The MeToo movement finally caught up with Bollywood and exposed its skeletons. Many big names like Vikas Bahl, Anu Malik and Sajid Khan were under the scanner and stars like Hrithik Roshan and Akshay Kumar quickly dissociated themselves and refused to work with any MeToo accused. While some actors stuck to their stand, some were just waiting for the noise to calm down and again start working with ‘sexual predators’. Aamir Khan is one such opportunistic actor who earlier walked out of the film Mogul as the director of the movie, Subhash Kapoor was one of the MeToo accused and now he is back on the project because “his heart tells him to do so.”
Subhash Kapoor who made his name by directing the two Jolly LLB films was accused by actress Geetika Tyagi of molesting her in 2014 which subsequently led Aamir walking out of Mogul and Bhushan Kumar dropping him as the director of the film.
Post Aamir’s decision to walk out of the film, he received tremendous appreciation and was widely lauded. However, Aamir has now done a full volte-face and finds no trouble in working with Subhash Kapoor.
Aamir explained the rationale behind his decision and claimed that he was having sleepless nights ever since he decided to walk out of Mogul as he felt that he stole someone’s right to livelihood. While Subhash Kapoor has carried on and directed two films post the accusation, unsurprisingly Geetika finds herself bereft of any offers. To make things worse, Aamir defended Kapoor in an interview to Hindustan Times where he said: “the case of Mr Kapoor was not a case of workplace misconduct, hence could not be investigated by an ICC(Internal Complaints Committee).”
Aamir who is often the darling of Feminists and Liberals defied logic by defending Kapoor. If Kapoor has indeed crossed the lines of decency and molested a woman outside the workplace, what’s the guarantee that he won’t hesitate to repeat his heinous act in a workplace? The supposed ‘pathbreaker’ of the film industry has now finally shown his true colours and his image of a feminist and his subsequent saint-like image is just a clever PR strategy which was meant to deceive his fans.
Aamir Khan claimed that he talked to 10-12 women who had in the past worked closely with Subhash Kapoor before deciding to work again with Subhash Kapoor who in turn gave a glowing review of Kapoor, prompting Aamir to go back on his decision.
Aamir conveniently forgot to hear Geetika’s side of the story and also decided to turn a blind eye to the mounting evidence against Subhash Kapoor filed by Geetika in her FIR against Kapoor. Geetika in a bid to further back her case even uploaded a video on YouTube where Kapoor can be seen saying: “I regret causing hurt to all the people”. He also said that he’s ready to face the consequences of his actions.
There is little doubt that Aamir used the MeToo movement as a Publicity Stunt and jumped on the bandwagon and subsequently struck when the iron was hot by walking out of Mogul due to the sexual harassment claims against its director, Subhash Kapoor. This move only emboldened his saint-like image and perhaps it was all part of the plan to wait for the noise to drown out and again get back to working on Mogul.
While Hollywood has consciously distanced itself from all the accused, that doesn’t seem to be the case in India with the likes of Anu Malik, Alok Nath and Vikas Bahl seemingly unaffected and continue to go about doing their jobs as if nothing has happened.
It seems that Aamir is just a feminist on paper and his move to again work with Kapoor would only further muzzle the voices of women who may never speak up again knowing that the outcome would not be in their favour, despite glaring evidence.