Dark Side of BOLLYWOOD – Sex assaults, Suicides and Porn racket
BOLLYWOOD is often known for its bright colours and joyous musical numbers – but behind this is a dark underbelly of sex assaults and suicides.
Harrowing reports have emerged detailing the sinister side of the billion pound business which has women exploited into making porn and abused as they promised fame and fortune.
Based in Mumbai, Bollywood cinema represents 43% of the net box office revenue in India.
With this in mind, millions of Indians every year try their luck to become a star in the lucrative industry and secure immense wealth.
Some of Bollywood’s biggest stars earned millions of pounds in 2019 – the top earner being Akshay Kumar who earned an eye-watering £29 million pound that year.
But unfortunately, the temptation of fame and money can lead aspiring artists to the most tragic and horrific of circumstances.
Some young actresses can find themselves thrown into the world of adult entertainment through false promises of a career in Bollywood.
And others have spoken out about abused and raped by players on the scene who lured them in with a promise of a slice of the industry’s billions.
Numerous actresses have revealed the disturbingly common trend of “casting couches” as they are attempted to be pressured into sexual favours to get a lucrative part in a movie or TV show.
The intense pressures of dreams of stardom have also shined a spotlight on a mental health crisis in Bollywood – especially as productions stalled due to Covid.
Since the #MeToo movement went global in 2018, allegations of sexual abuse have exploded within the film and TV industry India.
Mirroring actors and models around the world, Indian women took to their social media platforms to call out their abusers for attacks spanning decades.
And in October of that year actress Tanushree Dutta became one of the first public figures to go public with an account of sexual abuse.
This led to a wave of women in Bollywood and the entertainment industry as a whole speaking out against the men who allegedly abused them.
On May 31 last year, nine high-profile Bollywood players were accused of rape and molestation of a model in Mumbai.
The model made the complaint on May 18 blasted police to an Indian media outlet for their lack of action after none of the accused were questioned.
THE LURE OF BOLLYWOOD
She told Mid-Day: “Police have registered an FIR after so many days of submitting my complaint letter against the high-profile people, but none of them have been arrested yet.”
The model alleged that the assaults took place over an excruciating seven years – from 2012 to 2019.
In one post to Instagram, the model described how the photographer allegedly physically and emotionally abused her during a work assignment.
Since her accusations, the model has claimed that she has been receiving death threats on social media from multiple fake accounts.
Indian soap Prachi Desai previously revealed she was approached to do a “big film” – only for one of the filmmakers to then try to pressure her into sex acts.
She told Bollywood Bubble: “I think very direct propositions were made to get cast in a certain film, a big film, but I have outright said no.”
And TV star Ankita Lokhande claimed she was told to “sleep with the producer” when she was approached for a movie, while Tisca Chopra was offered a chance to be a director’s “pet squeeze” if she signed on with a project.
Men are also not immune from the “casting couch” culture, with actor Ayushmaan Khurana revealing one casting director told him: “I’ll give you the lead role if you show me your tool”.
Cops are investigating a similar case involving Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty’s husband, who is accused of making and distributing illegal X-rated films.
The businessman was arrested after allegedly luring a woman into making an X-rated film with the promise of an acting job.
His wife, Ms Shetty, has denied any involvement in the alleged offences but faced questioning on the day that the alleged row ensued.
She told police she was “unaware of the exact nature of the content” on the app, describing it as “erotica” rather than pornography.
But, after officers seized 48 terabytes of images and videos from the Bollywood star’s home during a search on Friday, cops are now seeking to clone her phone and may also bring her in for a second round of questioning, reports the Times of India.
