Recently, there was an announcement that Vikas Bahl had been cleared of sexual harassment charges and will receive credit for directing Super 30.

After what seems like eons, the trailer of Hrithik Roshan's Super 30 has just hit the web. Normally, this would mean good news.

Except, there is an unsettling and quiet sense of disillusion and distrust.

Super 30 was in a deep rut for several months, as director Vikas Bahl was accused of sexually harassing a woman crew member in 2016. The credit of directing the film was taken from him and his Phantom Productions' (which has now been dissolved) partner Anurag Kashyap stepped in to oversee the post-production work.

And then, recently, there was a sheepish announcement that Vikas Bahl had been cleared of all charges and had been reinstated as director of Super 30.

THE #METOO FIRE

October was particularly glaring and uncomfortable month in 2018, as women from various fields opened up about their horrific experiences of sexual harassment and rape. They refused to be silent and called out big and powerful names. From politics, journalism and Bollywood, no perpetrator was spared. The stories were everywhere and were incredibly haunting.

Vikas Bahl's case was one such example. In a detailed interview to Huffpost India, a woman member from the sets of Bombay Velvet recalled an incident from 2016 that gave her the chills even while speaking about it two years after it. Vikas Bahl had sexually harassed her after a party. What followed were months of negotiations and recriminations, and the matter was quietly brushed under the carpet. The woman reached out to Anurag Kashyap, the director of Bombay Velvet, and related the account, but Kashyap himself as he said was 'ill-advised' by his legal team and could not do much. Bahl allegedly continued to harass the woman, till she quit the company.

In 2018 when the matter came up during the #MeToo anger that had swept across India, it didn't seem as if Vikas was spared. He lost the directing credits of Super 30; that might seem a small punishment to us, but that's what was done. Phantoms Productions was dissolved.

To see Vikas Bahl back on the directing credits of Super 30 now, is a jarring feeling to say the least. It is a slap on the face of the movement that had become a beacon of hope and silver lining to all the women who had finally spoken up about the horrors in their lives that they had kept buried inside them for so long.

For one, it takes ages for people to even believe that such incidents can happen. There are the usual demands of proof and 'eyewitness statements'. But when the confession has come from the man himself, then why this spineless behaviour?

Such questions will remain unanswered. Or rather best, is if people don't try to answer it.

But this is not the first in the spate of disappointments that Bollywood has been serving vis a vis the #MeToo movement.

ALOK NATH IN DE DE PYAAR DE

Alok Nath, the man who became a well-known meme for embodying the patriarch in practically every Bollywood film, was accused of sexual harassment by several women. But the horror and shock didn't end there. Actress Vinta Nanda even accused Alok Nath of drugging and raping her. She even tried knocking on the doors of a court, but that story does not have a happy ending as the court dismissed her account as 'inconsistent' and Alok Nath was out on bail.

However, Bollywood seemed strong and more than ready to oust such predators from their films. One of these crusaders was Ajay Devgn. He announced on Twitter that he respected the #MeToo movement and that he would have nothing to do with those who were named in the movement.

A few months later, the trailer of De De Pyaar De was released. See Alok Nath in it was a mighty unpleasant surprise, something that no one was quite prepared for. Ajay Devgn tried his best to cover up when asked about Alok Nath in his film and said that the allegations had come out after the veteran actor had shot for his scenes, and that the makers didn't think it was financially viable to reshoot his portions with another actor.

The justification was a glib one, just like Vikas Bahl's clearance.

AND IT GOES ON

Several women recounted stories of Anu Malik sexually harassing them. He was kicked out of Indian Idol. And then months later, he was back, like a badly-written television soap opera.

A woman called out everyone's-favourite-director Rajkumar Hirani for behaving inappropriately with her on the sets of Sanju. Most of Bollywood chose to keep quiet, while some others, like Sharman Joshi, chose to even defend him.

Barely four months later, Rajkumar Hirani was invited to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony, along with Kailash Kher, who had also been accused of sexual harassment. Hirani was also a jury member at the Shanghai International Film Festival earlier this year.

So where does it end? The whole idea behind #MeToo movement was to give hope and a voice to women everywhere. It was to finally call out and unseat the powerful men who committed these crimes, because they thought that they were invincible. But the idea has been diluted and become a farce, a mockery. Feminism and safety of women are just to wax eloquent about, but not to be followed in life at all.

And that's what is so disheartening. So next time, when someone says that '#MeToo ruined careers and lives', tell them not to worry. Most of them are back on track after the minor hitch anyway.

The women, not quite.

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