A much-heralded live social media session to announce that seven Bollywood films would be streaming on Disney+Hotstar turned into an exercise in the sort of cliquishness that the film industry has lately been accused of. The seven films in question are late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's Dil Bechara, Akshay Kumar's Laxmmi Bomb, Ajay Devgn's Bhuj, Alia Bhatt's Sadak 2, Abhishek Bachchan's The Big Bull, Vidyut Jammwal's Khuda Hafiz and Kunal Kemmu's Lootcase. Four of the last six actors were invited to the live session, two were not - no points for guessing that Vidyut and Kunal did not appear. Akshay, Ajay, Alia and Abhishek did, as did Varun Dhawan who had no film in the game but was co-opted as session moderator.
To be clear, Vidyut Jammwal, at least, was not invited. Responding to a tweet on the seven films from trade analyst Taran Adarsh, the 39-year-old actor wrote, "7 films scheduled for release but only 5 are deemed worthy of representation. 2 films, receive no invitation or intimation. It's a long road ahead. The cycle continues."
A BIG announcement for sure!!
— Vidyut Jammwal (@VidyutJammwal) June 29, 2020
7 films scheduled for release but only 5 are deemed worthy of representation. 2 films, receive no invitation or intimation. It's a long road ahead. THE CYCLE CONTINUES https://t.co/rWfHBy2d77
Kunal Kemmu's response was far more oblique. He tweeted: "Izzat aur pyaar maanga nahi kamaya jaata hai. Koi na de toh usse hum chhote nahi hote. Bas maidaan khelne ke liye barabar de do chhalaang hum bhi oonchi laga sakte hai (Respect and love are not asked for, they are earned. If someone doesn't give it to us, it doesn't make us any smaller. Just give us a field to play and we too can take a high leap)."
Izzat aur pyaar maanga nahi kamaya jaata hai. Koi na de toh usse hum chhote nahi hote. Bas maidaan khelne ke liye barabar de do chhalaang hum bhi oonchi laga sakte hai
— kunal kemmu (@kunalkemmu) June 29, 2020
The seven streaming films will start with Dil Bechara, actor Sushant Singh Rajput's last project. Sushant was found dead in his Mumbai home some weeks ago, prompting a massive outpouring of anger online against Bollywood's rumoured power play. Some film fraternity voices also spoke up - Raveena Tandon tweeted about "mean girl" behaviour and director Anubhav Sinha referred to what he called "the Bollywood Privilege Club." The omission of Vidyut Jammwal and Kunal Kemmu from the Disney+Hotstar session seems to prove their points.
