4 min readNov 8, 2013 12:57 AM IST
Two spectacular Bollywood birthdays went by in quick succession: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s and Shah Rukh Khan’s. While Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s big day — she turned 40 — coincided with the auspicious Dhanteras,SRK’s fell on chhoti Diwali. And predictably,media frenzy marked both occasions because everybody in the world wants to know when the dazzling actor will end her hiatus and step back into the arclights. With SRK,given his blockbuster ‘Chennai Express’ and baby AbRam’s arrival this year,the fervour was even greater.
Such media interactions,often viewed as vain PR exercises by the world at large,when witnessed from ground zero turn out to be quite the contrary. These are necessitated in equal measure by the media’s requirement for Bollywood content and the celeb publicity machinery’s desire to generate news.
Over the years,with the burgeoning print,electronic and now online media,celebrity interactions have taken on a competitive edge and coverage of birthday,besides a clutch of festivals such as Eid and Diwali is a must-have.
In Aishwarya Rai’s case,scribes from various publications and channels,excited at the prospect of interacting with the correct and propah Ash were prepping assiduously,trying to outsmart each other with provocative questions likely to elicit a quotable quote from the birthday girl.
Unfortunately for them,Aishwarya,a pro at such situations — she’s been exposed to the world media for over a decade now,courtesy her Cannes outing and a clutch of international projects — refused to oblige. Steering clear of all speculative/ controversial questions about her career,she stuck to talking about her pet subject — daughter Aaradhya. She gingerly sidestepped tricky answers and stuck to a matter-of-fact demeanour. A muted groan of disapproval went up in the back rows after a question on what gift her in-laws had given her was answered with a succinct “lots of aashirwaad.”
“She always ghumaos (turns) a question,never really saying anything,” complained the possé that had piped up with the question. The big revealation of the day was that Aaradhya had enthusiastically rendered Happy Birthday to her mother and in between,to herself too. That give away somewhat salvaged the situation and everybody went home happy.
The next birthday party at Mannat proved to be no different. King Khan obliged with scores of quotable quotes but nothing that could be turned into a juicy controversy. Yes,that inevitable one about working with Salman Khan did come up as also one about his ability to play the hero at age 48 all of which he charmingly answered,taking care to remain politically correct,much to everyone’s disappointment.
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Star baiting,given the fast changing nature of the business,appears to have become media’s favourite sport. Snoopy snapshots of celebs walking out of airports,or rushing into cinema halls on their date night are a few popular options. This,besides unabashedly unearthing shreds of personal information for peddling it to the highest bidder,is increasingly the norm.
Publicists inform that the glut of requests for meetings and interviews especially on birthdays has risen so sharply that shooting them down could turn into a PR nightmare. So usually,if the said star is in town,it is just safer to organise a press conference. Not surprisingly,Shah Rukh Khan’s birthday interaction at Mannat,was a full-house.
Among those allowed into King Khan’s inner sanctum a little later was one intrepid scribe busy clicking away on the iPhone because this time around there had been no instructions about the area being off-limits. With an increasingly predatory media,it is just a matter of time before we will be at the receiving end of the vitriolic disdain reserved for the paparazzi in the West.
And the bigger tragedy would be that we asked for it.
