The actor’s burden

Token of wokeism gives Bollywood actors a saviour complex but that doesn’t do much for the cause.

Aditi Subramanian

“Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui”, a Hindi movie starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Vaani Kapoor recently made the rounds on the internet because of its subject matter. The story revolves around Manu, a bodybuilder from Chandigarh falling in love with Maanvi, a Zumba teacher. While the premise of the film was to address the process and the challenges faced by the queer community while ‘coming out’, many from the community believe that the film appropriates the struggles faced by trans people.

Ayushmann vigorously promoted the film prior to its release, and sported nail polish and kohl for his GQ cover shoot. He shared a magazine cover picture on his Instagram account and captioned it “gender fluid” with a heart emoji. The post was widely circulated and there was a wave of responses. quite what he was looking for.

Netizens were unhappy with the actor’s definition of gender fluid. Wrote @nuke_ amar: “A cishet man calling himself gender fluid just because he did his lashes and wore nail paint for a shoot. This is bollywood in a nutshell. 100 instagram brownie points @ayushmannk, but the term you are looking for is Androgyny and not Gender fluid.” #LGBT #LGBTQClapTrap

A sceptical Vidit Bhargava@ viditb wrote: “Ayushmann Khurrana (the actor in pic) is promoting gender fluid fashion in the GQ magazine cover by sporting nail polish and an eye liner. (He’s isn’t gender fluid, he’s just trying to go for a “gender fluid look”).” A user on Instagram (being.v.a.d) commented: “Sorry about breaking it to you but putting coloured fluids on your nails is not gender fluidity.”

Pokhraj Roy (@PokhrajRoy) was puzzled by the simplicity of the claim and wrote: “Here I am, being a Queer Person discovering my identity and Ayushmann Khurrana is slapping on Kohl and Ethnicwear and calling it ‘Gender Fluid” However, this isn’t the first time the Bollywood industry has appropriated the struggles of marginalised communities. For instance, Ayushmann Khurrana acted in “Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan” where he played the role of a queer character onscreen, and never offered any valid explanation as to why the makers of the film did not cast queer actors.

The industry is saturated with cishet heterosexual actors who play the roles of characters belonging to communities that are oppressed and exploited. The actors are then given a pat on their backs for taking on such ‘bold’ and ‘difficult’ roles. This token of wokeism gives them a saviour complex but they turn a blind eye to criticism. The hypocrisy reaches its limits when the actors claim to be the voice of a particular marginalised community and then proceed to ignore the people who belong to that community.

Bollywood and the aura that surrounds it reduces lived experiences to a mere aesthetic that can be imitated.