Hollywood and Bollywood


Every other day we read about the wild and unpredictable ways of Britney Spears. We are informed about the number of run-ins Paris Hilton has had with the US police. Lindsay Lohan has gone on record saying that she is seeking help for alcoholism and drug addiction. Mathew Perry (Chandler of F.R.I.E.N.D.S) is known to have overcome his dependence on pain-killers. Hollywood actors keep checking in and out of rehabs with alarming periodicity. Heath Ledger succumbed to his addiction. Owen Wilson narrowly escaped. Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr’s alcoholism is well known.

Pop psychoanalysts explain this erratic and the self-destructive behaviour by citing it as the outcome of quick and early fame, hounding by paparazzi, the partying culture of Hollywood, a lack of cohesive family support system and troubled childhood.

So how is it that our Bollywood actors and actresses, our TV personalities, our entertainers have escaped this seductive trap of booze and drugs? The journey to fame and fortune is as arduous here. Media scrutiny is equally harsh. Our marquee idols party with similar vigour.

We know that Bollywood has its own code of conduct. We have accepted bed-hopping, infidelity, second and 3rd marriages and even love children. Then why is media quiet about the addictions that surely must exist. It is a hazard of the entertainment industry, “booze, sex and drugs”. A stray case of a now reformed Sanjay Dutt or repentant Fardeen Khan might spring up in the newspaper. And we all know about Salman Khan and his escapades.

But on the whole, it seems that our entertainers are a blessed lot of well-adjusted, balanced lot who go to work, go home, and spend time with the kids and go to sleep. Many are quoted in interviews, “I don’t drink.” Some will make a concession and say, “I enjoy an occasional glass of wine.” Now I know that no one is going to come right out and say that they love binge drinking or that they go to bed every night drunk as a skunk. No one will admit that they cope with rejections, disappointments and back-stabbing by doing a line on the mirror with a rolled up Rs 100 note. Or that they try and forget the pressures of phenomenal success and frightening expectations by snorting substances in their nasal passages followed by a double on ice. But it stands to reason that dependence on alcohol, drugs and substance abuse must exist in our entertainment world. Also don’t we believe that creative juices flow better, with more vivid hues when one is under the influence?

The media goes into every salacious, tantalizing detail of the love lives of the screen gods and goddesses. So how is it they don’t throw light on the sordid goings-on and dependence on addictives? We don’t hear of a single star undergoing treatment for dependence. No drying out clinics, no cleaning up centers. No Betty Ford center Beau Monde programmes.

Is it that we, as the purveyor of Kama Sutra can digest the “sex” part of the entertainment world but will throw up once told of “booze and drugs”?