Not just celebrities, Bollywood critics like Rajeev Masand actively promote nepotism and demean outsiders

The trailer of Sushant Singh Rajput’s last movie ‘Dil Bechara’ went live yesterday and shattered all records. It became the most-liked YouTube trailer in the span of 24 hours, beating billion-dollar Disney movies like Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame by a country mile. The death of an actor whose rags to riches story made him connect to the masses is one of the reasons why the trailer received so much adulation.

The death of Sushant has however opened a can of worms for the Bollywood industry. His death has brought the negative spotlight on several Bollywood biggies, the nexus of Bollywood families, nepotism, and the infamous Godfather culture.

However, there is one cabal of Bollywood that has seemingly gone unscathed during this whole encounter and that is the crooked critics of Bollywood who have turned into Bullies and lapdogs of Bollywood mafias.

In the Bollywood film industry, critics are given as much importance as any actor, director, screenwriter, or any other personnel. A critic not only looks at the film from the point of view of entertainment but examines every aspect and inspires the audience to choose the right movie. But in the last few years, well-known critics of our film industry have now become a laughing stock as they have sold their allegiances to money and whoever flings the most amount of money, these critics pen articles and reviews in their favour.

It wouldn’t be a hyperbole to predict that if Sushant had been alive, the paid trolls/critics of Bollywood employed on the payrolls of Dharma’s and YRF’s would have torn him and his movie’s trailer apart by concluding that the movie was a second-hand copy of a Hollywood flick. Imagine the audacity of judging a whole movie by just looking at a trailer and then shamelessly calling oneself a ‘critic’. 

The said critic would have been a grey-haired, stout framed personality who doesn’t even dare to name people when he goes about doing his hit-jobs. The aforementioned critic uses a similar technique and calls it ‘blind’ where he doesn’t take the name of actors but spews every bit of toxicity and venom that comes in his mind. These articles are mostly fuelled by speculations with only one endgame and that is to character assassinate a person.

The critic mentioned here is none other than the self-narcissistic, Rajeev Masand. A bully of the Bollywood who hides behind the garb of a film critic while masquerading as an unbiased, neutral journalist all while being a malicious and despicable person who can’t digest the success of a small-town person.

One such article of Masand from the year 2017 has surfaced when Sushant had just started shooting the movie Kedarnath co-starring Sara Ali Khan. The director of the movie was Abhishek Kapoor who had also directed his first movie ‘Kai Po Che’.

This is what the vile Masand wrote in his ‘blind’ article. He didn’t take any names but it is clear as a day who he was referring to.

“A young male actor, recently reunited with his mentor, is reportedly giving the unit of his new film a hard time during an outdoor shoot. The actor, who is coming off a big dud, likes to give the impression that he’s all calm and Zen-like, but the crew on the new project says he’s consumed by insecurity.”

Reported earlier by TFI, Kedarnath was a prime example of how Bollywood and its vulture operate. The entire publicity of the movie was based around Saif Ali Khan’s daughter Sara Khan who was debuting with the movie. She raked in all the glitz of the press-tour and Sushant Singh Rajput was merely reduced to a filler.

When the movie did not do as expected at the box office, Sara took a back seat, and Sushant was put in the front by the media as a scapegoat. The likes of Masand took him to the cleaners by publishing insensitive articles with the sole aim of dragging the self-made star.

Masand did not stop here with his vitriolic rant as he went on to make some rather dubious and controversial claims.

“Word from the set is that he is getting on the nerves of his director, who is trying his best not to pop a blood vessel. The actor is also apparently not thrilled that the crew pampers his female co-star more than him. Some have even said the actress’ mother is keeping a close eye on him, mindful of his skirt-chaser reputation.” Masand further wrote.

Not only this, Rajiv Masand even wrote about Sushant that his film ‘Dil Bechara’ might be shelved due to his name appearing in the MeToo campaign.

The article, written in November 2019, once again questioned Sushant’s character without naming him. During the #MeToo campaign, there were reports that the now releasing Dil Bechara’s leading actress Sanjana Sanghi had accused Sushant of sexual misconduct, which Sushant strongly denied.

To prove his innocence, Sushant had even shared the screenshots of his conversation with Sanjana. Sanjana had herself denied those baseless allegations.

And where did all those rumor mills start? No prizes for guessing—in the lie-factory of Masand.

It would not be wrong to say that alleged critics like Rajiv Masand believe in degrading others than respectfully committing to their work.

But this matter is not limited to Sushant Singh Rajput. YouTube channel Tried and Refused Productions did an expose on Rajiv Masand last year highlighting the same problem.

In the video, Karthik Aryan, another self-made actor, and Anand Kumar whilst in conversation mentioned that how Rajiv starts pressuring new actors and other celebrities right from the beginning and asks questions that can be called outrageous in many ways.

When Karthik Aryan was interviewed, it was clear to what extent Masand wanted to humiliate him for his films. Compare his outright rude interview with Karthik to the way he pampers the star kid Alia Bhatt in his interviews and you would have the answer for Masand’s blasphemy.

https://twitter.com/IshitaYadav/status/1277520179979665408

Even Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpayee and Filmmaker Apurva Asrani on Monday took to Twitter to share the terrible things Masand wrote and passed off as Bollywood gossip.

This is the same Rajiv Masand who will give a hagiography like Sanju three and a half stars, will lavish utmost love on a film like Article 15, but will make fun of a nationalistic and patriotic movie like Tanhaji whilst not even reviewing a movie like Tashkent Files.

This hypocritical and amateurish nature of Rajeev Masand was fiercely trolled by netizens on social media a few weeks ago as #RajeevMasand had trended on Twitter

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23RajeevMasand%20&src=typed_query

Owing to his double-faced behavior, director Sandeep Reddy Vanga from the Kabir Singh fame lashed out at Masand and said last year, “There’s one fat guy who reviewed my film, the one with salt and pepper hair. He gave 2 and audience gave 200 crore plus, so I don’t see a point. These people don’t know the difference between description and objectifying. If you don’t understand these basics and yet you call yourself a critic, it’s very sad. I feel these guys are a threat to the film industry, and not piracy.”

The elites of the Bollywood have left no stone unturned in humiliating Sushant Singh Rajput. From Mahesh Bhatt and his close female friend spewing garbage in Congress’ mouthpiece National Herald to the people questioning Suhant’s sanity, it has been proved that even the dead have no place in Bollywood if they do not have any godfather.

But the way Rajiv Masand wrote and spoke ill about him when he was alive shouldn’t be forgotten. The likes of Masand and KRK need to be called out as the pot of vitriol they have spewed over the years has been filled up to the brim.