The glamour associated with our television and film industry comes with a price. And the price is big enough to destroy a person. The dark side of the life of celebrities was once again exposed when Shweta Basu Prasad was caught in a prostitution racket in Hyderabad. It is a shame that the national award winning actress had to resort to such means. An actress of her caliber whose award winning role has yet not been forgotten by the public had to resort to such lows. The reason she cited was that she was jobless and had a family to feed.
While there is fear among the celebrities of the regional film industry over what Shweta could disclose, some celebrities have come forward to take a stand for her. First in the list was Deepika Padukone. She took a strong stand in Shweta’s support and said that if she had resorted to such means in order to support her family, there is nothing wrong in it. However, there were others who decided to remain mum on the topic. Aamir Khan has been criticised for choosing to refrain from speaking on the issue as he is popularly known to voice out his opinion.
Whatever the case may be, the issue was certainly blown out of proportion. The media had got fodder to publish and Shweta was made the scapegoat. Media mercilessly flashed her story to gain TRP’s and Shweta’s side of the story was not given weightage. We Indians are a hypocratic lot. We hum to the tunes of item numbers but demean the item girls. We refuse to accept and respect people like Sunny Leone but leave no stones unturned to throng to the theatres and ogle over her. In discs, people dance to the item numbers but fail to give item girls respect. Same was true in the case of Shweta.
Nobody and no media channels flashed the news of her pimp or her client who was a business tycoon. Nobody was interested in anything other than the news that an actress like Shweta was involved in flesh trade. The media made her the villain, while in reality, she was the victim. There is so much debate on legalizing prostitution in India. Prostitutes are looked at with disgust. However, what about their clients? They have also indulged in an act of shame. Why nobody targets them? These are important questions which remain unanswered.
