Mumbai, January 18: After 19 years, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has finally been acquitted of all charges in the Arms Act case against him in the alleged poaching of two black bucks. It seems the collective prayers of millions of Sallu Bhai’s fans finally came to fruition. However, one is left wondering whether despite being a celebrity Khan truly merits the undiluted adulation that he has received.
The myth of an incorruptible and flawless Salman Khan started unravelling when in May 2015, the mega star was convicted by a Mumbai sessions court of ramming his Toyota Land cruiser on 28 September 2002, around 3 AM, into an American Express Bakery on Bandra’s Hill Road resulting in the death of one person and injuring four others who were sleeping on the pavement.
The judgment, however, brought to the surface another aspect of society in India. While to any rational being the tragedy would be simply unacceptable, thousands of fans protested the Mumbai court verdict and parlayed the city. Protesters even raised questions as to why the five were sleeping on the pavement in the first place.
Apart from the hit and run case and the Arms Act case, the actor is accused in two other cases. In the 1998 Chinkara poaching case, Khan allegedly killed three Chinkaras, two in Bhawad village on September 26 and 27, 1998, and one in Mathania on September 28. Further, the hugely popular actor has been asked to appear in court along with other members of the glitterati including Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Neelam and Tabu for hunting black bucks.
While the accusations are pretty horrendous on their own, the real disease seems to be society’s predisposition to accept them without flinching. Blame it on an affinity towards idol worship and polytheism in the country, but there is a certain inclination to view movie stars as knights in shining armour with pure souls. This fact is highly evident especially in Dravidian India where actors such as Rajnikanth and Kamal Haasan are worshipped by performing poojas on their posters.
In fact, religiosity in India can definitely be placed a notch above the rest of the world by the sheer fact that admirers have built temples for Amitabh Bachchan at Kolkata, for Kushboo at Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu and for the cricketing legend, Sachin Tendulkar at Atarwalia in Kaimur district of Bihar. Similarly when Thalaaiva Rajinikanth recovered from a kidney ailment approximately 1,008 fans tonsured their heads as a silent note of thanks to the gods for saving their hero.
The idolatry is not restricted to stars of the silver screen alone, though, a fact evident by the nickname put forth for admirers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media. ‘Bhakts’ (worshippers) as they are often called have already constructed a temple in honour of the Prime Minister in Gujarat. A second one is already on its way. Similarly, Sonia Gandhi has two temples built in her name in the southern Indian state of Telangana.
The issue with such devotion, as Salman Khan has shown us, is the fact that celebrities too are prone to make mistakes. After all, we have been repeatedly told that to err is only human. Godliness, when projected on mere mortals make them even more prone to commit mistakes.
If India was to preserve the sanctity and value of every life, there is an urgent need to tone down the ingrained celebrity worship syndrome. This is particularly important keeping in mind the judicial constraints that the Indian system is presented with. Be it political icons or Bollywood celebrities, placing too much expectation on an individual can make their mistakes seem exponentially abominable, a fact that Salman Khan has repeatedly tried to convey indirectly through his Being Human campaign.
The 19-year-long duration that the Arms Act case took to absolve Salman Khan of all charges highlights that cash, reach in the upper echelons of society and a celebrity status do matter a lot. Even if the empathetic were to feel bad for the lives of five human beings, two blackbucks and three chinkaras, there is really nothing they would be able to do. Economic might and a divine image simply make our stars too big to fail. Despite the rivalry, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan seem to share an insider secret that Indian citizens are otherwise not privy to. No matter what storm they brew, superstars in the country know that:
“Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi, namunkin hai!”
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