The untimely and tragic death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput has led to a wave of topics and conversations to start regarding the culture of the entertainment industry.
Topics like nepotism, work culture, sexism, groupism, power monopoly and more such negative facets have been brought to light from insiders of the industry itself.
More and more people are speaking out on how the Indian entertainment industry, film, television or even music needs to bring about some drastic changes in how it operates so that such cases don’t happen again.
This was further emphasised by musician and singer Sonu Nigam who posted a video to his Instagram recently.
What Did Sonu Nigam Say?
On Thursday, that is 18th June 2020 Sonu Nigam posted an over 7-minute video on his Instagram profile and YouTube channel talking about how it is high time that even the music industry mend its ways.
He believes that if that doesn’t happen then we might hear of singers and artists also committing suicide soon.
In his video, he said, “Today, Sushant Singh Rajput, an actor has died. Tomorrow you can hear the same for any singer, music composer or lyricist because there’s a bigger mafia that exists in the music scene in India. I was lucky to debut at a young age and hence was able to flee from this whole mess quite early. But it’s a difficult scenario for the new kids.”
He also talked about how most of the power in the music industry is with two particular companies and they they decide who works with whom regardless of the wishes of the directors and creators of the film.
He revealed that, “The producers, directors and music composers want to work with new talent, but since they don’t have a tie-up with a music company, they are unable to. The entire power is with only two companies and two people. They decide who should sing and who shouldn’t.”
He has not named who these two companies are but we can take a guess as to who they might be.
Asking the music companies to be more compassionate and understanding to newer struggling artists he said, “I’ve seen the frustration in the eyes and voice of the new talent. If they die, fingers will be raised at you… I’m done with this but please don’t torture the younger ones, don’t oppress them. This isn’t a very good space. Try and step into their shoes. They need your help and kindness.”
In the video, he also mentioned that, “In my case, I’ve known of this same actor, who’s under scanner right now, telling not to give a particular song to me but Arijit Singh. So many of my songs got dubbed. I don’t ask for work. Yet, they call me, get me to record a song and then dub it, that’s funny. Now imagine, if they can do this with someone like me who’s been a part of the music industry since 1989, what can they do with the new kids. Even directors and producers are not happy because they aren’t allowed to make the music of their choice. I meet so many directors who say we don’t want a particular song, but it is the music companies’ demand.”
Some reports and people are alleging that the actor who got Nigam removed from his project is Salman Khan. Although he is not named outright, the fact that Nigam said that “wohi actor jiske uppar aaj kal ungliyan uth rahi hai” has been suggested to be about Salman Khan.
Actually Salman Khan has been accused by several people in a span of few days for bullying and negative type of behaviour.
Abhinav Kashyap
Abhinav Kashyap, the director to Salman Khan’s Dabangg had recently claimed that Salman and his family sabotaged his career.
In a big Facebook post, he’d alleged how Khan and his brothers had bullied him and created obstacles in his career.
Read More: “Salman Khan Family Is The Head Of This Venomous Serpant,” Dabangg Director Abhinav Singh Exposes His Story
Jia Khan’s Mother
Late actor Jia Khan’s mother, Rabia Khan, has also come out and bashed Bollywood for its unethical culture.
Jiah khan's mother talking about Nepotism #SalimKhan pic.twitter.com/OwIgvgsPJW
— Panakj Singh (@Pankaj241095) June 17, 2020
In a video circulating around social media she claimed that Salman Khan apparently interfered in the investigation of Jia’s death and tried to protect Sooraj Pancholi.
She stated that,
“My condolences to Sushant Singh’s family. It is very heartbreaking, it is not a joke.
Bollywood has to wake up. Bollywood has to completely demolish bullying. And I have to say bullying is also a kind of killing somebody. All what is happening has reminded me of 2015, when I went to meet a CBI officer, who had called me down from London.
He had said, ‘Please come, we have found incriminating evidences’. I land up over there, and he says, ‘Oh by the way, Salman Khan called me up, he calls me every day and he says that he has invested a lot of money. Please don’t harass the boy or interrogate him, don’t touch him, so what can we do, madam.’
He looked frustrated and he was annoyed, I took the matter to Delhi to the higher CBI officers, and I complained about it.
If this is how you are going to use your money and power to pressurise and sabotage deaths and investigations. Then, I don’t know where are we, as citizens, to go. Who do we go to? I want to say please stand up, fight, protest, and stop this toxic behaviour in Bollywood.”
Jiah Khan had committed suicide in 2013 and alleged her boyfriend Sooraj Pancholi was the prime suspect in her death’s investigation.
At around that time Pancholi’s debut film by Salman Khan’s production house ‘Hero’ was going to be released.
Vivek Oberoi
How can one mention Salman Khan and not talk about what happened with Vivek Oberoi.
In 2003, Oberoi had called a massive press conference where he went to allege how Salman Khan was harassing him and sending him threatening phone calls.
This was said to be because he was then reportedly dating Aishwarya Rai who was Salman Khan’s ex.
Not only did this conference not do any harm to Khan but it effectively killed Oberoi’s career in Bollywood. While he had previously given acclaimed movies like Company, Saathiya and Yuva, after the whole controversy he was pushed aside to smaller films.
Although he has done some notable films like Omkara and Shootout At Lokhandwala but his career has never been the same after the press conference.
He even posted a heart-felt post after attending Sushant Singh Rajput’s funeral:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBdxpV4nnKD/
Arijit Singh
Although there wasn’t any calling out by Arijit Singh, he did post a very public apology to Salman Khan in 2016.
He later deleted the post, but with screenshots of it still existing one can clearly see how he was pleading with Khan to not remove his song from his movie and that he was incredibly apologetic over whatever he’d done.
The incident came from an award show where Khan had been hosting and he’d called out Singh for not wearing proper formalwear. Arijit had retorted or said something in reply to this and reportedly this had angered Khan.
This clearly shows the monopoly one actor can have over a film and an artist’s career.
There have also been reports going around of how Salman’s production house, SKF was one of the banners to boycott Sushant Singh Rajput.
How much this information is true is not yet known.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: The Indian Express, NDTV, The Tribune
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