Amitabh, Abhishek saddened by Taruni Sachdev's death

New Delhi, April 5: Superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Sunday in a written message urged people to stay kind to each other and support each other in the testing times amid coronavirus crisis.
The message was shared by the actor's production company - Red Chillies Entertainment.

"At a time when the human race is facing an immense crisis, there can only be one true response: The expression of Humanity itself. This is a moment for all of us to come together in a collective effort to make each other kinder, stronger and braver to face the days ahead," said Khan.

The message from the megastar can be seen as an attempt to instill positivity and calm amidst the current situation of chaos.

"This crisis is not going to pass in a hurry, it will take its time and its toll on all of us. It will also show us that there isn't really a choice between looking out for ourselves and looking out for one another," he said.

"There's nothing more obvious in the spread of this pandemic than the fact that each one of us is inextricably connected to each other, without any distinction," he added.

He urged people to stay compassionate towards each other and also said that how we deal with this pandemic will define India as a Nation.

"So, while we do whatever we can to support each other in our own small ways, the compassion we show to those who are likely to face the most brutal brunt of both, the pandemic and its economic consequences will define us as a generation and as a Nation," the 'Kal Ho Na Ho' actor said.

"The scourge we are up against. is fearsome and unknown to us. Like all uncharted paths, our journey to overcome every new challenge it throws at us will be arduous. There will be times when the best intentions might yield the wrong results. There may also be times when we accidentally stumble upon important solutions," he added.

The 54-year-old actor urged people to confront each challenge with courage and said that he will do his best it.

"All we can really do is try our utmost to adapt and confront each challenge with courage. As a nation, and as a people, it is our duty to give it all we've got. I am going to try my best and I know each one of you will do so too. Only together we will able to fight through these difficult and unimaginable days. Together. we will overcome," he said.

He also added short poetry which said that a bright day follows this dark night and new beginnings of the day are awaiting.

"Raat ke baad naye diin ki sahar aayegi, Din nahi badlega, tareekh Badal jayegi..." read the message.

King Khan ended the message by urging people to ta maintain a physical distance with others.
"I pray for you and your families, please do the same for me. And follow Physical Distancing..........Physical Distancing.. Physical Distancing...PLEASE," said Shah Rukh Khan.
Earlier on Saturday, the Padma Shri awardee along with his wife Gauri Khan offered their personal office space in Mumbai for quarantine purpose for children, elderly and women.
The couple has also made donations to the PM CARES Fund and shared that his companies -- Kolkata Knight Riders, Red Chillies Entertainment, Meer Foundation, and Red Chillies VFX -- are taking several initiatives to support the relief efforts.

Mumbai, Jun 16: Director Abhinav Singh Kashyap appealed to the government to launch a detailed investigation into the demise of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and shared a hard hitting Facebook post about his own experience of bullying in the Bollywood industry.

The 'Dabangg' director wrote, "My experience is no different. I have experienced exploitation and bullying first hand."

He further said, "Arbaaz Khan on Dabangg and ever since. So here is my story 10 years after Dabangg. The reason I moved out of making Dabangg 2 ten years ago is that Arbaaz Khan in collusion with Sohail Khan and family was trying to take control of my career by bullying me. because Arbaaz Khan sabotaged my second project with Shree Ashtavinayak Films that I was signed up with by personally calling their head Mr. Raj Mehta and threatening him with dire consequences if they made a film with me. I had to return the signing money to Shree Ashtavinayak films and moved to Viacom Pictures. They did the same thing. Only this time the sabotager was Sohail Khan and he intimidated the then Viacom CEO Vikram Malhotra. My project was sabotaged and I was made to return my signing fee of Rupees 7 Crores plus interest of Ninety odd lacs. Its only then that Reliance Entertainment came to my rescue and we forged an enduring partnership for my film Besharam."

The 'Yuva' director added, "But to behold... Mr Salman Khan and family sabotaged the release of the film and got their PROs to run a sustained negative smear campaign against me and my film Besharam before release. This scared the distributors from buying my film. Reliance Entertainment and I were capable and courageous enough to release the film ourselves but the battle had just begun. My enemies, which there were many ran a sustained negative Trolling and badmouthing campaign against the film till the Box Office of my film collapsed. But to their horror, Besharam had still netted 58 crores before it went out of theatres."

"So they fought on... They sabotaged the Satellite release of the film that was pre-sold to Mr Jayanti Lal Gada who was the main agregator for Zee Telefilms those days. With Reliance's goodwill, they were able to re-negotiate the satellite rights sale with Gada for a much lesser price," he further said.

Talking about his projects and how they were affected, Kashyap added, "Over the next few years, all my projects and creative endeavours have been sabotaged and I have been repeatedly threatened with life and rape threats given to/for the female members of my family. The sustained gaslighting and bullying destroyed my mental health and that of my family and led to my divorce and breaking up of my family in 2017. They erred and sent some of these threats as texts, sent to me as sms from several numbers. Armed with evidence, I went to the police in 2017 to file an FIR which they refused to register but registered a non-cognizable complaint. When the threats continued, I forced the police to trace the numbers but they couldn't be traced back to Sohail Khan (the suspected sender). My complaint remains open to date and I still have all the evidence."

The director further wrote, "My enemies are sharp, cunning and always attack me from the back and stay Hidden. But the best part is after 10 Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan years, I know who my enemies are. Let it be known that they are Salim Khan, Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan for. There are many other small fry's but Salman Khan family is the head of this venomous serpent. They use a clever mix of their ill-gotten money, political clout and connections with the underworld to intimidate anyone and everyone. Unfortunately truth is on my side and I am not going to give up like Sushant Singh Rajput. I refuse to cow down and will fight on till I see the end of either them or me. Enough tolerance. It's time to fight back."

The 'Dabangg' director wrote, "The suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput brings to the forefront a much bigger problem of what many of us have been dealing with. Exactly what might compel a person to commit suicide?? I fear his death is just the tip of the iceberg just like the #metoo movement was for a much bigger malaise in Bollywood."

Kashyap also made allegations that talent management agencies ruin the career and life of an actor, "The death of Sushant Singh Rajput brings under scanner the role YRF talent Management Agency might have played in pushing him towards his suicide but that is for the authorities to investigate. These people don't make careers. They ruin your career and life. Having suffered personally for a decade, I can confidently say every Talent Manager and all Talent Management Agencies of Bollywood are a potential death Trap for Artists. They are all basically white collared Dalaals and everyone is involved. They all have an unspoken code of conduct they adhere to. Their one simple mantra is, 'Hamaam me sab nange aur jo nange nahin hain, unko nanga karo kyonki agar ek bhi pakda gaya to sab pakde jayenge'. Following is mostly their modus Operandi'."

The director shared how the agencies find talented people and get them to sign a contract, "First the talent scout (Casting Directors, etc.) working on a cut/commission spots a needy wild talent from out of Mumbai with little connections or property. The talent is then lured with free invites to Bollywood parties and random Restaurant launches on the pretext of introducing them to celebrities. The Blinding glamour of celebs and lure of easy money is unleashed on the unsuspecting. Mind you they are all ignored and treated very badly at these parties so they feel demoralized and their self-confidence breaks."

He added, "Once the confidence is broken, the scouts offer them a multi-year exclusivity contracts and pressure them to sign-up for it by promising to protect them from predators or offering a pittance. Mind you, breaking these legal contracts means heavy penalties for these budding talents but the scout makes sure through bullying and coercion that there is very little option for the talent but to sign up. Once the talent is signed up with the Talent management agency, they give up their right to exercise free choice and their discretion in any matter concerning career and they are made to work as bonded labor with very little money. Even if they are brave and manage to escape the clutches of their Talent Management agency somehow, they are systematically boycotted and their name smeared till they jump ship to another Agency in the hope of a better tomorrow."

Talking further about the struggle of an actor, Kashyap said, "But that tomorrow never comes. Their new agency turns out to be the same. Over a period of few years, mostly the prime of any actor, the talent is repeatedly broken till they either commit suicide or they succumb to Prostitution and escort services (Yes male escorts also) to feed the ego and sexual appetite of the rich and powerful, not just in Bollywood but also in Corporate world and politics."

He concluded by writing, "So this is not a threat, it's an open challenge. Sushant Singh Rajput has moved on and I hope he is happier wherever he is but I will make sure that no more innocent will kill himself over lack of work with dignity in Bollywood. I hope suffering actors and creative artists will share my post on various social media platforms as will the media and people who patronize the entertainment industry."

New Delhi, Jun 26: Actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death has exposed the deep faultlines in the Hindi film industry with issues such as bullying, nepotism and discrimination emerging from tinsel town’s rarely discussed dark corners into the spotlight of introspection and debate.

The days since the death of the 34-year-old actor, whose body was found in his Mumbai apartment on June 14, have split the glamour industry down the middle – between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, 'us' vs 'them', and those born to fame and those who sweated for it.

That Rajput, who came from a middle class home in Patna and made his mark in mainstream Hindi cinema in what could be the classic fairytale, ended his life led to soul searching about power structures in Bollywood and also angry accusations at the biggies who call the shots.

'Outsider' Manoj Bajpayee said the structural shift that everyone in the industry wants to see will begin once the powerful abolish the "insider-outsider" divide.

"Nepotism has been in the debate for a few years now. It'll change only if each and every individual who is positioned well, who is established and powerful starts making efforts to make it healthy and democratic for all the talented people who are coming in," Bajpayee said.

“We will have to work very hard to turn this industry into a fraternity where each and everyone is welcomed," he said. Dibakar Banerjee, who directed Rajput in Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, added that outsiders need to put in twice the amount of work as compared to star children to convince the industry, the public and the box office of their talent.

"The biggest unfairness in all this is that it takes double the talent, energy and hard work for an outsider to convince the audience and the industry that he or she is as safe a box office bet as a mediocre, unmotivated and entitled establishment elite," he told news agency.

Rajput was considered that rare actor, after Shah Rukh Khan perhaps, to have transitioned from television to Bollywood stardom and his death opened the proverbial can of worms.

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! was produced by Yash Raj Films, which also backed Rajput’s Shuddh Desi Romance. As rumours swirled about unfair contract details, the powerful production house and other industry bigwigs and star children such as Karan Johar, Alia Bhatt and Sonam Kapoor faced ire from not just the public but even some of their colleagues.

The untimely death of the young actor had clearly not just touched a chord but triggered a rallying cry for change.

An out of context, old clip from Johar's chat show Koffee with Karan in which Bhatt is seen joking about Rajput and Kapoor confesses not knowing him fuelled the anger.

Hashtags like #BoycottKhans, #boycottnepotism and #JusticeForSushantSinghRajput started trending online a day after the actor's death with many calling for a boycott for the films made by Johar and featuring star children.

An online petition on Change.org asking fans to boycott Johar, YRF and Salman Khan has gathered almost 38 lakh signatures so far.

Reflecting the split in filmdom, Johar unfollowed everyone on Twitter except eight people, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan.

Hate comments also made actor Sonakshi Sinha, daughter of veteran actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, deactivate her Twitter account last week.

Kapoor, too, disabled the comments section on her Instagram page and that of her father, veteran actor Anil Kapoor.

The public's angst found resonance in Bollywood with many in the fraternity saying the industry needs to introspect on how it treats outsiders.

Actors Gulshan Devaiah and Sushmita Sen, directors Hansal Mehta and Onir and singers Sonu Nigam and Kumar Sanu were amongst the many people who spoke out on the deeply disturbing issues that Rajput’s death had thrown up.

Mehta made a distinction between nepotism and bullying. 

He said his son Jai Mehta was an assistant director in his own film Shahid and also in Anurag Kashyap's Gang of Wasseypur series. He stepped inside the door because of his father but got ahead because he is talented.

“So when people take off on nepotism they do not really address the elephant in the room. They belittle the real battle -- the battle is between the powerful and the rising, between old and new, between rigidity and change, between secure and insecure,” Mehta said.

The director also criticised those bullying people in the guise of criticism.

“People in power (inherited/earned) have no business bullying those perceived to be less powerful or dependent on them,” he said, adding that the debate had been narrowed down to target certain people not for reform or the larger good.

According to Sen, nepotism is a truth as old as the industry.

“I think competition is a great thing but it should be a fair one for everyone… We have lived with it for many years. If it needs to change then all of us need to take responsibility, no one person,” she told PTI.

Onir said calling out nepotism does not mean denying talent just because someone belongs to the industry.

“It is about empowering all those deserving and talented denied opportunity by blatant discrimination. It’s about marginalising talent and creating a non-inclusive space,” he said.

Devaiah, known for his roles in Shaitan and A Death in the Gunj, said there is a lot of "toxicity" in showbiz because of the power structures but actors need to safeguard themselves from getting into a position where they can "lose control".

The debate was just not about actors but also the music industry.

“I have a request for music companies. Today, Sushant Singh Rajput has died. An actor has died. Tomorrow you might such news about a singer, a composer or a lyricist. The state of affairs in the music industry... there is a bigger mafia in the music industry than the film industry…,” singer Sonu Nigam said in a heartfelt video after Rajput’s death.

His colleague Kumar Sanu also uploaded a video on Facebook this week, saying he can sense a "revolution".

"Since his demise, I can see a different revolution emerging. Nepotism exists everywhere. It's a little more in our industry. You (the audience) make us who we are… Filmmakers or the top people (in the industry) cannot decide. It is in your hand to make us," he said.

As the debate intensified, Aligarh scriptwriter Apurva Asrani said some ‘woke’ friends were trying to crush the movement the actor’s death had sparked.

“Claiming to want dignity for him, they want others to suffer indignity in silence,” he tweeted, sharing a thread in which other such as Shekhar Kapur Ranvir Shorey and Abhay Deol also discussed nepotism and the camp culture in Bollywood.