Much has been said about Salman Khan in the last couple of months. From his beefed up avatar to a callously given rape analogy, his latest, Sultan, has been in the news constantly. And unsurprisingly, the ‘Bhai of the masses’ has yet again managed to enthral his audience and make big bucks. But this article isn’t about Salman Khan. It is about the smart and talented actor called Anushka Sharma who also plays a role in the film; a character that disguises as Bhai’s muse but is actually a hogwash.
Sharma has been hailed as one of the most outspoken heroines on the subject of gender equality and wage gap in the film industry. This is what she told film critic Anupma Chopra not so long ago – “If there is an actor at the same stature as me, who would be able to bring in only that much money to a movie, he would still be paid more than me because he is a guy. Nobody is even thinking about it. It is just ingrained.”
The rest of the movie is basically a take-down of Aarfa, bit by bit. Sultan’s ego that is bigger than his biceps is hurt when Aarfa tells him he doesn’t measure up to her talents or ambition; so he becomes a wrestler in just one month, that too a state level one. He then gets an apology from her, marries her and together, they win tournament after tournament. Only, she has worked at it all her life and he has basically got it all in 60 days. But the worst is yet to come.
We understand the lure of a Salman Khan film but when someone is as feisty as Sharma, one has to think aloud. Was being part of the commercial success that comes with any Salman movie so important to the actor’s resume that she willingly signed a story this hurtful to the very cause she fights for? A producer now, Sharma made NH10 last year, a movie that ran completely on her gritty shoulders. How then, did she take ten huge steps back and act in such a regressive film? Heck, why didn’t she at least ask for a few changes in the script – like where there is absolutely zero discussion between husband and wife after she gets pregnant. Sultan never stops to think that his wrestler wife’s biggest dream is screeching to a halt with the pregnancy. More importantly, Aarfa doesn’t waste a single screen second mourning the loss of a potentially huge future.
Defenders of the actress may term this a work related call in an industry that mostly churns out larger than life, hero-centric movies. But by being okay with this sort of patriarchal nonsense, even if it is just in a film, Sharma puts her strong image and work on gender equality and those of many others’ in jeopardy.
Sadly, the next time Sharma speaks against sexism or equality, we will believe her a little less.
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