When the #Metoo movement spread and garnered worldwide exposure in 2017, it brought forward many names from the film fraternity accused of sexual misconduct. It started as a social media movement when Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was accused by several women and the movement gained momentum when more women started sharing their experiences with the tag ‘Me Too’.
The moment saw divided opinions from people as some sided with the victims, while others vouched never to work with them again. Crucial productions saw the firing of high profile actors, however, a couple of years down the line, those names are back in the business despite the outrage.
It was not long back when actor Aziz Ansari was accused of misconduct by a woman using the pseudonym Grace, who had gone out on a date with him. These allegations came when he was at the peak of his career and his show Master of None was the talk of the town. Needless to say, the allegations put him under the scanner and people were not sure about the future of the series. However, it came back with its third season this year, and Ansari is back with it. Interestingly, Ansari is not the focus of the season, appearing only in two episodes. He, however, directed all of them and co-wrote five of the episodes, making his involvement subtle enough to not start another outrage but important enough to still keep him in the business.
Following the same formula, Kevin Spacey is also reportedly making his return to showbiz after the allegations had first surfaced. The actor will not be playing the lead but is said to make a cameo in Franco Nero’s upcoming Italian movie called L’uomo Che Disegnò Dio. Back in 2017 when actor Anthony Rapp revealed he made sexual advances towards him when the latter was 14, Spacey was fired by Netflix from House Of Cards and Sony had re-cast his role in All The Money in the World.
However, when Nero was asked about these allegations on his actor, he said he believed it was false.
The list of influential celebrities trying to whitewash their image after Metoo allegations is a long and tiring one. Surprising enough, it doesn’t matter that some of them confirmed the stories surrounding them. In 2017, comedian Louis CK was accused by five women of sexual misconduct, charges that he said were true and promised to step back and take a ‘long time’ to listen. The comedian might have misunderstood the concept of time as he continues to perform.
To further understand how these celebrities are making a comeback, one doesn’t need to look far away at Hollywood, as even our homegrown industry is not free of such personalities. Bollywood’s poster boy of culture and tradition, actor Alok Nath was accused of rape by TV producer Vinta Nanda. At the time of the accusations, the ‘sanskari babuji’ of television had already finished shooting a major portion of Ajay Devgn’s film De De Pyar De. Despite issuing a strong statement that neither Ajay nor his team wants to be associated with anyone accused of sexual misconduct, the film went ahead with Alok Nath.
When the movement started, a high profile filmmaker like Sajid Khan, too, had to step down from his film, Housefull 4. After a gap of some time, producer Firoz Nadiadwala turned into a saviour for him as he decided to collaborate with Sajid. The reason being, “I can’t abandon him just because it is fashionable to do.”
Firoz also made headlines for teaming up with Nana Patekar, the first actor in Bollywood to be accused of Metoo.
Is it a calculated measure of slowly bringing back these actors once the people are distracted and the dust has settled? Are we letting them off the hook?
There are a lot of unanswered questions but it is clear that no number of women coming out with their stories can hamper their image and they continue to live their life as if they were on a short vacation and now, they are back.
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