British fashion designer John Galliano, found guilty of racial abuse, may have received a relatively lenient sentence — suspended fines totaling £5,240 after his apology was considered.
But the question remains that would Galliano’s standing as a fashion guru be scarred after this controversy or is he going to stand tall again on the basis of his talent? Does a personal scar of wrongdoing smear one’s talent or is it the other way around?
According to actress Neesha Singh if a person is immensely talented and genuinely remorseful about what he has wrongly said, he will certainly emerge again. “People have short memories, they tend to forget things,” she says.
She talks about controversy’s own children Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt, who, inspite of their badmashi, are much-loved people in the country.
Says fashion designer Nikhil Mehra, “Absolutely, personal bruises stay, but then, it all depends on the individual’s appetite and hunger for proving to his detractors what he is all about. In spite of being surrounded by a storm, if you have talent to showcase along with fire in the belly, nothing can stop you. That’s what all the great people in the world have done,” he says.
“Unfortunately, creative people from showbiz have always been under the scanner, but having said that, people today have a short memory and they tend to forget minor things easily with a massive information flow. But then hurtful expressions pertaining to religion and race aren’t easily forgiven. Look at the case of M.F. Husain,” says artist Anjana Kuthiala.
For fashion designer Samanth Chauhan, Galliano is the God of fashion. “It’s very unfortunate to see an icon like him undergo such an ordeal just because he said something terribly wrong when he wasn’t in his senses,” he says.
“I personally wish him to keep inspiring us with his work, but for a figure like him, I think he will find it very difficult to make a comeback. The sad part is that he has even been thrown out from his own brand,” he adds.