分类： bharat

It took a minute for Malhaar Rathod, then an aspiring teenage actress, to realize what the 65-year-old Indian film producer was asking her to do – and to make the decision to walk away.

“He claimed he had a part for me and then asked me to lift my top. I got so scared, I didn’t know what to do at first,” Rathod, now an up-and-coming television star, told AFP in Mumbai.

Her experience with what is euphemistically known as Bollywood’s “casting couch” culture underlines the challenges facing anyone seeking to break into India’s massive, insiders-only film industry, where the #MeToo movement has secured few wins.

After #MeToo triggered the downfall of top Hollywood powerbrokers like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, many women in Bollywood spoke up about their experience of sexual harassment, breaking a long-established culture of silence. 

The Indian industry has largely looked the other way however and many of the alleged perpetrators have been able to revive their careers after lying low for a few months.

Movie-mad India is the world’s largest producer of films, with around 1,800 releases a year in multiple languages, easily dwarfing Hollywood’s output – but forging a career in the nepotistic industry can be a challenge. 

Unlike the children of celebrities who are groomed for stardom and tailor-made debuts, outsiders have to fend off lecherous men and contend with a gruelling routine of auditions and rejections.

‘Dream come true’

“It’s very difficult to crack Bollywood if you don’t have connections. No one is going to offer you a launch, you have to do small parts and work your way up,” actor Paras Tthukral told AFP.

“I have done all kinds of jobs to survive. Worked in a call center, in corporate gifting, marketing, you name it,” Tthukral, who moved to Mumbai in 2008 and has since appeared in two TV shows and a couple of films, added.

“An alternative career would have been easier for sure… but being an actor is a dream come true.”

Rathod is one of the lucky ones. After her early brush with the casting couch, she is now a familiar face to Indian viewers, appearing in advertisements for global skincare brands including Garnier and Dove.

The sole breadwinner for a family of five including two younger sisters, she has managed to make inroads into television with a part in the hit show Hostages on India’s Disney-owned streaming platform Hotstar.

The 25-year-old is hoping to see that success translate to the silver screen, following in the footsteps of film stars such as Preity Zinta and Deepika Padukone who began their Bollywood career with advertisements.

Hosted by the China Council for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) Think Tank Cooperation (CCBTC) and organized by the Beijing International Studies University, the 3rd annual conference of CCBTC was held in Beijing on Friday.

More than 200 Chinese scholars and representatives of universities, research institutions and enterprises had in-depth exchanges on the theme “Path to Rejuvenation amid Biggest Change in a Century.” 

The forum discussed diverse topics such as great changes unseen in a century and China-US relations, global governance and new South-South cooperation, and new industrial revolution and a community with a shared future for mankind.

Guo Yezhou, CCBTC chair and vice minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC), said that the council’s responsibility and value are to provide intellectual support for BRICS’s cooperation.

Guo stressed that all governing units should focus on promoting new South-South cooperation, and pay close attention to the turning points caused by scientific and technological changes to grasp insightful methods of the changing international environment.

Guo also noted that the council will continue to provide platforms and resource support for all governing units.

Huang Yiyang, a deputy director-general of the Department of International Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that think tank cooperation among BRICS countries have been enriched and expanded under the guidance of CCBTC, and many valuable and feasible policy suggestions have been put forward for BRICS’s cooperation.

Huang stated that BRICS’s cooperation has become one of the most important multilateral cooperation mechanisms, and hoped that all governing units of CCBTC can take full advantage of their strengths, actively deliver suggestions and speak out to the outside world and make contributions to the major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.

Although trade between China and the US will not return to the original pattern, 2020 will undoubtedly be a crucial year for China to expand its export market and, at the same time, increase its import sources. We have seen that the efforts of Chinese companies have brought positive results. According to official data, the proportion of China’s imports and exports with emerging markets increased 1.7 percentage points to 59.5 percent of China’s total trade volume in the first 11 months of 2019. 

 This situation will help India expand its exports to China.

China-India trade has been affected by the trade war during the past year. According to Chinese statistics, from January to September 2019, China-India trade was $69.66 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 3 percent. Breaking the total down, China’s exports to India stood at $56.31 billion, a reduction of 2.7 percent, while imports from India were $13.35 billion, down 4.1 percent. India’s trade deficit with China reached $42.96 billion. India urgently needs to expand exports to China. It’s become a vital issue in bilateral relations.

In terms of Indian exports to China, mineral products, chemical products and textiles are the top three categories. In 2018, India exported $5.03 billion worth of mineral products, $3.63 billion of chemical and $1.84 billion of textiles, and these three products accounted for 63.6 percent of India’s exports to China. 

China imports many raw materials, mostly for use in manufacturing, which generate a large number of export products. Since the outbreak of the trade war, China’s export to the US have been affected by increased tariffs. That in turn has forced Chinese manufacturers to reduce their imports of raw materials from India.