With yesteryear actress Jaya Bachchan raising the issue of Bollywood's image allegedly being tarnished on the floor of Parliament, the attention of many in the media has once again turned towards the Hindi film industry. Jaya Bachchan, much to the shock of many, has called for controlling the language used against Bollywood by critics. Many are rightly seeing the MP's pro-Bollywood outburst as a threat to freedom of expression, because she wants the "government to tell people not to use" words like 'gutter' to describe Bollywood.

Bollywood actress Dia Mirza, among others, has welcomed Jaya's comments. "So grateful that she spoke up for our industry. We are always committed to contribute towards social upliftment and social good. The industry has always helped governments. This vilification of our film industry is unjust and condemnable," Dia tweeted out.

It's crazy that celebs cry foul when some of them are slammed for alleged illegal activities. Bollywood celebs have, for years, spoken up against select incidents. If India is branded in unsavoury terms by a random History student from JNU, it is glamourized as dissent and intellection! From the Kathua rape incident to the lynching of minority community members, from the CAA/NRC to Article 370, film celebs have used everything they can to amplify their favourite narratives.

Given this, how come they want others to remain silent about casting couch, drug cartels, alleged links with ISI, terror funding and such sins of Bollywood? This is the question critics are asking.

Films like 'Udta Punjab' have shown Punjab in "poor light" but the same film industry is getting worked up when drug scandals are getting investigated by authorities. "So remember kids, a whole state being painted as a drug addict in a movie right before the state elections was not political, but calling out the drug problem in Bollywood is wrong and is not dissent," tweeted out ArtistocRatty, a social media influencer.

Coming back to Jaya Bachchan, she has always been mum on sexist comments made by the leaders of her party. "She gave a pass to her party colleague, the crude and oafish Azam Khan, for abusing actor Jayaprada. Clearly some in the film industry, like the characters in Animal Farm, are more equal than others," comments senior journalist Kanchan Gupta.

Film celebs choose what issues to speak on. They choose when to remain silent. Fair enough. But to project their amnesia as a great virtue and their duplicity as bravery is, well, fakery! No wonder that Bollywood is looking like a den of hypocrites.