Will Smith go the Spacey Way?

If Will Smith’s gargantuan career gets cancelled by one slap, just like Taapsee Pannu’s marriage in Anubhav Sinha’s Thappad, then guess who will have the last laugh? Chris Rock’s fortunes are escalating in direct inverse proportion to poor Smith’s.  His gigs are all blissfully sold-out. And if you want  tickets  for his next show you would probably have to use  Jada Pinkett Smith’s  influence. Even then the front rows are  not guaranteed. Will Smith is reeling under the worst career recession since Kevin Spacey, one of America’s predominant acting behemoths, fell from grace. Spacey’s career evaporated overnight after a sex scandal. Spacey who at one time was a formidable figure in Hollywood has completely disappeared from the radar. In the last film that he did—‘All The Money In The World’ –Kevin Spacey’s role was scrapped from the complete film and reshot with Christopher Plummer who happily, has never been in any scandal except when he kissed Julie Andrews in The Sound Of Music. More recently Armie Hammer, touted as one of the most promising actors of the post-Cruise generation, had his career savagely beaten down after cannibalistic messages to several women, allegedly written by him, surfaced from nowhere. The repercussions were swift and irreparably damaging. Armie’s proposed films were cancelled. The only reason he was not replaced in Kenneth Branagh’s Death On The Nile released last month after several cancellations, is because all his scenes were with the hot and irreplaceable Gal Gadot. Just how deep will the slap cut into Smith’s career?  If reports are to be believed his projects with Sony and Netflix have been shelved. Smith faces a career  shutdown for an action that many (including this writer) see as a spontaneous  foolhardy  gesture of  retaliation to an insult to his wife. In Bollywood there is no answerability for unbecoming conduct. When the #MeToo movement hit Bollywood everybody who wanted to appear concerned, clambered aboard. But where was the actual answerability factor when it was most needed? Most of the ‘Big Sharks’ of the Hindi film industry are guilty of multiple harassment.  And they are roaming free. The few who were made examples of, are now making a backdoor entrance. Sajid Khan, brother of Farah Khan who was sacked from his directorial duties in Sajid Nadiadwala’s House Full 4 is quietly getting ready to direct another film. The culture of cancellation continues.  But the ones who are being hit are not necessarily the most deserving of it. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  **_Latest News_** _,_  **_Trending News_** _,_  **_Cricket News_** _,_  **_Bollywood News_** _,_  **_India News_**  and  **_Entertainment News_**  here. Follow us on  Facebook_,_  Twitter and  Instagram_._