So what’s wrong if stars and starlets snort in the penthouse of the producer/director with clout enough to order a couch to launch a 19-year-old? Actor Rhea Chakraborty was questioned by the Narcotics Control Bureau and sent to jail. This made a lot of people in Mumbai and India angry. But when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government weighed in favour of Rhea, it smelled different.

Now ‘why’ and ‘don’t’ are two words heard. The ‘why’ questioning politicians inveigling into la affaire drugs in the system, and the ‘don’t’ a warning from the sounds of it – stay put, don’t poke your nose in penthouse highs and lows. Gotcha?

Hey, says the other side of the coin. It’s a matter of national security and Pakistan and China are behind the whole cracking narcotics thing and terrorism spawned by drugs. But, says Rhea Chakraborty’s Rs 10 lakh per hearing counsel, Rhea consuming drugs does not mean she “finances” the illegal trade in drugs.

Compare this with the United States of America. Hollywood stars, when they get “caught” popping and snorting, are made to serve a minimum sentence, fined or ‘sentenced’ to do community work. Bollywood actors do not want anything of that sort. Whoever ever saw a Bollywood actor sweep pavements, even in a movie, forget in real life? ‘Crime and Punishment’ is a title nobody in Bollywood has held in the hand or read.

The heroic heroism in movies are for the birds, and for those who have the dough to buy Rs 500 a ticket to the blockbuster. Actually, till four months ago, Bollywood-on-drugs was unheard of. But the death of an actor and the “druggies” came spilling out. Whatsapp chats of four top female actors landed them in the Narcotics Control Bureau. But they came “tutored” and made a clean getaway, or they say.

Now, Bollywood is mighty pissed off and the top actors and actresses want to be left alone to their parties and please don’t sniff around because otherwise you’ll upset many influential people and hear the angry snort. So, what to do? The government of the day has no answer. The law on drugs is pretty tough. And the sentences run into 10, 20 and 40 years. But those are for peddling, selling and smuggling drugs. Not consuming.

“Catch the peddlers and the smugglers,” says Bollywood. Consuming actors should at worst be sent to rehab and made to snort/sniff pure oxygen. Of course, nobody in their right sense should listen to that sort of crap. But the government is either in two minds or scared to read the riot act to Bollywood.

Surprisingly, from what’s appearing in the public domain, there seems to be quite a teeming drug-culture in Bollywood. Young actors, male and female, are willingly courting narcotic drugs to get breaks and more from so called ‘mentors’ old enough to be their fathers and grandfathers. Thespians and mother/father figures do not want to upset Bollywood’s drug cart.

For instance, actor and Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan. She stood up in Parliament and decried Bhojpuri actor and BJP MP Ravi Kishen’s views on Bollywood and drugs. “How dare he?” asked Jaya. “You don’t make a hole in the plate that feeds you!” Next morning, when the crap hit the fan, BJP Lok Sabha MP and actor Hema Malini gave fellow actor Jaya ballast.

The reality is, for actor-politicians, Bollywood comes first, ahead of Parliament and country. Which party you belong to does not matter. On matters that doesn’t concern Bollywood, they will toe the party line and blast each other in discussions and debates. But make it a Bollywood thing and the party lines blur, the dialogues look and sound the same.

Today, ‘Justice for Rhea’ has become a clarion call for all of Bollywood to coalesce in a lump. Rhea Chakraborty maybe is the tip of the Bollywood iceberg. Rhea is not an established actor despite being close to filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and producer/director Karan Johar. But she cannot hire the ‘Rs-10-lakh-a-hearing’ lawyer unless Bollywood chipped in.

The fact is, Bollywood must be scared of Rhea Chakraborty not to leave her to fend for herself. What if a helpless and hapless Rhea sang like the proverbial canary and some of the bigwigs of Bollywood end up in the Narcotics Control Bureau? That will the end of their brands and in a country, where youth outnumber all others, there’s no telling to what happens to a movie at the box-office. It’s a scary thought and could get many a panty in a wad and trunks in a twist!

So, this is how it stands: There are plenty who are on the side of Bollywood and its prime players. There are plenty who want the “special privileges” given to Bollywood taken away. This second bunch say Bollywood is Pakistan and China-friendly. To tell the truth, most of Bollywood is “liberal” and the Modi Government is fundamentally “illiberal.”

The question is does Prime Minister Narendra Modi have the mojo in him to apply the law and the Constitution in Bollywood and in matters concerning Bollywood? Don’t forget Modi has “friends” in Bollywood and there are photographs to prove this friendship – selfies! Narendra Modi photographed with a peacock of a different plume!! (IPA Service)