, while Rajinikanth faced criticism for claiming ignorance of the report 10 days after its release. “The harassment happens to each of us, how come men don’t know about it? Maybe the male actors compartmentalise, maybe they choose not to see it,” Sarathkumar told the BBC. “It’s very sad that every time the onus in on the women to protect themselves.” Some have also pointed out that the biggest names in Bollywood – Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar – have chosen to remain silent. Gupta says their silence may be deafening, but it’s not unexpected. “I would’ve been very surprised if there had been a reaction. We saw what happened in 2018 after the #MeToo movement first started in Bollywood after actress Tanushree Dutta accused an actor of behaving inappropriately towards her on a film set in 2008.” “For a while, there was a groundswell of support and it seemed that Bollywood would step up and do something about it. But then things were contained. None of the men suffered any consequences, they are all back to doing what they did. In fact, the women who complained didn’t get work.”