It might have been just another lazy Sunday lunch (in an admittedly starrier setting than most of us have access to) had it not been the disquieting presence of one guest - Super 30 filmmaker Vikas Bahl, who was controversially cleared of sexual assault charges recently. Host Farah Khan invited a motley crew of celebrities over for a Sunday feast, among them Super 30 star Hrithik Roshan, actresses Kriti Sanon, Aditi Rao Hydari, Diana Penty, Patralekhaa and Bhumi Pednekar, actors Sonu Sood and Ayush Sharma, tennis star Sania Mirza, director Punit Sharma and actor couple Neha Dhupia and Angad Bedi. Several among the guests shared a group photo from the lunch on Instagram and the objective, or part of it, appeared to be to plug Super 30, which released to middling reviews but fair box office numbers last Friday.
"Just a few short of #Super30," read what looked like a templated caption on Farah's and Aditi's posts. Others posted a variant referring to Super 30. Here's the original post from Farah Khan's Instagram, reposted by Hrithik Roshan.
People are offended that Vikas Bahl snagged an invite to the do, filling up the comments threads on posts shared by Farah, Hrithik, Aditi, Sonu and others with responses. "After everything Vikas did, how could this bunch of people stand next to him?" read one comment on Farah's post. On Hrithik's repost, a sarcastic comment read: "Nice to see that Vikas Bahl is being given the 'untouchable' treatment." "Shameless actors partying with abuser Vikas Bahl," wrote someone on Sonu Sood's post. Aditi Rao Hydari's post was flooded with comments like these: "Irony is Vikas Bahl standing at the back and laughing," "Nice, Vikas Bahl. Happy. Enjoying life like nothing happened" and "Everyone seems very comfortable with Vikas Bahl."
Vikas Bahl has been accused of sexual misconduct by a former employee of the now disbanded Phantom Films, which was wound up mostly because of the allegations against Vikas. Bollywood has long turned a blind eye to the Queen director's allegedly predatory behaviour, actor Imran Khan revealed after the #MeToo accusations. Hrithik Roshan, who seems quite happy to be hanging out with Vikas Bahl now, had released a strong statement at the time against Vikas whose directing credits were removed from Super 30. He was recently absolved without due process being followed in the investigation - Huffington Post published a detailed account of how the complaints committee gave him a clean chit without following established procedure.
Farah Khan and Kriti Sanon are no strangers to being criticised for taking pictures with men accused of sexual harassment; last year, they were called out for a photo with actor Nana Patekar who was in the centre of a raging #MeToo controversy after Tanushree Dutta alleged he had harassed and intimidated her on a film set a decade earlier. Nana Patekar, Kriti Sanon and Farah Khan were on their way to a Housefull 4 shoot; Nana Patekar was soon dropped from the film, as was director Sajid Khan - Farah's brother - who was also implicated in separate #MeToo accusations.
Bollywood, it seems, is only to eager to forgive and rehabilitate men accused of terrible behaviour; first, Alok Nath, accused of raping write Vinta Nanda, appeared in Ajay Devgn's recent release De De Pyaar De; and now, it seems Vikas Bahl has been welcomed back with food and festivity.
