Ranveer Singh’s nude photoshoot for Paper Magazine has become the talk of the town. The actor (any surprise there?) seems to have ruffled quite a few feathers with this shoot. From being trolled on social media to being charged with “insulting the modesty of women", Ranveer is seeing it all.
But what does this fiasco speak of us as a society? Let’s see.
It's The Season of Offence in Our Country
Whenever a Hindi show or a film has released, or even announced, people take offence at the drop of a hat. For the longest time objections have been raised on religious grounds. Remember the harassment Deepika Padukone had to face for Padmaavat? People went to the extent of threatening to behead her.
Numerous complaints have been filed against shows like Pataal Lok, Mirzapur etc.
A complaint was also filed against Kareena Kapoor when she released her book, ‘Pregnancy Bible’. Christian groups took offence to the title and unleashed hate against her. The list never ends.
And if this isn’t enough, now nudity has become a new topic to obsess about. No sooner had Ranveer Singh’s photos from the shoot been posted all hell broke loose on social media. In 1995, Milind Soman and Madhu Sapre’s photoshoot created a storm. Now it’s 2022, and nudity still continues to be equated with shame and immorality.
Everyone’s an Expert on Social Media
The reactions on Ranveer’s photoshoot once again exposed the biases and preconceived notions of the society. The actor, who has always been outrageous when it comes to his fashion choices, was ripped apart by the Bollywood hate club, which has been spewing hate and gaining ground ever since Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. A number of tweets opined that this was an act of ‘desperation’, others called it a ‘publicity stunt’, and some even managed to find another angle - that Ranveer released the photos just when Shamshera hit the theatres, in order to ‘steal’ the limelight from Ranbir.
When it comes to attacking male celebrities, can their partners be left behind? Deepika became the obvious target, with someone tweeting that the pictures were punishment that was meted out to her for expressing solidarity with the JNU students TWO YEARS back. The favourite punching bag of trolls, even Karan Johar wasn’t spared. Every time there’s some controversy, the hate weirdly makes its way to the filmmaker.
This is not the first time that a Bollywood celebrity has stripped for a photoshoot. Anil Kapoor, Milind Soman, Esha Gupta have all walked that road, but in 2022 we seem to have become even more fanatical. Everyone is an expert on social media and everyone feels it’s their right to abuse and humiliate choices that don’t cater to their fancies. And there seems to be no end of ironies. The very people who are trolling Ranveer are hailing a scene from a movie where Sunny Deol is seen taking a dip in the river, wearing underwear and a janeu.
Ranveer’s Photoshoot is a Mirror to the Bigoted Society
In the interview that followed the photoshoot Ranveer told Paper Magazine, “I can be naked in front of a thousand people. It’s just that they get uncomfortable”. That’s exactly what happened. An FIR was filed against the actor and his ‘bum’ was the topic of discussion on television debates. Ranveer clearly made a statement that he is as comfortable and confident in his over-the-top clothes as he is without them. He also held a mirror in front of the society that it’s still as bigoted and intolerant about nakedness as it was decades back.
Rape, Abuse Not Matters of ‘Outrage’ But Nude Photos Are
It’s no surprise that cishet men have been expressing more outrage about this whole incident than women.
The complaint filed against Ranveer alleges that he “outraged the modesty” of women. Of course, women shouldn’t have any right to see nude pictures of men, only the latter should have exclusive privilege in the matter.
In a country where rapes, dowry dates, unemployment and abuse are rampant, is a woman’s ‘modesty’ so fragile that it gets insulted by a nude photoshoot?
“Freedom of expression…doesn’t mean that you should roam nude in the society,” the complaint submitted to the police further states. Freedom of expression also doesn’t mean sending threats to people, but alas these aren’t matters that require significant ‘outrage’.
At a time when climate change is creating havoc and inflation is burning holes in millions of pockets, Ranveer’s nude photoshoot is the hill that most have chosen to die on.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)