Last night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a meeting with some of the Bollywood personalities at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai. Celebs like director-producer Karan Johar, producers Ritesh Sidhwani, Bhushan Kumar, Sidharth Roy Kapur, director Rakesh Roshan, CBFC head Prasoon Joshi and actors Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar were a part of the meet. As per Akshay Kumar's tweet, the purpose of the meeting was to 'to hear us at length, discuss issues pertaining to our industry and assuring positive consideration of suggestions'. So far so good? Not exactly. Bollywood Delegation Meets Narendra Modi to Discuss Issues Faced by Film Industry.
While we appreciate the Prime Minister taking the time out to meet the industry wallahs and discuss their problems. But the same meet also shows two of the biggest issues of the industry - a real lack of representation of diversity. For one, it is all about Bollywood and not a single representative from regional cinema was a part of the meet. It feels as if Bollywood is the sole representative of Indian cinema. Dilip Kumar’s Bungalow Row: ‘Yet to Meet Narendra Modi’, Says Saira Banu.
Heartfelt thank you to the honorable Prime Minister @narendramodi ji for taking out time to hear us at length, discuss issues pertaining to our industry and assuring positive consideration of suggestions. pic.twitter.com/ShGfr0Jlvu
— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) December 18, 2018
Secondly, there was not a single lady at the meet! Despite the fact, that we had actresses like Deepika Padukone, Nayanthara rising up the power rankings and directors like Meghna Gulzar, Ashwini Iyer Tiwary etc proving themselves as better film0makers than many of their male counterparts in recent times. Also, this is the year where #MeToo campaign had a strong foothold in India, so this is certainly disheartening!
Not just us, many popular celebs and journalist rooting for women empowerment are criticising this lack of diversity on the panel. Check out their tweets below -
Tweet #1
Hope the delegation includes some women next time https://t.co/w7fMulu4sF
— Gul Panag (@GulPanag) December 18, 2018
Tweet #2
Would be great to have female representation in these delegations. It is 2018. https://t.co/HoxGbptgwX
— Alankrita Shrivastava (@alankrita601) December 18, 2018
Tweet #3
18 men. zero women. https://t.co/Bm0Jx7IaG0
— Neha Sharma (@mmiinniii) December 18, 2018
Tweet #4
Remarkable that even in an industry which actually has enough women, no woman in this delegation. https://t.co/vOai0UQGhU
— Ruchi Gupta (@guptar) December 18, 2018
Tweet #5
This man has all the time to meet wealthy people of the film industry but not farmers and workers who've been crushed by the debt burden & debilitating policies of his govt. Also, notice not a single woman present in that delegation. It's 2018. https://t.co/Qo8ci7cmcI
— Prerna Bakshi (@bprerna) December 19, 2018
Tweet #6
18 men and Zero Women representatives of Bollywood met Modi,Does Bollywood have no women in acting, productions or is it because of Modi’s -anti - women ideologies of RSS?
Where are the women in Bollywood? @ZoyaAkhtarOff @ReallySwara @AzmiShabana @priyankachopra @meghnagulzar https://t.co/NU2ayBxFg7
— Yuva Desh (@yuvadesh) December 19, 2018
Tweet #7
How tone deaf do you have to be in the current climate and given recent issues to have such an interaction with ZERO women representing the industry (at least according to this photo)? Amazing. #MeToo https://t.co/MfBR4m29hi
— Ananth Krishnan (@ananthkrishnan) December 19, 2018
Tweet #8
No women represented in this meeting, Sir who are an integral part of the industry and present today in all aspects of filmmaking from production to direction and more - PM @narendramodi https://t.co/DRo5n9YW1X
— Advaita Kala / अद्वैता काला (@AdvaitaKala) December 19, 2018
We sure hope Prime Minister Narendra Modi listens to these voices and make sure that there is a good representation in the panel next time.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 19, 2018 01:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).