The selective outrage of the Bollywood brigade over some issues while their complete silence on others is nothing new. The global leftist-Islamist lobby sets the trend and Bollywood merely tags along. They make all sorts of noises supporting issues that are a threat to Bharat’s national security ranging from farmers’ protests to anti-CAA Shaheen Bagh protests.
But they don’t have a word of solidarity to share when it comes to issues affecting Hindus like the Sandeshkhali violence, the issue of the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits, or the continuous persecution of Hindu minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
Many of the Bollywood brigade enjoy billionaire status in Bharat, indirectly thriving on the hard-earned money of their Bharatiya fans. They get prestige on international platforms as Bharatiya actors and actresses, but don’t post a word on social media about the contribution of Bharatiya soldiers in defending the country.
This time again, in line with the toolkit agenda, many Bollywood celebrities shared the “All eyes on Rafah” viral Instagram image on their social media. The image, which protests the killing of about 40 Palestinian civilians in Rafah due to Israel’s military campaign against Hamas has been shared over 44 million times across social media, as per various media reports.
Apart from Instagram, the alleyesonRafah hashtag became popular on X as well, reportedly getting a million mentions. Amongst the Bollywood celebrities who posted the “All Eyes on Rafah” campaign in different forms were Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Dia Mirza, Varun Dhawan, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar, Sonam Kapoor, Richa Chadha, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Konkana Sen Sharma, Dulquer Salman, Tripti Dimri, Nora Fatehi, Rakul Preet Singh, Bhumi Pednekar, Ileana D’ Cruz, and Nushrat Bharucha.
Bollywood celebrities like Huma Qureshi and Kareena Kapoor Khan reportedly shared a post published by UNICEF calling for a ceasefire in the region. Actress Madhuri Dixit reportedly removed the “All Eyes on Rafah” post after facing massive backlash from her fans. In fact, the netizens started the “Boycott Bollywood” trend on X to protest the selective outrage of the Bollywood brigade who didn’t share a word to condemn the brutal October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel which killed more than 1,000 Israeli civilians while hundreds of civilians from Israel were abducted and taken to Hamas-controlled areas in the Gaza strip.
Even as multiple videos of the brutal acts of torture of Israeli civilians including gruesome rapes of Israeli women had emerged across social media, none of these celebrities reacted or batted an eyelid. Now all of a sudden, they start sharing an “All Eyes on Rafah” meme in what seems like a massive anti-Israel propaganda campaign orchestrated by the Islamists.
There is nothing wrong in raising one’s issue on the importance of saving human lives, no matter whatever part of the world the tragedy is happening in. But selective outrage is certainly problematic and reeks of propaganda. Shrill calls condemning Israel and calling for a ceasefire without holding Hamas responsible for the October 7 terrorist attacks and without calling for efforts on the part of Hamas to dismantle its terror infrastructure are nothing but motivated propaganda.
As per various estimates, Jews form a minuscule 0.2 percent of the world’s population whereas Muslims constitute approximately 24.1 percent of the global population. Now contrast this with the kind of outrage one is witnessing over Israel’s retaliation in Gaza to the Hamas attack. All these celebrities have no word of consolation or solidarity to offer to an ethnic minority that is on the brink of extinction and is fighting for survival. On the other hand, everyone seems obsessed with protecting the rights of a religious majority while overlooking the actions that brought the conflict in the first place.
This makes one wonder if the Bollywood celebrities indulging in antisemitism by casually posting “All Eyes on Rafah” have any idea about the complexity and the gravity of the situation. Probably not. Perhaps, some of them post on these “selected global issues” to stay in the limelight, or maybe there is an underlying nexus controlling Bollywood that rewards and incentivizes those who tow a certain ideological point of view. Or maybe, social media posts endorsing causes are just like paid advertisements for them; there are perhaps PR agencies regulating all this and there is probably a price tag for everything.
The” All Eyes on Rafah” image shared by Bollywood celebrities on social media is a standard image that primarily comes from one source. The same image has been shared by Hollywood celebrities as well. It certainly doesn’t seem like a case of spontaneous outrage. If people feel spontaneous about an issue, they create their own memes or posts. But then for Bollywood celebrities, it’s their PR team posting on their behalf whatever it thinks is important for them to stay relevant branding-wise.
“Boycott Bollywood” is trending on X with at least 115k posts. The netizens can be seen calling out Bollywood’s hypocrisy for not condemning the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and also for staying silent on the issue of atrocities inflicted on Hindus in countries like Pakistan.
“Boycott Bollywood. They have no eyes, no ears, and no voice for Indians. They have only Indian bank accounts, which they use against India”, wrote one user.
“Bollywood is not Indian soft power that spreads Indian agenda abroad. It is foreign soft power that spreads foreign agenda in India”, writes another user.
Well-known author and a prolific speaker on issues impacting Bharat and Hindus, Anand Ranganathan has also shared an X post in this regard.
Bollywood has been so rattled by the “Boycott Bollywood “trend that actress and director Pooja Bhatt has come out with an X post defending Bollywood. While looking at her post though, one feels sad that instead of acknowledging the ideological biases of Bollywood and offering a more nuanced positioning, she has responded in a typical fashion that reeks of the privileged mindset of the Bollywood brigade.
“And it begins YET again! The price the entertainment Industry pays for speaking up collectively for the atrocities being committed in Palestine”, she wrote. The tone reeks of a privileged mindset, as if the “entertainment industry” is doing some favor to hapless Bharatiyas by giving them some entertainment which they should be grateful for.
Sharmistha Sharma, another X user, gives an apt response to Pooja Bhatt’s biased post where she portrays the entire Bollywood as some kind of a vulnerable victim and the netizens as intolerant perpetrators:
“It must pay the price for selectively speaking against atrocities. You are nothing but a bunch of corrupt mercenaries who feel the pain only after knowing the religion of the victims.
Where were your eyes and voice when children were killed and girls were raped by Hamas on 7th Oct? Where were you when two innocent kids were brutally killed in Badaun? Where were you and your leftist father during Kashmiri Hindus’ massacre and exodus?
Why don’t you have the guts to raise voice against the atrocities Hindus are suffering in Pakistan on a daily basis?
You are selective and that is why people must be selective choosing what movies to spend their money on”. ( Sharmishtha Sharma on X)
The strangest U-turn was taken by Bollywood actress Nushrat Bharucha who had in October 2023 shared social media posts thanking the government of Israel for helping her fly back to Bharat safety, as she was stranded in Israel during the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Nushrat Bharucha also shared the “All Eyes on Rafah” post on her social media, as per various media reports. Thus, netizens trolled her for double standards as despite having seen the Hamas horror from such close quarters and having posted about it earlier, she took a U-turn and shared an “All Eyes on Rafah” post.
This certainly reeks of hypocrisy as many netizens had supported her during her previous post even as Bharucha was brutally trolled by the leftist-Islamist nexus for thanking the Israeli government instead of spitting venom against Israel. But she diluted the significance of her own previous experience by uncritically writing a post condemning Israel without giving the context and criticizing Gaza.
From the pro-Palestine and anti-Israel protests in universities across the US and other Western countries to selective outrage poured on social media by the Bollywood brigade, it’s all connected to the woke toolkit. The toolkit amplifies certain issues in the media space while silencing others. Thus, celebrities in different countries including Bharat feel compelled to speak up on the list of “global issues” furnished by the toolkit lobby, while staying silent on internal issues affecting their own countries. The woke lobby increasingly decides which issues have to be deemed important globally and which ones have to be dismissed.
The solution, as far as Bollywood is concerned, is simply for the citizens of Bharat to register their protest both online and offline. Social media trends like “Boycott Bollywood’ send strong signals to the Bollywood industry and are capable of putting pressure on them. Similarly, as Bharatiyas get more aware of issues impacting Bharat and decide which Bollywood movies to invest money in and which ones to not bother with, it creates even more pressure on the industry.
Lastly, as many independent filmmakers outside the Bollywood ecosystem are making meaningful movies and web series being released through OTT platforms, Bharatiya viewers have a range of choices and don’t have to put up with Bollywood just for the sake of it.
