Why don't Indian films capture our real pop culture?

In my screenplay for a TV series, I want my character to hold a conspiracy theory that Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi are the same person.

- MANU JOSEPH

This is a riff on the findings of my lifelong survey that 50% of Indians cannot tell the difference between the two film stars, especially from still photographs. But I know that the lawyers of any Indian production house would raise a red flag. They would say I cannot even mention the names of those two stars without their permission. They would be wrong, but that doesn’t matter. A writer’s legal argument is no match for a lawyer’s ‘red flag.’

My riff would be considered legally risky because those who represent the actors may claim that I was trying to exploit the actors’ stardom even if I was only mentioning their names in one scene. This is part of a larger problem that has resulted in Indian cinema and TV failing to capture the essence of our popular culture. If you notice, Indian cinema is a world where there is almost no mention of film stars, films, singers, any other public figure or real-life events. If, say, my screenplay wants to capture the India of 1975 through the film poster of Sholay or the name of any of its famous songs, or a mention of Amitabh Bachchan, there would be ‘red flags.’ It’s another issue that no one knows who can issue such permissions.