Ram Kapoor made women uncomfortable on Lock Upp. Why is Farah Khan silent?
On Lock Upp: Sach Ya Sazaa, Shreya Kalra and Apoorva Makhija voiced discomfort over Ram Kapoor's behaviour. The show's silence, despite repeated incidents on screen, has sharpened questions around consent and accountability.
Shreya Kalra said it on camera - clearly, without ambiguity. She said she felt uncomfortable when fellow contestant and actor Ram Kapoor kissed her on the cheeks and forehead during tasks. This was not a one-off incident. Ram's behaviour inside Lock Upp, the reality show streaming on Netflix, has repeatedly sparked discussion among viewers, with much of the conversation critical of him. The question is: if it is visible to his fellow contestants, the show's followers and even his ardent fans, why are the show's hosts, Farah Khan and Riteish Deshmukh, keeping a blind eye?
When Apoorva Makhija entered the show recently as a wild contestant, her reaction said it all: "Bhai yeh kiss kyun karte rehte hain? Mujhe gussa aa raha hai."
Two women, on a nationally watched reality show, expressed discomfort with the same man's behaviour. But the jailers? Silent.
Silence is the real problem.
Since the start of the show, viewers have repeatedly questioned his physical interactions with several women contestants. He was seen kissing another fellow contestant, Shreya Kalra, on the cheek after tasks, leaning on Shilpa Shinde during a conversation and kissing Akanksha Chamola's hand during a conversation.
In a recent episode, he also hugged and kissed Akanksha Chaudhary after she broke down over being removed from her gang by Chamola. The moments have repeatedly sparked criticism online, with many viewers calling them uncomfortable and inappropriate, even as the show has not addressed the backlash.
During a task, when contestants were asked whether Shreya gets irritated because Ram keeps kissing her, the answer was yes. Varun said it. Apoorva confirmed it. The show itself, through its own task design, acknowledged that this behaviour exists and that it bothers people. And yet, no jailer has walked in and asked Ram Kapoor a single uncomfortable question about it.
This is not about whether Ram is a bad person. Some people may say he is warm, expressive and never meant any harm. That may be true. But consent and personal comfort are not about intention. They are about how the other person feels. Shreya said she was uncomfortable, and that should have been enough.
Where is Farah Khan?
This is the part that is genuinely hard to understand. Farah Khan is not a passive presence on this show. She is sharp, vocal, and has never had trouble pulling up contestants when she feels something needs to be addressed. She is also a woman who has spent decades in an industry where the conversation around boundaries, consent and workplace behaviour has shifted in recent years.
So why has she not once, in all the episodes that have aired, turned to Ram Kapoor and asked him to be more mindful of how his behaviour lands on the women around him?
It is not as if the information wasn't there. The show captured it and tasks surfaced it. Shreya spoke about it. If the jailers are watching the same footage the audience is watching, and they almost certainly are, then the silence is a choice. And it is not just the kissing. During a meal, Ram announced to the group that when he gets out of Lock Upp, the first thing he will do is make love to his wife. The table went quiet. People were visibly uncomfortable. He called it honesty.
Honesty is a fine thing. But there is a version of honesty that reads the room and a version that does not. In a shared living space, where people cannot excuse themselves and walk away, repeatedly making others uncomfortable and then framing it as simply being expressive or honest is worth examining.
There is also the bottle incident. Ram dressed his water bottle in a bikini, named it Gautami, after his wife, and told her, "Baby, see what you have become. But I have always said that you have an hourglass bottle figure." It was meant to be funny, and perhaps in a different context it would have raised nothing more than a laugh. But as part of a larger pattern of behaviour that has made multiple women in the house uncomfortable, it adds to a picture that the show has chosen not to address.
Lock Upp markets itself on confrontation. It is built on discomfort, on people being pushed into difficult conversations, revealing dark secrets and forced to face uncomfortable truths. That is the premise. So it is particularly striking that one of the most consistent sources of discomfort in the house (the effect of Ram Kapoor's behaviour on the women around him) has been completely untouched by the makers of the show.
Reality TV has used the "it's entertainment" defence for years to avoid accountability for what it puts on screen and what it chooses not to address. But what gets questioned on a show like this, and what gets left alone, sends a message. When a woman says she is uncomfortable and the host does not follow up, the message is that her discomfort is not worth the airtime.
This also reminds us of the time when Gautami Kapoor defended her husband's behaviour and called him "a man who is all heart."
Ram Kapoor may be expressive. He may be affectionate and "all heart". He may mean no harm at all. But the women in that house did not sign up to be kissed without asking for it, and they deserve to have someone in a position of authority on that show acknowledge that.
Farah Khan is right there. It would take one question. And we are waiting!
Shreya Kalra said it on camera - clearly, without ambiguity. She said she felt uncomfortable when fellow contestant and actor Ram Kapoor kissed her on the cheeks and forehead during tasks. This was not a one-off incident. Ram's behaviour inside Lock Upp, the reality show streaming on Netflix, has repeatedly sparked discussion among viewers, with much of the conversation critical of him. The question is: if it is visible to his fellow contestants, the show's followers and even his ardent fans, why are the show's hosts, Farah Khan and Riteish Deshmukh, keeping a blind eye?
When Apoorva Makhija entered the show recently as a wild contestant, her reaction said it all: "Bhai yeh kiss kyun karte rehte hain? Mujhe gussa aa raha hai."
Two women, on a nationally watched reality show, expressed discomfort with the same man's behaviour. But the jailers? Silent.
Silence is the real problem.
Since the start of the show, viewers have repeatedly questioned his physical interactions with several women contestants. He was seen kissing another fellow contestant, Shreya Kalra, on the cheek after tasks, leaning on Shilpa Shinde during a conversation and kissing Akanksha Chamola's hand during a conversation.
In a recent episode, he also hugged and kissed Akanksha Chaudhary after she broke down over being removed from her gang by Chamola. The moments have repeatedly sparked criticism online, with many viewers calling them uncomfortable and inappropriate, even as the show has not addressed the backlash.
During a task, when contestants were asked whether Shreya gets irritated because Ram keeps kissing her, the answer was yes. Varun said it. Apoorva confirmed it. The show itself, through its own task design, acknowledged that this behaviour exists and that it bothers people. And yet, no jailer has walked in and asked Ram Kapoor a single uncomfortable question about it.
This is not about whether Ram is a bad person. Some people may say he is warm, expressive and never meant any harm. That may be true. But consent and personal comfort are not about intention. They are about how the other person feels. Shreya said she was uncomfortable, and that should have been enough.
Where is Farah Khan?
This is the part that is genuinely hard to understand. Farah Khan is not a passive presence on this show. She is sharp, vocal, and has never had trouble pulling up contestants when she feels something needs to be addressed. She is also a woman who has spent decades in an industry where the conversation around boundaries, consent and workplace behaviour has shifted in recent years.
So why has she not once, in all the episodes that have aired, turned to Ram Kapoor and asked him to be more mindful of how his behaviour lands on the women around him?
It is not as if the information wasn't there. The show captured it and tasks surfaced it. Shreya spoke about it. If the jailers are watching the same footage the audience is watching, and they almost certainly are, then the silence is a choice. And it is not just the kissing. During a meal, Ram announced to the group that when he gets out of Lock Upp, the first thing he will do is make love to his wife. The table went quiet. People were visibly uncomfortable. He called it honesty.
Honesty is a fine thing. But there is a version of honesty that reads the room and a version that does not. In a shared living space, where people cannot excuse themselves and walk away, repeatedly making others uncomfortable and then framing it as simply being expressive or honest is worth examining.
There is also the bottle incident. Ram dressed his water bottle in a bikini, named it Gautami, after his wife, and told her, "Baby, see what you have become. But I have always said that you have an hourglass bottle figure." It was meant to be funny, and perhaps in a different context it would have raised nothing more than a laugh. But as part of a larger pattern of behaviour that has made multiple women in the house uncomfortable, it adds to a picture that the show has chosen not to address.
Lock Upp markets itself on confrontation. It is built on discomfort, on people being pushed into difficult conversations, revealing dark secrets and forced to face uncomfortable truths. That is the premise. So it is particularly striking that one of the most consistent sources of discomfort in the house (the effect of Ram Kapoor's behaviour on the women around him) has been completely untouched by the makers of the show.
Reality TV has used the "it's entertainment" defence for years to avoid accountability for what it puts on screen and what it chooses not to address. But what gets questioned on a show like this, and what gets left alone, sends a message. When a woman says she is uncomfortable and the host does not follow up, the message is that her discomfort is not worth the airtime.
This also reminds us of the time when Gautami Kapoor defended her husband's behaviour and called him "a man who is all heart."
Ram Kapoor may be expressive. He may be affectionate and "all heart". He may mean no harm at all. But the women in that house did not sign up to be kissed without asking for it, and they deserve to have someone in a position of authority on that show acknowledge that.
Farah Khan is right there. It would take one question. And we are waiting!
Shreya Kalra said it on camera - clearly, without ambiguity. She said she felt uncomfortable when fellow contestant and actor Ram Kapoor kissed her on the cheeks and forehead during tasks. This was not a one-off incident. Ram's behaviour inside Lock Upp, the reality show streaming on Netflix, has repeatedly sparked discussion among viewers, with much of the conversation critical of him. The question is: if it is visible to his fellow contestants, the show's followers and even his ardent fans, why are the show's hosts, Farah Khan and Riteish Deshmukh, keeping a blind eye?
When Apoorva Makhija entered the show recently as a wild contestant, her reaction said it all: "Bhai yeh kiss kyun karte rehte hain? Mujhe gussa aa raha hai."
Two women, on a nationally watched reality show, expressed discomfort with the same man's behaviour. But the jailers? Silent.
Silence is the real problem.
Since the start of the show, viewers have repeatedly questioned his physical interactions with several women contestants. He was seen kissing another fellow contestant, Shreya Kalra, on the cheek after tasks, leaning on Shilpa Shinde during a conversation and kissing Akanksha Chamola's hand during a conversation.
In a recent episode, he also hugged and kissed Akanksha Chaudhary after she broke down over being removed from her gang by Chamola. The moments have repeatedly sparked criticism online, with many viewers calling them uncomfortable and inappropriate, even as the show has not addressed the backlash.
During a task, when contestants were asked whether Shreya gets irritated because Ram keeps kissing her, the answer was yes. Varun said it. Apoorva confirmed it. The show itself, through its own task design, acknowledged that this behaviour exists and that it bothers people. And yet, no jailer has walked in and asked Ram Kapoor a single uncomfortable question about it.
This is not about whether Ram is a bad person. Some people may say he is warm, expressive and never meant any harm. That may be true. But consent and personal comfort are not about intention. They are about how the other person feels. Shreya said she was uncomfortable, and that should have been enough.
Where is Farah Khan?
This is the part that is genuinely hard to understand. Farah Khan is not a passive presence on this show. She is sharp, vocal, and has never had trouble pulling up contestants when she feels something needs to be addressed. She is also a woman who has spent decades in an industry where the conversation around boundaries, consent and workplace behaviour has shifted in recent years.
So why has she not once, in all the episodes that have aired, turned to Ram Kapoor and asked him to be more mindful of how his behaviour lands on the women around him?
It is not as if the information wasn't there. The show captured it and tasks surfaced it. Shreya spoke about it. If the jailers are watching the same footage the audience is watching, and they almost certainly are, then the silence is a choice. And it is not just the kissing. During a meal, Ram announced to the group that when he gets out of Lock Upp, the first thing he will do is make love to his wife. The table went quiet. People were visibly uncomfortable. He called it honesty.
Honesty is a fine thing. But there is a version of honesty that reads the room and a version that does not. In a shared living space, where people cannot excuse themselves and walk away, repeatedly making others uncomfortable and then framing it as simply being expressive or honest is worth examining.
There is also the bottle incident. Ram dressed his water bottle in a bikini, named it Gautami, after his wife, and told her, "Baby, see what you have become. But I have always said that you have an hourglass bottle figure." It was meant to be funny, and perhaps in a different context it would have raised nothing more than a laugh. But as part of a larger pattern of behaviour that has made multiple women in the house uncomfortable, it adds to a picture that the show has chosen not to address.
Lock Upp markets itself on confrontation. It is built on discomfort, on people being pushed into difficult conversations, revealing dark secrets and forced to face uncomfortable truths. That is the premise. So it is particularly striking that one of the most consistent sources of discomfort in the house (the effect of Ram Kapoor's behaviour on the women around him) has been completely untouched by the makers of the show.
Reality TV has used the "it's entertainment" defence for years to avoid accountability for what it puts on screen and what it chooses not to address. But what gets questioned on a show like this, and what gets left alone, sends a message. When a woman says she is uncomfortable and the host does not follow up, the message is that her discomfort is not worth the airtime.
This also reminds us of the time when Gautami Kapoor defended her husband's behaviour and called him "a man who is all heart."
Ram Kapoor may be expressive. He may be affectionate and "all heart". He may mean no harm at all. But the women in that house did not sign up to be kissed without asking for it, and they deserve to have someone in a position of authority on that show acknowledge that.
Farah Khan is right there. It would take one question. And we are waiting!
