Pakistani blogger explains why Fawad Khan doesn't need Bollywood to be a star
Fawad Khan isn't a hormone; he's a treaty. Between India and Pakistan.
But this is the season of longstanding treaties being subject to reviews, and Fawad is no exception.
In the wake of Uri attack, as Maharashtra Navanirman Sena chief, Raj Thackeray, scrounging for political sustenance, called for Fawad's ouster (along with the other Pakistani artists who had/have made India their on-and-off home - Mahira Khan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Atif Aslam, Adnan Sami et al), blogs written were of myriad varieties.
Many were about Indian women being hormonal and letting their pheromones speak for them. "Let Fawad Khan stay", they said. Let us heave and sigh in collective desire. Let's reverse the gaze and just ogle - legitimately - at Fawad. He's so good-looking; he can act; he played a gay Indian writer!
Some were the self-serious boring kinds raising worthwhile political and cultural points about the idiocy of holding artists responsible for terrorist attacks perpetrated by third parties. No one read them. They were only shared on social media to score points among nubile nymphets rooting for Fawad in one breath and chanting NaMo on the other.
Then there were the "Fawad Khan, go back to Pakistan" pieces. Such as this.
I respect the freedom of artists to cross borders but you know not for you. Don't care if Akshay Kumar or Ranbir Kapoor or Katrina Kaif or Deepika Padukone have spoken up about Dalits, Kashmiris, Muslims, but Fawad being Fawad must, must answer for Uri. Blah, blah, bigoted blah.
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| Fawad Khan is crucial to India-Pakistan peace process. He's a weapon of mass distraction. Most potent WMD ever. [Photo: Facebook] |
"Dear Fawad, whatever we have mentioned earlier is being done by us. India. Your country is doing just the opposite. We talk about dialogues but this is just becoming a monologue of peace from India.
We give you so much love and money, but your country continues to ban our cinema and our artistes.We drool over you and give you some of our best projects.
Your country dreams of creating a Bollywood on their own. We are thinking of collaboration while your country talks of division and isolation.
Our country knows that your country's television serials are far better than us (in quality that is, we always had more money though) but your country's government have prevented us from working with you there too.
Your country is mad about Bollywood movies but end up supporting piracy because most of the Bollywood movies are illegally downloaded in Pakistan. Bollywood movie piracy has only grown in Pakistan over the years.
All this never really mattered to us in the past. As I said earlier, we were only concerned about a free and fair cultural exchange no matter what is happening at our borders or how violence is being incited in Kashmir by your government backed Jihadi groups."
How does someone even begin to address such a hardened case of whataboutery?
Okay, looks like it's not impossible. Pakistani blogger Asif Nawaz actually shows us to how to do it in style. Nawaz, despite his namesake, says Fawad Khan and other Pakistani actors don't need Bollywood to be superstars.
Because they already are.
In bullet points, Nawaz's rebuttals are as follows:
1. Bollywood takes what sells, no one is doing anyone a favour.
2. Fawad was already a mega superstar in Pakistan before Bollywood decided to piggyback on his established stardom.
3. Pakistani soaps are WAY BETTER than their Indian counterparts, if Zindagi channel's popularity is anything to go by.
4. Pakistani Coke Studio outperforms its Indian version every time.
5. Indian artists regularly work and perform in Pakistan.
6. India has its own share of movie piracy.
7. Pakistan isn't hell. Anupam Kher may be.
Now you know why Fawad Khan is crucial to India-Pakistan peace process. He's a weapon of mass distraction. Most potent WMD ever.
Read Nawaz's full rebuttal here.