There is a lot of buzz about the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case and even for those not too into Bollywood it is easy to see where the problem lies — he was an outsider trying to get in and the cartel blocked him. This cartel of Bollywood insiders — most of whom are also dynasts — seems to be ruled by Karan Johar. If you go by the social media chatter, this group is accused of promoting Ranveer Singh over Sushant Singh, cutting the latter out of roles to accommodate the cartel’s rising star. The outspoken Kangana Ranaut has already touched upon this when she raked up the outsider versus nepotism battle, claiming that none of Sushant’s films were given their due by the industry only keen to promote “its own”. Ranaut has also lashed out at the media for being complicit and pointed out that while efforts were being made to paint Sushant as an addict and nuerotic, “Sanjay Dutt ki addiction aapko bahut cute lagti hai” (media finds Sanjay Dutt’s addiction cute). She may be right, for we live in a world where some addictions are “cute” and others are “warnings”. Take for example, filmmaker Mukesh Bhatt’s comments to a TV channel that he had noticed that there was something with Rajput that “was not connected” and he feared he was “going the Parveen Babi way”. It took BJP leader Babul Supriyo to state the obvious — that if Bhatt saw it coming, why didn’t he help him out, especially since Sushant was so much younger than him?
Even those of us outside Bollywood know of Karan Johar’s sway over the industry. His power is there for all to see over televised but oh-sointimate cups of coffee with Bollywood’s most powerful. As for those who don’t play along: beware of the slip between the cup and lip.
To be fair, this insider-versus-outsider battle is not limited to Bollywood alone. We have seen it in business, most recently during the Ratan Tata versus Cyrus Mistry skirmish. The old established lobby tends to be wary of the maverick, the outsider, simply because he/she doesn’t know the existing rules of engagement and may end up upsetting the apple-cart.
We have also seen this play out in politics. Which is why I found one post on social media rather interesting, when journalist Rohini Singh tweeted that “Karan Johar is the Arun Jaitley of Bollywood”. The late BJP leader too had his favourites, in both politics and the media, who would gather regularly at his durbar.
Then of course there is Prime Minister Narendra Modi who played the reverse card. He took the “outsider” tag as a badge of honour, making it clear that he did not intend to conform to the prevailing rules. Initially — and ironically — it was Jaitley who tried to incorporate Modi into the existing Delhi set up by holding a series of dinners to introduce him to the capital’s poweratti. But Modi soon made it clear that this was not the way he planned to play this game. He was not here to blend into the established clique but to replace it with one of his own. And so systematically, the existing set up was disparaged as the “Lutyens’ Elite” and the “Khan Market Gang”. In its place came the replacements, in SUVs with Gujarati number plates, some with NRI accents. In the end, the game remains the same, but the insiders have changed.