Sameer Wankhede Slams 'Bad of Bollywood': The Aryan Khan 2021 Drug Case Scandal Revolves Around the Controversy
Controversial former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officer Sameer Wankhede is back in the news this time around because he criticized the new comedy-drama movie of Aryan Khan titled Bads of Bollywood. The film, which is a fictionalization of the celebrity scandals world, seems to feature such scenes that parody the 2021 drug raid in which the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Aryan, was arrested. Although it is evident to most audience that the movie is a commentary on power, privilege, and justice in the Bollywood industry, Wankhede thinks that the film makes fun of serious work of law enforcement officers that jeopardize their jobs and image in high profile cases.
The Background: The Drug Raid Shocking Bollywood of 2021.
In October 2021, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) conducted a raid on a cruise ship on the Mumbai coast stating that it broke a drug party. Aryan Khan was one of the individuals who were arrested. The arrest caused the media circus some considered it a rightful stand against celebrity privilege, and the other was political witch hunt in efforts to take down Shah Rukh Khan by the means of his son.
Aryan Khan was released after almost a month in custody and subsequently the NCB withdrew the charges citing a lack of evidence. The event left a deep scar on everyone, including Aryan who was put under heavy scrutiny by the media, Shah Rukh Khan kept quiet for one year and Sameer Wankhede who directed the exercise was accused of extortion and misconduct.
The Movie that Ignited new Firestorm.
That old controversy has been roused again three years later through the directorial debut of Aryan Khan in the film, Bads of Bollywood. The movie- a satirical comedy-drama- depicts a young film director against a hypocritical and exploitative film industry. However, what stood out is a sub plot of an officer with self-righteousness compelled to expose a young man in a famous family only to realize that he was a corrupt officer.
Although Aryan has not actually announced the connection, the audience did not require much imagination. Social media has soon started making comparisons between the character in the computer screen and Sameer Wankhede. The memes, commentaries, and fans debates spread all over Twitter and Instagram, dividing audiences yet again, some cheering Aryan vindicating his artistic score, others accusing him of a tasteless stab at a real-life officer.
Response of Wankhede: To Make fun of the Servants of the Law is not Art.
Sameer Wankhede, who has a history of being straight forward in his utterances reacted by having an abrupt shortcut when he watched sections of the film. During an interview in one of the national news portals, he supposedly stated, Mimicking the people who are at service to law is not an art but it is arrogance. The movie industry needs to know how to respect the uniform rather than make it a joke.
He further accused the Bollywood industry of choosing to attack those officers who have the guts to challenge the elite citing the truth does not alter as people laugh at it.
According to sources who are close to Wankhede, he views the movie to be a personal attack in the name of satire. He opined that these depictions may misinform the masses, distort the truth and lower the gravity of the work by the police in dealing with drug abuse, which has remained a curse to the youth of India.
Social Media Divided: getting to the movies or take revenge?
The ensuing backlash of the online discussion over Wankhede comment has been very intense. According to the proponents of Aryan Khan, he is within his right to present his side of the story with the help of art. To them Bads of Bollywood is an aesthetic gesture - a means of a young man falsely accused of a crime to work through the trauma and get back to control of the narrative.
Conversely, the supporters of law enforcement and apolitical viewers believe that personal enmity ought not to crack into the movie world at the prejudice of pride of the uniformed personnel.
The Twitter trends such as BadsOfBollywood, SameerWankhede, and Aryan Speaks Back are still in the feeds. Other users point out that the movie instead of offering closure, has been a re-opener of old wounds. The best remark was one that said: Justice delayed is justice denied, but to laugh at your tormentor in society is justice denied.
The Proxy Relationship of Bollywood with Authority.
The criticism by Wankhede is an indication into a more larger issue that Bollywood has been struggling with a long time and that is the relationship that Bollywood has with those in authority. In the Hindi film industry, police officers, inspectors, and even the anti-corruption department have been either shown as heroes or villains, as there is no space to show any shades of grey.
There is one additional layer to the life struggle between celebrities and bureaucrats. Actors have power to cover millions of people, whereas officers such as Wankhede are an institution that does not act on fame, but according to rules. The residue of the two clashing tends to be felt in the courtrooms as well as in the news channels and social networks.
It is that struggle between personal anguish and civic duty that appears to reflect in the film that Aryan Khan puts out. The response that Wankhede gave however indicates that to some, the freedom of expression by cinema crosses the boundary between righteousness and wrong during instances where it blends fact and fiction too hard.
The Wider Discussion: Art, Responsibility, and Respect.
It is not a case of one officer or one actor as controversy surrounds Bads of Bollywood. It brings back the ancient argument of the boundaries of creativity and accountability. Is it possible that the artist can offer satire to work through the trauma of the past even though it creates an unfavorable image of real people? Or is such doing harm to the dignity of institutions in which the rule of law is maintained?
The opinion of the masses is strongly fragmented. Others consider the movie by Aryan as the poetical revenge: the vengeance of a youth who was humiliated by society. Some, such as those supporters of Wankhede, view it as a bad precedent in which pop culture is redefining the real villains depending on popularity and not reality.
Closing Thoughts
The criticism of the book Bads of Bollywood by Sameer Wankhede gives us a reminder that we are still not healed of the wounds of the case of 2021. To him, it is not a question of either a single film or a single family - it is a question of keeping honor to the system that he used to embody.
In the case of Aryan Khan, it can be the recovery of a voice suppressed by the opinion of the populace. It is the interplay between fame, justice, and storytelling that exists in between these two realities.
It is yet to be determined whether Bads of Bollywood will be recalled as an aggressive commentary on social issues or as a controversial attack on the authority. Yet, there is one thing that is definite, the shade of the same Mumbai cruise raid is still cast big on the bright lights of Bollywood which is blinding the difference between reel and real life.
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