Slammed By Jaya Bachchan, BJP's Ravi Kishan Stands By Drugs Claim
Abhimanyu Mathur (BOMBAY TIMES; October 5, 2020)

Earlier this week, the Uttar Pradesh government granted Y+ category security to actor and Gorakhpur MP Ravi Kishan. This followed reports of threats to the actor’s life after he raised the issue of drug abuse in Bollywood in the Parliament. The last few weeks have seen Ravi Kishan, the Parliamentarian, more in focus than Ravi Kishan, the actor. The 51-year-old says it’s deliberate — a chance to “use the platform given to him”. Excerpts from a chat:

There have been reports that you have received threats after you raised the drug issue in Parliament.
Yeah! You are talking about cartels and drug traffickers. So, the minute you talk about it, woh to laazim hai that you will be on their radar, be a target. There is a chance you may be shot. That’s why nobody touched all this.

Then what prompted you to do so?
If I thought all this, I would have never been able to do anything. People would forever know me as Ravi Kishan, the actor. They wouldn’t know that there was another person beyond that. This drugs issue was bothering me for a long time. When I started in the industry, I hadn’t seen all this that I have in the last seven-eight years. I had to speak up, warna agli generation ka kya hoga? An artiste is not an ornament in the Parliament. If I am there, given a platform, I wanted to use it and be a voice.

The notion that drugs are consumed in the film industry has existed for years. Why is it such a matter of interest right now?
It was never this bad. A sort of cool attitude has developed about chemicals. Gaane ban rahe hain iske upar jahan cool bataya jaa raha tha isko. In fact, I had raised the drugs issue in the Parliament earlier, too, two sessions ago. Just that it did not get this much publicity then.

But it has been pointed out that the focus the Bollywood drugs case is getting may be distracting the country from other important issues, and that it is being exaggerated.
We have to raise issues and me being from the fraternity, I have to do it. Aur kaun karega? I have raised 148 questions in Parliament. This is why I am there, to raise issues, to ask questions. And you must realise that my questions are to my own government. They are in power, unko jawab dena padega na. I did that and I had assumed Jaya ji (Jaya Bachchan), being my senior, would support me but reaction ulta aaya wahan se.

You have said Jaya Bachchan is a senior and you touch her feet in the Parliament. Having being involved in a verbal sparring match where harsh words were said, will that equation change?
No way. She is my senior and that thought can never change. I am from that school where if a senior walks into a room today, we stand up. Senior ki gaadi bhi pass hui toh hum khade ho jaate hain.

But if such respect exists in Bollywood, then why have disagreements in the fraternity become so pointed and sharp of late? Be it any issue — politics, drugs, or a star’s death — it invariably leads to mudslinging, whether on Twitter or on news debates, or in the Parliament.
I don’t support this culture of impulsive Twitter messages and posts. This civility, this sanyam, has gone from discussions in Bollywood. See, this industry has several Bharat Ratna, Dadasaheb Phalke Award and Padma award winners. People idolise us and they hang on to every word, every move of ours. I have worked with some of the biggest superstars in the south. They conduct themselves with such dignity, such tehzeeb because they know that in places, they are almost worshipped as gods. We have a responsibility to be civil. In today’s time — be it on Twitter or anywhere else — we have to be really careful about our language. That determines what message you are sending out and how people perceive the industry. I get really upset by the language. Seniors ko aapko izzat deni hai. There might be 200-300 role models in a population of 135 crores in India. Many of them are from Bollywood. Toh aapko bahut gaur se chalna hoga.

There is a side of Bhojpuri cinema that has developed over the years that relies on content that many classify as obscene and vulgar. Anubhav Sinha, on Twitter, recently said you must raise this issue as well – on how obscenity has gripped Bhojpuri films.
They may not know my Bhojpuri film won a National Award (Kab Hoi Gavna Hamar in 2005). They have just used Bhojpuri for item songs in their films and commercialised it. So many legendary filmmakers from Benares, Lucknow and Bihar are there, but none of them have come to clean up the Bhojpuri cinema. If they are that concerned with obscenity in Bhojpuri cinema, being from the region, why didn’t they come and help me? Main toh keh raha tha sab se ki aao yahan film banao. Inko aana hi nahin tha kabhi. Sudhaar dete. Akela Ravi Kishan kya kar lega? They are from this land only. And let’s not talk about obscenity, because that exists in every film industry.

Are you saying that the level of obscenity in Bhojpuri cinema is no different from any other cinema? Why, then, has it acquired the image of being vulgar?
What I am saying is that there are music videos in Bhojpuri that are obscene. They exist and many people mistake them for Bhojpuri cinema. Bhojpuri cinema is much more than just those songs. Un music videos ne naam kharab kiya hai. I am bringing a censor for that.