Not a class act in Mumbai studios

Gautam Kaul

Pan chewing, a well spread midriff, and a laugh that sent shivers to her rivals, Devyani Chaubal was the intrepid film journalist of Mumbai, among the most feared film scribes! She could sniff out a scandal. Her single column (‘Frankly Speaking’) in Star and Style Weekly was enough to keep the film world agog with what would now follow.

If she were alive, she would have dug deep her fangs into the goings-on involving Nana Patekar and  Tanushree Datta on sexual harassment on the movie set. Devyani kept a retinue of informers consisting of spot boys, fifth assistants to directors, and disgruntled starlets to feed her with accounts of what was happening in the homes of stars and studios.  

Professionally, she was a worthy successor to another fighter for the dirty truth in the film industry, namely Baburao Patel, editor of Film India. He was also a good Homeo doctor. His forte was his off-the-cuff writings which sold well at bookstalls. He, too, kept news assistants to track studios. Often, he fell foul of stars, who sued him for damages. 

If a reader were to read their writings, one will get an idea that ‘slander matches’ of today are not new. The story is as old as the performing arts. Any person associated with film production — if he was rich finally because of this work — normally developed a sense of power. Female artists were generally victims of such exploitation. 

Male and female actors often used slap retakes to settle scores! 

The trend changed when women from prosperous families stepped into the profession and began to set rules for themselves. What has changed  now is the new wave to become bold and not take the male attention lying down when not wanted.

Tanushree Datta should now also drag studio owners and management into such cases. Every studio is a company and a business which employs  more than 10 hands. All such companies and businesses are required by labour laws to have a committee in office which can look into reported cases of harassment. Not one such business has a notified  committee on its floor and all of them can be separately prosecuted by the State Labour Commissioner for violating the government order. 

She faltered in staying silent when she found workers of the Shiv Sena stalking her after the incident. In this case, a criminal case under Sections 507 and 508, IPC, should have been registered and she should have sought police protection.

The incident cannot be brushed under the carpet. State intervention is necessary. A PIL in the Bombay High Court for rampant violation of labour laws by film studios must be filed and pushed to a verdict.

After the closure of ‘Screen’ some years ago, serious film journalism evaporated in the country. What we have now are periodicals which feature writeups on film artistes paid by their PR agencies.