On the one hand, Hindi cinema industry proudly calls itself the last resort of secularism, with a supposedly seamless co-existence of various religions and faiths to keep churning out potboilers, one after the other. On the other, vigilantes who keep a constant track on the goings-on in the world’s largest film industry react vociferously, critically commenting on the ‘selective equality’ which the industry bigwigs practice. Two such incidents have once again had the social media circuit flapping about. One is the Diwali greetings of Shah Rukh Khan when he posed with a ‘tika’ on his forehead along with his sons; this led to his fans and detractors clashing with each other online. Obviously, questions were raised about the Islamic identity of Shah Rukh, who has a Hindu wife. Not surprisingly, the liberal, secular types led by Shabana Azmi quickly rushed to his defence, supporting him for his well-meaning extension of greetings to his Hindu fans, a part of the ‘Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb’, which our country has seemingly adhered to for eons now.

Shabana’s rabble-rouser husband Javed Akhtar too raised the hackles of the conservatives on both sides when he referred to the famous scene in the 1975 blockbuster ‘Sholay’ when Dharmendra hides behind a statue of Lord Shiva, attempting to make his ladylove Hema Malini believe it is the Lord himself who is speaking to her. Akhtar doubted whether in today’s times, he would dare to write such a scene again! Taking him on, Lucky Ali, the maverick singer-hero son of comedian Mehmood, pointed out that Akhtar had the gumption to tell the audience that the Hindus should not become like Muslims (read intolerant) and instead make the minority community like them (alluding to the tolerance levels of the majority community, one presumes). Lambasting the lyricist writer, Ali called him a ‘shameless bigot masquerading as a wise man’. Though Akhtar has not officially responded to Ali till the time of writing this, he has answered many who questioned him whether he would dare to recreate the same scene from behind a mosque today. His contention was that he has been under police protection as he faced more threats from members of his community than Hindus and has been subject to constant hate mail.

Salim-Javed will continue to remain the most famous writer duo who inspired a generation and more of Hindi film lovers, recalibrated the career of Rajesh Khanna before he conceded the mantle to the one-man industry, Amitabh Bachchan, the largest beneficiary of the writer pair’s ‘angry young man’ image. In the first decades after Independence, the communal undertone to the Hindi film industry was managed without much ado and it went on to appeal and sustain its popularity among the largely accommodating audience of the nation. After the first wave of heroes, in which there were Muslim matinee idols like Dilip Kumar, the same film industry had many from the minority community take over the business from the late 1980s to the beginning of the new millennium. So much so the pun was Bollywood was their ‘khan-daan’. However, the atmosphere is not conducive and adaptable any more with the industry openly being patronised by political elements, persons with questionable fund sources and brazenly one-sided movies being made and exhibited. Not surprising then that the sensitive Hindu-Muslim issue finds a resonance in the world of make-believe too, where reality seems to bite more often than not, in recent times.