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Isn't there more to life than Bollywood?

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Suchitra Krishnamoorthi
Suchitra KrishnamoorthiAug 23, 2015 | 18:37

Isn't there more to life than Bollywood?

Becoming an actress for me was a happy accident. One thing led to another (because I was always on stage singing and had a pleasant face) and I got picked up to do a TV serial (Chunauti) and then advertisements (Clearasil, Sunrise Coffee, Palmolive soap, Limca blah blah) and then movies (Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naan) and so on. This was my ticket to earning money and therefore, my freedom.

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But ever since I remember, all I ever wanted to do was get married and have babies. I even knew I would have a daughter and name her Kaveri, apparently. Since I was ten-years-old. I knew it even then.

And so I did that. Tried to become the best mother I could be to the most beautiful daughter in the world. And all the time that I nurtured my momma fixation, I recorded and released five music albums, had 13 art exhibitions, wrote and released three books, travelled around the world and climbed some of the world's highest mountains. Now before this starts to sound like a Wikipedia entry, I better pick up my thoughts again and come to the point.

The point being that I am making this point because nobody believes that I didn't have or don't continue to nurture starry Bollywood aspirations. At all. Nobody believes that I happily gave up a very successful career in the movies while still in my very early-20s and never aspired to come back. I don't crave stardom. As simple as that. I find it a nuisance - not just an invasion, but an assault on my privacy. Even the movies I have done in recent years have been with friends where I was offered the part because I suited the character and I had time to spare. I have refused many more films than I have done. But still very few believe that. In fact nobody does.

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So while I no longer bother to try and explain my highfalutin "I'm a thinking artist stance", I stlll can't help but constantly try and decode the Bollywood obsession India and its people reel under. Nearly a billion people. Residing within and especially outside. Those fortunate enough to not be buried and stifled under this stardust are the ones that left the country in the last 20 years - in the 1990's or early 2000's. They all live in the Silicon Valley and have made enough money and fame to not have any other aspirations to glamour.

The ones that left earlier, in the 1970's and 1980's all live in London and get the Bollywood stars to dance at their weddings and parties. Because these non-resident Indians (NRIs) in London subscribe to Indian newspapers and read about nothing but Bollywood in mainstream media. They believe that addiction to Bollywood is a form of patriotism. They abandoned India and made their fortune on foreign shores, you see. Now they want to give back to the country, and what better way than hawala black money? Forget the starving, farming and toilet-less villages. Bling is king.

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I have got used to being accused of being a bitter loser, jealous of Bollywood stars because I never made it as an actress (yes these are the words I have heard many times before, especially on Twitter) when I express myself in a way that's against popular opinion or take a stand against bullshit. How dare a flop actress like you speak against so and so... Just because your Bollywood career didn't take off and you're desperate for attention.

In spite of everything I have done, and continue to do, I cannot ever escape the fact that I have been in the movies. Once you are a Bollywood face, anonymity is dead for the rest of your life. That is the power of Bollywood.

Initially, it used to perplex me - not upset, mind you, but perplex.

Because it astounds me that in India Bollywood glamour seems to be the only parameter of feminine achievement. We are interested not in Farah Khan or Zoya Akhtar's powerhouse mind, but the glamour of the beauty queen, the item girl. Brain and talent pales before glamour. It is the fairness cream concept. If Farah can joke about herself on a primetime TV show that the one secret people don't know about her is that she is NOT a man, it speaks volumes, doesn't it?

Why are there are no real role models for women outside of Bollywood. Miss Indias aspire to enter Bollywood. Novelists aspire to enter Bollywood. Nobody wants to be a Barkha Dutt or an Indra Nooyi or Mary Kom. After all, if Priyanka Chopra didn't portray a biopic on Mary Kom, the boxer, who would know her name? If Barkha Dutt didn't put herself on TV nobody else would. Sania Mirza earns less for an endorsement than Katrina Kaif. Rakhi Sawant earns more for an hour of shaking her booty in a small town performance than an Olympic gold medallist who spent 20 years training mercilessly to earn that gold medal for her country. The media ignores the Olympic gold medallist now living in obscure penury in middle India. So does the government. Shobhaa De still gets more attention for the cocktail sarees she wears than the fearlessness of her thoughts or writing skills.

Media houses and corporate giants talk about women emancipation - yet who do they use to sell that concept? A Bollywood star - Deepika Padukone. Nothing wrong with that - I'm a fan. In fact, I can confidently say that she probably has a brain and heart bigger than most. But that is not what she's being paid for.

Remember that shot where she says size zero or size 15 (or some such), my choice? In that shot, she is looking her skinniest, and what is showing most is her bra strap and every real woman in India was left sighing in disappointment yet again. Its makers back-thumped themselves and tripped over each other in hearty congratulations in bringing about awareness on women's rights and her choice. Did anyone else wonder why of all the 101 women achievers in that film, from different walks of life, the public and especially mainstream media, noticed only Deepika? Wasn't it not Bollywood fixation?

Or were her visuals the most sexual? I mean with legs and abs and a face like that, I mean too good ya. Totally jhatak. SO sexy it gave every man watching a libido attack.

One tight slap? Really? But the fact of the matter is in India sexuality draws eyeballs and earns much more money than tennis balls.

A thumka will always earn more than a thumri.

A palloo fall light up every lower stall. It is nature's call.

So innocent ya. So beautiful. Will always keep her coffers full.

But hey, not everyone is interested in all that na? A woman is entitled to other ambitions. Bas kya? Or even having none other than being a fantastic mum?

So before you ask me again how it was working with Shah Rukh Khan in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naan, and how come I gave it all up blah, yawn. Yawn. Hmnnn... Yawn. Can I please request you to not bore me ya?

Last updated: August 23, 2015 | 18:37
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