Earlier today, director Sanjay Leela Bhansali — who was beaten up by Rajput Karni Sena (RKS) and had his film set vandalised — succumbed to bullying and reached an “understanding” with the so-called “fringe outfit” over his upcoming film, Padmavati.

Bhansali Productions have assured the RKS that there will be no romantic scenes — not even a dream sequence — involving the Hindu heroine and the Muslim Alauddin Khilji. This means no “intimate scene” between Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh, and consequently less reason for millions of people to watch Padmavati, but Bhansali will be sighing in relief that he doesn’t have to can his Rs 150-crore production. 

Ever since the RKS kicked up a fuss about Padmavati last week and went so far as to assault Bhansali on Friday afternoon, there have been a few Bollywood celebrities like Farhan Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Alia Bhatt and Shabana Azmi who came out strongly in support of the director. Even Anupam Kher said he didn’t agree with RKS’s methods.     

Of late, Bollywood has been bullied every now and then, and then eventually succumbed to bullying. This is unlike the past where we had instances like when Kishore Kumar refused to sing at an Indian National Congress rally in Mumbai as a result of which he was banned by All India Radio. Actor Dev Anand, who formed a political party to oppose the Emergency. Sure, Anand’s was a quixotic move and far from a seriously political gesture, but it showed a readiness to dissent. 

From those days of bold moves, we’re now at a point where Bollywood outrages on Twitter, but when it sees no support from the administration, it buckles.

Raj Thackeray got a public apology out of Karan Johar when Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’s release was threatened (Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis should also get credit for this particular resolution). Much like Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje has twiddled her thumbs and not condemned the attack on Bhansali. Raje clearly doesn’t mind Rajasthan being known as the state where even a prominent figure like Bhansali cannot be promised security and where lumpen elements can dictate terms. 

Another voice that has not been heard in this controversy is Bollywood’s most famous and resonant baritone – that of Amitabh Bachchan, who has stoically remained silent on anything even vaguely political of late, despite a past that is closely intertwined with his familial friendship with Congress’s first family, the Gandhis. 

The superstar of the millennium has not offered even a token condemnation for repeated attacks on the film industry. Bachchan is the elder statesman of the industry and you’d think that he would at least show support for a director whom he’s worked with in the past. But no, he — who was in the news along with daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai because they were named in the Panama papers — has maintained a deafening silence as the assault on the film industry continues unabated. 

Despite his attempt to seem apolitical, it’s worth keeping in mind that Bachchan was once the brand ambassador in Gujarat, an association reportedly brokered by then-BFF and Delhi’s undisputed lobbyist number one, Amar Singh. Now he is the government of India’s (and Indian advertising’s) go-to brand ambassador for a host of campaigns.

But long before this affinity for the current dispensation, Bachchan was Rajiv Gandhi’s childhood friend. In fact, it was on Gandhi’s insistence that he contested elections on a Congress ticket from Allahabad in 1984. There has never been a power establishment that the superstar has not been comfortable with. 

After his relationship with the Gandhis soured, Bachchan then smoothly segued in to being Singh’s “bade bhaiya“. Wife Jaya Bachchan got a Rajya Sabha seat and the entire family (including son Abhishek) got the status of a ‘farmer’ as a tax dodge for their land holdings in Uttar Pradesh.

Perhaps because of this proximity to power, his inclination to speak truth to it is missing. His silence when his colleagues, like Karan Johar, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, were repeatedly attacked is alarming. Unlike the ham-handed adoration that the likes of Pahlaj Nihalani have offered Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bachchan is suave and sophisticated in his cultivation of influence.  I remember asking him once in an interview why he quit politics. He answered that it was not for him. Yet he, like many of Bollywood’s leading names, is adept at aligning himself to the political camp that is in power. 

So while filmmakers like Kashyap speak out and face online ire, Bachchan — otherwise a prolific social media user — is quiet. Also quiet are actors like Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn and Kajol who normally like to take public positions on “nationalist issues”. Bhansali has to compromise with RKS, but singer Abhijeet can freely continue to spew hate speech through Twitter. 

Is Bollywood in the grip of a Stockholm syndrome? They never tire of comparing themselves with Hollywood but contrast the mute mode to the recently held Screen Actor’s Guild awards where a large number of actors publicly condemned President Donald Trump. The Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg held up a sign on the red carpet saying “refugees welcome”. At the ceremony, Hollywood’s finest spoke out directly and indirectly. Here, we have a creative establishment that is not free to be creative, whose film makers are forced to grovel, and whose fame doesn’t protect them from being slapped around. Unless of course they’re silent or on the right side of the political fence. 

Come to think of it, perhaps Bachchan is showing Bollywood the way to survive — by keeping quiet and not betraying any hint of possessing a spine.