A prank that went horribly wrong

A prank on Bigg Boss 8 didn’t generate laughter but left everyone shocked - An issue like sexual harassment treated in such casual manner drew flak

Promoting Bollywood films on Indian television is not new. As the film brigade got comfortable with television, they started coming on shows for longer durations - acting, dancing and feeling at home whether it was a dance show or a stand-up comedy show like ‘Comedy Nights with Kapil’. We also had Ekta Kapoor coming up with a finite series of short stories ‘Ek Thi Naayka’ wherein she roped in big actresses who had worked with her earlier to play the main lead so that she could promote her film ‘Ek Thi Daayan’ which was due for release. In recent times, we have also seen how a special show ‘Dil se Naache Indiawale’ was created on Zee TV where the cast of Farah Khan’s Diwali blockbuster ‘Happy New Year’ made an appearance for several weeks, searching for talent across India, while at the same time promoting their film.

However, there are times when promotional ideas go sour and leave a bad after taste, which was the case of Parineeti Chopra’s prank on Ali, a Bigg Boss 8 contestant. Out to promote her upcoming film ‘Kil Dil’, Parineeti in collaboration with the Bigg Boss team accused Ali of wrongly touching her when they were dancing as she and her co-actors Ranveer Singh and Ali Zafar had entered the house for some time. Host Salman Khan who too was part of the prank took Ali to task while Parineeti all the time claimed that it was alright since they were family friends, but Ali should learn how to behave. Ali was tensed for some time but all was well as everyone shared a laugh about how it was just a prank.

But come to think of it, even as we see so many rape, molestation cases being reported every day - Was it right to highlight the issue so frivolously? And on top of that, we had Parineeti saying again and again that it was okay and Ali was a family friend… when according to all the surveys, it has been time and again revealed that most of the abuse cases happen within the family with close relative or family friend.

The next day Parineeti washed off her hands from the incident claiming to have just followed the instructions of the creative team. When such grim incidents are reported, we always have these same stars giving politically correct quotes about the situation but what happens to all that intelligence when they promote their film and have to behave in a rational manner in front of national audience?

The show is widely watched and amongst the viewers there must be also those who must have gone through bad experiences and reliving those and then seeing it being turned into a funny incident must have bad taste. The entire incident was not funny at all but it showed the insensitive side of those who think they are far away from prying eyes and groping hands.