Anu Aggarwal's Indian Idol snub: India and its 'Aashiqui' with moral policing

Shortly after the release of Mahesh Bhatt -directorial Aashiqui, the press turned Anu Aggarwal, who played the free-spirited Anu Varghese in the film, into a ‘sex bomb’. According to a feature in The Week, “fans banged on Anu’s car when she stepped out, producers with clattering gold chains frantically sought her out”. This was followed by films The Cloud Door and King Uncle, which cemented her image as an upcoming Bollywood star. Then, life happened. Anu Aggarwal had a life-changing accident after which she went into a coma for 29 days. When she woke up, Anu had multiple fractures across her body - including one at the corner of the eye. “I didn’t even know you could have a fracture there”, said Aggarwal. None of the doctors expected Anu to survive. If she did survive, doctors believed “she would be in such bad shape that she would have to be taught the alphabet once again”. But Anu lived. She lived and how. Anu revealed in the feature in The Week that she cat-walked in the hospital with her half-paralysed body and smiled with a twisted face. The actress, despite recovering, fell off the radar and wasn’t seen acting in films after the incident. In her personal life, she turned towards spirituality - practiced karmic healing and yoga. While the OTT space - Netflix, Prime Video, et al - opened up fresh avenues for criminally underrated actresses who weren’t given their due prior to OTT viz. Shefali Shah, Amruta Subhash, Neena Gupta - Aggarwal was not seen reprising her acting career. Was it by choice? One can’t say unless we hear it from Anu herself. But her appearance on Indian Idol with Aashiqui co-stars where all her snippets were chopped off brazenly speaks volumes about our country and its obsession with moral policing. The Game of Demographics Let’s set the record straight - Anu’s 90s sex icon persona played a major role behind her scenes getting chopped in Indian Idol. As per Numerator.com, Sony TV has maximum Gen X [1965-1981] viewers. The channel perhaps assumed a single frame where Anu is visible will offend their boomer audience who grew up knowing how scandalous the film was back in the day. Why else will they chop off every single frame where Anu is visible? Or edit out all the portions where she motivated the contestants? The editing, one must point out, is rather shoddy and comes off as jarring. Even casual viewers can make out Anu has been snubbed and terribly so. Meanwhile, Kumar Sanu, Anu Malik and Deepak Tijori were seen speaking at length about _Aashiqui’_s impact - the posters and songs, all this while Anu, the titular character in the film, wasn’t heard. Perhaps, Anu shouldn’t have been invited in the first place if the channel didn’t wish to give her screen space. The snub is in poor taste if one takes into account the context behind Anu’s Indian Idol appearance. Anu is very particular about not making TV appearances but chose to make an exception in the singing reality show solely because the makers wanted to honour her film. “I don’t do shows. I don’t watch reality shows. I went [to Indian Idol] only because of my love for Aashiqui”, Aggarwal told ETimes in an interview. Another purpose of Anu’s visit to the show was motivating the young women who were participating in the competition. “I don’t know what happened. I really have no idea. I am surprised too”, said Anu when asked about the possible reasons behind the snub. Anu perhaps doesn’t wish to speak on it but the writing is on the wall - snubs like these are not common unless the person whose portions are being chopped is either problematic or has been, in the past, embroiled in a controversy. Anu’s track record though is as clean as they come. In fact, Anu Malik, who was given ample time to speak in the episode has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women. But apparently Anu has made a blunder by playing a free-spirited, rebellious and fiercely independent woman - all of which are surprisingly the traits most directors seek while making women-centric films today. But to Sony TV’s demographic, none of these traits are acceptable. The channel knows its audience can have outdated views on morality and might not want to see Anu on their TV screens on a primetime slot. Shouldn’t outdated views be challenged every now and then? Perhaps a conscious decision to showcase Anu’s views instead of pandering and validating the regressive beliefs of the audience could have been considered. One certainly expects better from a network which came up with the Indian version of the business reality show Shark Tank in an effort to promote entrepreneurship across the country. Anu’s Dignified Response to Snub Anu was bombarded with calls and messages from her fans and journalists who wished to know her thoughts on the snub. She had every right to be bitter. Life has already been cruel to the actress - her acting career was cut short by an accident which put her in a coma and led to amnesia. In her first televised appearance on TV, she wasn’t given the respect she had rightfully earned. Despite this, Anu had a rather dignified response and didn’t, even once, badmouth the channel. When asked in the ETimes interview if she plans on calling up Sony TV to discuss the snub, she said “Each tragedy and catastrophe in life should be taken as an opportunity. I will take this opportunity to let go of what happened and forgive. This is the time I must use the forgiveness principle I preach and move on”. In another interview with India.com, Anu said “I don’t want to get into the defensive at all right… and I don’t want to get into blaming Sony, the editor, or anybody at all.” After having been snubbed unabashedly on a singing reality TV show watched by millions, Anu sure kept her composure and made it a point to not badmouth the channel or the crew. There is grace even in her silence. The Anu Aggarwal episode has exposed that while a section of the country may have changed and let go of their regressive views on morality, there are some whose sensibilities are offended by the mere sight of an actress who played bold characters in the past. It also exposes how TV channels are hell bent on pandering to this section instead of bringing about a change and starting important conversations on moral policing. More power to Anu. Here’s hoping the apologies from Sony TV are in order.