SLEEPING
WITH THE ENEMY
SOFT targets. That’s what our filmfolk seem to have become
of late, for extortionists of all hues, as the ongoing Rajkumar
abduction crisis proves all over again. Candles in the wind.
That’s how Elton John described them in that timeless yesteryear
chartbuster.
Now, our very own M Karunanidhi has come up with a chestnut
all his own: he’s compared our celebrities to pieces of
fine fabric caught on thorns — a wrong move only tears
the fabric and does no harm to the thorn. Ask Karunanidhi, he
should know, caught as he is in the unenviable task of extricating
Rajkumar from Veerappan’s clutches. Nobody wants to be
in his shoes right now. Understandably, too, for should he manage
to secure the veteran actor’s release, he’d be branded
a “soft” CM, who gave in to the guiles of an ageing
brigand. And if he doesn’t, he’ll be pilloried even
more for being a lazy, inefficient CM.
Yet, much as we desire the thespian’s release, let’s
not forget that the Rajkumar case is largely one of his own
making. There’s no one else he can blame for the predicament
he finds himself in, for he was well aware of the fact that
he was a marked man. Even the police had warned him of the dangers
involved, and requested him to keep them posted on all his travel
plans. Yet, in his brash overconfidence, he reckoned he could
din some sense into the sandalwood don, and smooth-talk his
way out of any danger, should he run into him. Rajkumar, no
doubt, is a sadder, but wiser man today. One’s got to respect
the liberties of mad dogs and extortionists to do as they please.
There’s no dinning sense into them, as Rajkumar’s
discovering.
SAME, YET DIFFERENT STORY
IN Mumbai, the story, in industry parlance, is “different.”
Yet, it’s the same, too, in many ways. Here, the threat
to the filmfolk may be not from a sandalwood don, but from mercenaries
who’re no less ruthless, and hence, the dangers involved
are much the same. The Mumbai industry has begun to realise
there can be no harmless flirtations with the mafia. Once, film
production used to be flush with underworld funds, now the funds
have been reduced to a mere trickle. And our producers are realising
it’s pay-back time.
Yet, it’s amazing how they can deliberate for hours together
on other issues, yet on a matter that concerns them more —
personal security, none’s willing to discuss the issue.
At any rate, not in public. Just last month, for instance, an
industry meet was arranged with police commissioner, MN Singh,
to discuss the issue of security cover. Yet, would you believe
it, virtually all questions raised by delegates revolved not
around police protection, but of all things, the issue of piracy.
The irony wasn’t lost on the commissioner, who castigated
the industry for not informing the police of the threats they
receive. He hinted he knew everything about those with dealings
with the mafia, and no one from the industry even challenged
him on the claim.
It’s not that the filmfolk aren’t seized of the threats.
It’s just that in the matter of threats from the underworld,
they’d rather yield to the extortion bids and pay up, or
arrange for personal guards of their own. Police protection?
No thanks.
Walk into any movie bash, and you’re likely to encounter
more gun-toting, burly hulks than movie stars. It’s something
we’re going to have to learn to live with, now. But the
question is, how fool-proof is this security cover? Some filmfolk
will tell you in secret that moving about with a posse of securitymen
can be counter-productive, for it only attracts attention from
new mafia gangs. Fresh threats and more extortion bids follow.
And possibly, more gun-toting hulks.
THE BOOMERANG EFFECT
SO where will it all end? Suddenly, it seems, all the gory
violence that the movies unleashed on viewers in the name of
entertainment, is boomeranging on the very perpetrators themselves.
The menace of extortion bids will go on unchecked, and what’s
worse, even multiply, so long as they go unreported. The solution
to the menace doesn’t lie in hiring an alternative personal
‘police’ force in the form of securitymen, but clearly,
in cooperating with the state’s police.
The industry needs to collectively acknowledge its debt to society
also by isolating those filmmakers who still resort to funds
provided by the underworld. They are the real villains in the
piece.
And the sooner the corporate culture is ushered in, the better
it would be for filmdom. Subhash Ghai has already shown the
way, routing all his banner’s payments by cheque, even
to the stars. The underworld’s influence has got to be
marginalised, and that cannot even begin to happen so long as
the deals aren’t done on paper. As they were done in the
good old days when studio culture prevailed in tinselville.
Shaju
George Alex |
Cover
Story
