It seems that in 2014, Bollywood celebrities discovered a new way to reach out to their fans on social media. And it’s none other than *drumroll* OPEN LETTERS! Yes, you may not realise it, but in almost every month of the year, some celebrity wrote an open letter sharing their point of view about some pertinent and not-so-pertinent issues. And not-so-pertinent reminds me, even Anushka Sharma wrote a letter explaining her lip surgery. #Quack #Crap!
Nonetheless, here are five open letters written by Bollywood celebrities this year that deserve a grand salute.
1. Deepika Padukone’s Point Of View!
It was just another day for the leading daily that published a demeaning news story about an actor. You know how this kind of thing keeps happening, right? Except this time, the actor in question – Deepika Padukone – took charge of the situation and called the newspaper out. Besides just tweeting about, she also wrote an open letter to TOI asking them a very sensible question: why Shah Rukh Khan’s or Hrithik Roshan’s 8-packs didn’t get the kind of attention her cleavage got! *Whistles* Objectification of women to that degree is rather shallow and she made that quite clear. Read her letter here.
And rather than accepting that what they have done is off limits, they wrote a letter back giving their extremely ridiculous point of view about why it is justified to publish such news. I was very confused about their train of thought, but then All India Bakchod’s this video gave me clarity:
2. Shweta Basu’s Plea To The Media
The Madkee child artiste, Shweta Basu Prasad, was detained in an alleged sex scandal this year and the media published her statement, a few days after the incident, which read something like this:
“I have made wrong choices in my career, and I was out of money. I had to support my family and some other good causes. All doors were closed, and some people encouraged me to get into prostitution to earn money. I was helpless, and with no option left to choose, I got involved in this act. I am not the only one who faced this problem, and there are several other heroines who have gone through this phase.”
But apparently, this wasn’t her statement at all. Once she was acquitted of charges, Shweta wrote a letter to the ‘Members of Media’, clearing her stance. It is an honest letter and made me respect Shweta a lot more than I already did.
3. The Uber Case After Effect
Someone had to speak up and Shenaz Treasurywala did! Some days after the Uber rape case incident, she wrote a letter to who she considers the seven most influential men of this country – Narendra Modi, Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Anil Ambani – requesting them to take strict action against rapists.
Most people called it a publicity stunt, considering her movie was due to release the same week the letter was published. But even for a publicity gimmick, it takes guts to share your own dark experiences with everyone and she did! She constantly quoted, ‘It’s not MY SHAME; It’s THEIRS’ about all men who had been disrespectful towards women. It makes a really strong point about how rapes happen because of the rapist and no other reason. So I don’t know about anyone else, but #IStandWithShehnaz.
4. Anupam Kher’s Open Letter About The Peshawar Tragedy
Mourning the death of 130 children in Peshawar, Anupam Kher wrote a letter to terrorists about how their act of killing was beyond evil. It may not make a difference to them, but such letters go on to show that we are all one when it comes to a tragedy so explicit. #IndiaWithPakistan. It sure is one of the most powerful messages sent out in 2014. (You can read his letter here.)
5. #PreityNessMess
The Preity Zinta/Ness Wadia was the most talked about break-up in the beginning of the year, and things only got worse when Preity filed a case against her ex for threatening and molesting her at one of the IPL matches in Mumbai. Day after day, we read news about their relationship, so much so that #PreityNessMess started trending on social media.
Being the strong woman that Priety is (I absolutely adore her!) she decided to put all the speculation to rest and wrote a letter to share her sentiments about the mess. The letter did not disgrace anyone but only spoke of how Priety is a sensible individual who clearly knows what she is doing and why!
Any other open letter you think that should make it to this list? Let me know.