Bollywood stars and other Indian celebrities have faced fierce criticism this week for staying silent in the face of some of the biggest protests India has seen in years.
Hundreds of thousands of young Indians took to the streets this week as part of a new youth movement that calls itself the Cockroach Janata party (CJP), demanding accountability over exam paper leaks in an unprecedented challenge to prime minister Narendra Modi’s government. Many vented their anger against what they saw as “cowardice” from India’s biggest celebrities.
“We are the ones who made them famous and wealthy by turning up and paying for their films and matches,” said Vijay Rai, 24, who travelled more than 2,000km from Chennai in south India to the site. “Now when it’s our turn for a little help, we get nothing.”
CJP organisers and protesters have been sleeping on the ground, enduring scorching sunshine, monsoon downpours and the misery of sweltering humidity since they began their indefinite sit-in protest on 20 June in the capital.
The mass demonstrations have led to the resignation of the education minister, Dharmendra Prasad – a central demand from the CJP over a paper leak in May that forced 2 million students to resit an important exam and led to more than a dozen student suicides. The resignation is an unprecedented challenge to Modi’s power.
On Monday, the mass peaceful student protest was met with police brutality, including the use of batons, teargas and, allegedly, pellet guns.
Protesters were scathing about how celebrities had commented on global tragedies or injustices but turned a blind eye to the grievances of people at home, even when their most devoted fanbase were being baton-charged and teargassed by the police.
“Just a few words on social media to express their moral support for our demands would have been welcome,” said Seema, who works cleaning homes in Delhi.
In recent years, Bollywood, which was once seen to be outside politics, is widely believed to have been co-opted by the far-right politics of Narendra Modi, leading to a surge of hyper-nationalist films which are seen to promote the political agenda of the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government.
Many of Bollywood’s biggest stars are Muslims, and are seen to have to tread very carefully to ensure their films do not attract boycotts by powerful Hindu right-wing groups. Indian actor and film-maker Aamir Khan was viciously trolled in 2015 when he said, against a backdrop of Muslims being lynched, that his wife felt unsafe and wondered if they should leave India.
Those few superstars who did eventually comment this week mostly refrained from directly criticising the government, and were condemned for their non-committal remarks.
This included one of Bollywood’s most famous actors, Salman Khan, who in a statement told students to go back home and not make their “parents worried for them”, insisting that Modi had the situation under control.
Anupam Kher, another Bollywood actor, said in a comment that he understood the “restlessness and anger” of students, but also warned about “political opportunists” and people with their “own agenda” taking control of the movement – echoing comments made by BJP ministers.
As the CJP protests gathered momentum, Aamir Khan was also criticised after he claimed that his 2009 hit film Three Idiots was not based on Sonam Wangchuk, the engineer and activist, which had been widely accepted film-lore for more than 15 years.
Wangchuk went on a 26-day hunger strike to support the Cockroach movement and many saw it as an attempt by Khan to distance himself and his career from the protests.
Top cricketing stars, such as Virat Kohli and his wife, actor Anushka Sharma, were also trolled for lacking a “spine”.
In a post on X, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar posted a vague statement, simply saying that “we must create a culture where hard work is rewarded, honesty is encouraged, and merit wins”.
Influencer Alexander Balakrishnan, 29, said he realised that some celebrities might be reluctant to antagonise the government for fear of damaging their careers by losing contracts and endorsements. “But the big ones are so famous, their fame gives them protection and even they haven’t spoken.”
Notable exceptions were veteran actors Naseeruddin Shah, 76, who was damning of Bollywood’s silence, and Shabana Azmi, who was among those who travelled from Mumbai to Delhi to take part in the protest. She told The Times of India: “Why can’t they listen to them? We need to build their hope, not crush their spirit.”
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