Bollywood deep-rooted in patriarchy, needs change in mentality: Saif Ali Khan

Admitting that Bollywood is inherently patriarchal in its attitude towards women, actor Saif Ali Khan believes the fraternity has to collectively change its mindset if it wants to create an empowering environment for women artistes in the aftermath of the ‘MeToo’ movement that has taken the industry by storm over the past month.

“It’s terrible, it’s disgusting, it has to stop,” said the 48-year-old Nawab of Bollywood referring to allegations by female actors, producers and crew members of widespread abuse of power, sexual harassment and assault at the hands of several prominent actors and directors.

“It’s kind of built for it, isn’t it? You have a pretty, young girl coming in and meeting some kind of pervert, in a closed room, and you don’t know what’s going to happen. So the mindset has to change. I think it’s a system that we have to look for a long time,” said Khan, while announcing the launch of his private ethnic wear brand, ‘House of Pataudi’, which is set to launch exclusively on fashion e-commerce platforms Myntra and Jabong on Thursday.

“If you talk to actresses from the ‘70s and ‘60s, they also will tell you – which they probably won’t because they are settled in their lives – they might tell you there’s been a patriarchal system that has been catering to a certain attitude for very long time,”  added Khan.

Interestingly, Saif’s mother, yesteryear actress Sharmila Tagore, reigned in Bollywood during the ‘60s and ‘70s with several hits including Aradhana (1969), Safar (1970) and Amar Prem (1972). Tagore earned the tag of a sex symbol of Hindi films after becoming the first Indian actress to sport a bikini in her 1967 box office success, An Evening in Paris.

Khan said the ‘MeToo’ movement is an hour of reckoning for Bollywood and will require a thorough cleanup of those accused of sexual impropriety. “I think Bollywood is trying to clean its house…and I don’t think this is limited to these people. I mean I’m sure there are people in the media, in politics (who are guilty of sexual offences), so let’s follow through completely, let’s not be happy frying a couple of small fry. If you’re going to do it (out sexual predators), please let’s not chicken out halfway through.”

Meanwhile, Khan has also admitted to being harassed more than two decades ago. In a recent interview to PTI, Khan is quoted to have said, "I have also been harassed in my career, not sexually, but I have been harassed 25 years ago and I am still angry about it."

The ‘MeToo’ campaign kick-started globally in October 2017 after several actresses accused Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of rape and sexual offences in incidents spanning three decades. The accusations snowballed into an online uprising with women across the world tweeting personal incidents of sexual assault and harassment using the hashtag ‘MeToo’, and publicly outing their alleged offenders.

The global movement engulfed Bollywood last month after actor Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of harassing her on the sets of the 2008 film ‘Horn OK Pleassss’.  Dutta alleged that 67-year-old Patekar had demanded she do an intimate dance step with him in an item song she was shooting for the Hindi rom-com.

Since Dutta’s allegations hit headlines, several actors and directors have been accused by women of sexual harassment and assault in incidents dating back to as far as the ‘90s. Prominent names include actors Alok Nath, Rajat Kapoor, director of the ‘Housefull’ franchise Sajid Khan and ‘Queen’ director Vikas Bahl.

The movement took a toll with embroiled industry names being asked to step down from projects and leading actors such as Akshay Kumar and Aamir Khan walking out of films directed by those accused of sexual wrongdoing.

Production house Phantom Films, whose co-founder Vikas Bahl was accused by a female employee of sexual harassment in Goa in 2015, was dissolved. Phantom had produced Netflix’s successful Indian original series ‘Sacred Games’ which featured Saif Ali Khan. The 8-episode crime series was directed by Phantom’s erstwhile partners Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, and was launched on July 6.

The fate of the second installment of 'Sacred Games' hangs in the balance with neither Netflix nor Khan willing to speak about it.

Filmmaker Sajid Khan, too, announced his decision earlier this month to step down as the director of the upcoming comedy ‘Housefull 4’. Saif Ali Khan was part of Sajid’s 2014 box office disaster ‘Humshakals’, whose female actors Bipasha Basu and Esha Gupta, recently opened up about Sajid's "rude" behaviour towards women on the film’s set. Khan has denied being aware of this, stating he would not have allowed such incidents to occur in front of him.