What Bollywood taught me today: When will our stars stop sweeping serious issues under the red carpet?

For years the Oscars have also served as a platform for stars to talk about issues they care about and bring them into the spotlight, while our stars sweep everything sensitive under the red carpet.

Michael Moore condemned George Bush's war, Charles Ferguson brazenly touched upon how culprits in financial fraud had gotten away, Sean Penn appealed for gay rights, and who can forget the time Halle Berry's tear-jerker "every nameless faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened"?

When was the last time that we touched upon one serious issue in an Indian awards show? Even cricket and police awards are dominated by actors doing pelvic thrusts on stage.

This year's winners used the limelight to bring sociopolitical issues to the forefront. Patricia Arquette spoke about equal pay for women, John Legend spoke about the number of black men under correctional control and Iñárritu thanked America for being an immigrant nation.

We crib our hearts out about the questions our media asks, but what are the issues our stars want to talk about or even have enough passion or the bare minimum knowledge to comment on? Even when the issue concerns the said star they put a willing gag order on themselves.

An Aamir Khan or a Shah Rukh, very aware actors with wit on their fingertips, refuse to open the envelope much less push it.

Of course it can be argued that in a country where we are handed FIRs for even laughing it's only understandable that our stars want to do little else than a song and dance.

Having said that, is there any denying that there is some fault in our stars?