PremiumChetan Ahimsa on Darshan arrest: Result of violence culture, star culture and toxic masculinity
Actor-activist Chetan Ahimsa weighs in on why Darshan ended behind bars in the Renukaswamy murder case
Last Updated: 08.19 PM, Jun 22, 2024
The major development in Kannada cinema is, undoubtedly, the arrest of superstar Darshan Thoogudeepa in connection with the murder of a 33-year-old man from Chitradurga, Renukaswamy, for allegedly sending lewd messages to the actor’s partner, Pavitra Gowda. Renukaswamy succumbed to injuries sustained in barbaric torture unleashed by the actor’s aides.
In the days since the June 11 arrest, not many from the industry have dared to voice an opinion on the matter. Some like Sanjjanna have taken the “innocent until proven guilty” stance, while others remain politically correct and are only stating that no matter the outcome, Renukaswamy’s family ought to get justice. Kannada actress Ramya was the first to hail the police for their swift action in the matter. And now, actor and activist Chetan Ahimsa has spoken up.
In an interaction with Times Now, Chetan, who has been to jail a couple of times for far lesser offences – tweets that got him into trouble for offending sensibilities of people – said that the Renukaswamy murder is product of three things – violence culture, star culture and toxic masculinity. Citing his own jail stint, during which he met youngsters who claimed to have committed murders inspired by the actor’s onscreen acts, Chetan opined that the way that violence culture is shown in films, as well as hyper masculinity that is directly connected to box office collections creates a lot of influence. “People end up resorting to violence. Also, actors blur the lines between the roles they play and real life,” he added.
Star culture of putting actors on a pedestal, and portraying them as larger-than-life, is a big problem. “Their contribution to the success of cinema, let alone their contribution to society is very limited. Their status is unjustified, this goes to their head and creates its own set of problems,” said Chetan.
The actor then turned to toxic masculinity - the need to protect the honour of a woman by beating up a guy. If the allegations against Darshan are true, Chetan reckons that the toxic masculinity culture shown in cinema and real life has a very pernicious effect on society at large.