Are we actually this stupid? Or are we just too lethargic to ignore the facts and go with the commercial flow. It won’t be an exaggeration to state that our lives revolve around products. The whole world is trying to sell you sell something. Be it the ‘Yes Bank Maximums’ in IPL or be it the cute little Zoozoos; everyone wants you to buy their product.
Well there is nothing wrong in trying to market or advertise your product but sometimes the businessmen loose all sense of humanity and just throw the word ‘Ethics’ out of their dictionary like garbage. The social campaign called MARD (Men Against Rape and Discrimination) is an example for this.
I have always been a Farhan Akhtar fan. Right from his first movie Dil Chahta Hai. But what he is trying to do now is unacceptable and should be condemned.
Confused? I won’t be surprised if you are. Let me explain.
Like you and me even the Bollywood actors have a career to look forward to. Everyone wants to be a successful actor or a director. So in order to promote their movies the actors try to promote it via different means. Some actors go to popular TV shows and promote their movies. Some actors like Aamir Khan come up with genius marketing strategies to promote their movies. And some actors like Ayushmann Khurana and Kunal Roy Kapoor go to the limits of acting in a Viral Youtube Channel Qtiyapa video to promote their upcoming movies. All is fine and understandable here.
But rape? Can we use rape as a platform to be in limelight and promote a movie? There were rapes happening in the country since a long time and we saw no Farhan Akhtar coming to the rescue. And all of a sudden with his upcoming movie Bhaag Milkha Bhaag which is releasing on the 12th of July he comes with his social campaign MARD (Men Against Rape and Discrimination) and is making television appearances in the IPL reciting poems!! Yes Farhan we liked your poems in the movie ZNMD and you gained popularity and an advertisement for that but that doesn’t allow you to recite poems on such a serious issue and that too just to promote a goddam movie!
Such acts are a farce and an insult to all those rape victims and families who had to go through some serious mental stress because of several criminals. There are infinite numbers of ways to promote a movie and be in the news but to use the high media coverage that certain rape cases get for your advantage is outrageous.
Have a look at this video clip to see the whole nautanki and paraphernalia going on to make a movie hit:
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He is not even trying that hard.
So I would like to appeal to the people to open their eyes about this so called social campaign and see the real face of consumerism. And I also hope that celebrities understand the gravity of certain crimes and stay away from such cheap gimmicks in the future.
Update 2014 June:
Wrote this article on the MARD campaign (Men against rape and discrimination) an year ago. People called me cynical and delusional. Now with all the rapes happening in Uttar Pradesh, where is this campaign? Look at their inactive page: https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMard
Using the anti-rape mood of the country, they promoted Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, made 100 crores, sold MARD t-shirts on Myntra.com and disappeared.
I hope that you realize now that these people/celebrities are not capable of acting apart from their self interest.