Bollywood has a habit of taking liberties with Hindu festivals – sometimes for cinematic grandeur, sometimes to pass casual mockery. This time, it’s Farah Khan’s turn. Hosting Celebrity MasterChef, she declared, ‘Saare chhapri logon ka favourite festival Holi hota hai’ (only low-class ruffians celebrate Holi).
For a festival enjoyed across the country and even exported as a global event, this is quite a statement. But should we be surprised? The industry has an odd relationship with Hindu traditions – glorify them in song-and-dance sequences but sneer at them in real life.
Farah’s comment sparked outrage, legal complaints, and the usual Bollywood damage control silence. Not a peep from the industry’s moral brigade, who usually burst into outrage at the slightest inconvenience.
Playing the culture police
The words they choose – chhapri, taporis, bhaiyyas – reek of elitism, as if the very audience that fills cinema halls is somehow beneath them. These slurs, now part of industry jargon, are conveniently aimed at those who still dare to celebrate Indian traditions with enthusiasm.
Holi? A festival of ‘chhapris.’ Chhath Puja? ‘Bhaiyyas crowding Mumbai’s beaches.’ Ganpati Visarjan? ‘Rowdy masses blocking roads.’ But when these same festivals are needed for a grand film sequence, suddenly they are ‘vibrant’, ‘colourful’, and ‘a cinematic spectacle’.
Selective reverence
For all the mockery of Indian festivals, they never seem to muster the same sarcasm for other religious customs. No jibes about Eid ki dawat or Christmas parties – only Holi, Diwali, and Hindu traditions seem to invite this brand of enlightened snobbery.
Even within their own bubble, the hypocrisy is glaring. Shah Rukh Khan dancing to ‘Balam Pichkari…’ in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is cinematic brilliance. But the same festival in the hands of ordinary folks? Uncultured hooliganism.
Foot-in-mouth moment
This growing trend of elite Bollywood dismissing traditional celebrations while using them as aesthetic props is becoming hard to ignore. If a cricketer had remarked on this, endorsements would have been lost overnight. If a politician had said it, protests would have erupted. But in Bollywood? Just another day, another slur, another festival dismissed.
Farah Khan’s foot-in-mouth moment is just the latest in this long-standing tradition of sneering at the culture of the very audience that keeps Bollywood alive. Maybe it’s time for the ‘chhapris’ to reconsider their fandom.