It seems like most in Bollywood gave ChatGPT the same prompt to generate an empathetic Instagram post to support protesting students without offending the sentiments of the Union government. If this is the Hindi film fraternity’s idea of showing support to the country’s youth, it was better when they remained silent on the movement. Earlier, the fraternity was deemed spineless, now it’s spineless and embarrassing.
Bollywood’s silence over the students’ protest against the alleged NEET-UG paper leaks and irregularities, has been drawing flak on social media for weeks. The protest, organised under the banner of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), has snowballed into one of the largest public demonstrations in recent times.
The movement was picking up pace, from their first sit-in at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on June 6, to activist Sonam Wangchuk going on an indefinite hunger strike on June 28. But tensions flared up between the protesting students and Delhi Police on July 20 during the ‘Sansad Chalo’ march towards the Parliament.
What followed was a volatile day for Delhi: the police lathi-charged protesters near Parliament Street, fired tear gas shells at the crowd, and detained dozens. Despite this, it took Bollywood stars three days to finally break their ‘maun vrat’ or vow of silence. Even then, their solidarity was performative and toothless.
Templatised, tone-deaf, toothless
On July 23, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ananya Panday, Alia Bhatt, Avneet Kaur, Tahira Kashyap, and several other celebrities took to social media within minutes of each other and posted more or less the same text.
Their social media posts even followed a common opening line: “I have been sitting with this for a while but I cannot anymore.” This begs the questions: why had they been sitting on it for so long, and how did they collectively decide that “enough was enough”?
Their statements said absolutely nothing while using an impressive number of words to do it. The template was generic, almost redundant: students are so brave; education matters; India’s youth deserve a fair shot; truth must prevail; students and the government should work together. Very few urged the government to take cognisance of the matter, which is the bare minimum at this point.
The most tone-deaf element in the posts, however, was this: “both sides enter into meaningful and constructive dialogue.” For instance, Preity Zinta called for educational reforms while cautioning that peaceful demonstrations should not be “hijacked by anti-national elements”. In her post on July 22, the actor cautioned against “bad elements in and outside our country.” This is a day after she posted in support of Wangchuk.
While it’s important to support our students and ask for educational reforms that positively impact the future of our youth, it’s also very important that peaceful protests by students are Not hijacked by anti national elements to create chaos & change the nature of the protest.…
— Preity G Zinta (@realpreityzinta) July 22, 2026
Not one A-lister asked the government to take accountability. Not one took the education minister’s name, leave alone questioning his handling of the paper leaks issue.
As if this wasn’t enough to disappoint, the timing made it worse. Suspiciously, actors jumped on to the bandwagon only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweet on the morning of July 23, where he assured “stringent punishment for those involved in paper leaks.” Within hours, Instagram turned into a relay race.
Every time I refreshed my timeline, a new post appeared, as if the industry had just woken up to the students protest and police brutality.
Also Read: Shabana Azmi is proof that popular art needn’t choose between entertainment and conscience
Solidarity minus accountability means nothing
Then there’s Salman Khan, who took a sharp U-turn within hours of his first post. On July 22, he praised the students for being “peaceful,” “courageous,” and “brave,” albeit without holding anyone responsible for the situation they find themselves in.
Hours later, however, Khan urged Wangchuk to end his hunger strike. He further requested protesting students to return home, pointing out, that the prime minister has assured action over the leaks.
The students are at top priority, educationally n security-wise, so they need not worry and have their parents worried for them. The Honorable Prime Minister has tweeted, and I am sure that he will take strict action against all those people who are responsible for this leak. So… pic.twitter.com/89Ykfs5r4k
— Salman Khan (@BeingSalmanKhan) July 23, 2026
But not all hope was lost. A handful of actors didn’t wait for that flashpoint to speak. Veteran actors Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, and Prakash Raj were among the early, prominent voices from the film industry to have extended earnest solidarity to the students. In fact, Azmi accompanied students in the ‘Sansad Chalo’ march on July 20.
Actor Huma Qureshi came to the Jantar Mantar protest site with her brother, actor Saqib Saleem, and actor Rachit Singh to show support to students, who have been demanding accountability and education reforms for more than 20 days now.
Dhurandhar actor Ayesha Khan, who joined the protest in Mumbai, was dragged into a police van and detained by the police on July 22. Actor Sonakshi Sinha, singer Raftaar were the first few artists to have vocally shown support to the CJP-led protest.
At this point, Bollywood must acknowledge that solidarity with protesting students cannot be separated from holding those in authority accountable. But, most have chosen the safest possible version of speaking up: loud enough to dodge the backlash, vague enough to dodge the consequences. In trying to look like they cared, they proved that they didn’t. At least not enough to risk anything substantial.
(Edited by Aakriti Handa)