Privacy is such a hard-won freedom that every attempt to limit its protection requires due scrutiny. On television these days a battle is being waged — with rather dramatic success — for eyeballs. On show, in periodic instalments, is intricately structured menu of entrapment and judgment. Two episodes so far have starred a has-been villain of Hindi cinema and a boyish cast member of sindhoor serials and life-affirming television hunts for anonymous talent thriving in Indian bylanes and waystations. Already the script is predictable. An aspiring actress gets in touch with the man in question. A few innuendoes later, a rendezvous is made. He demands sexual favours in return for escorting her to prize roles in film and television. A secret camera records the scoop, and a public trial begins.Here is the catch. A public trial is all it can be. For, the producers or the masses expressing outrage over the propositions can cite no law that has been transgressed. This is why this infringement of privacy is unacceptable. In a liberal democracy, individuals enjoy numerous freedoms to live as they choose as long as they are not harming anybody else or breaking any law. Crusaders out to expose the dirty underbelly of our republic sometimes do disregard the barriers of privacy. But in doing so, they must justify the intrusion in each case. They can only justify it by showing that the magnitude of the crime/infringement far outweighs the privacy violated.In this case, the producers say they want to expose Bollywood’s casting couch. Hindi cinema enjoys a growing public role in Indian cultural life. Its actors and actresses, its directors and scriptwriters are participating in key campaigns of civil society. Therefore, the existence of the casting couch and underworld connections is particularly disturbing. The onus is on the film industry to cleanse its dealings. Entrapment of the sort envisioned in the Shakti Kapoor and Aman Verma videos is not, however, the way. They are intrusive and they lead to public trials that have no place in a liberal society.
