Virtuous vs Virtual

Not much to choose between the two stories – both have heroines whose names begin with J and love men whose name begins with A. Both women run away to fight another day. The women are virtuous, the men despicable. There’s just one major difference: the first is about TV characters Jassi and Armaan in Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin (Sony), while the second stars real life Jessica and Aamir and their alleged kid whose face was splashed across the pages of Stardust and subsequently, on Star News, Aaj Tak, Zee News and 7 Channel.

Another comparison? In the first story, a car accident, woman and children end up in hospital but survive. Family friend (Rishabh), accompanying them, dies. His family grief-stricken. In the second, man (also Rishabh) and wife in car accident; wife suffers amnesia, husband is comatose. His family grief-stricken. Again, little separates the incident involving actor Govinda’s family and the one that occurred in the drama, Kasauti Zindagi Kay (Star Plus).

This is not about how closely life can imitate art. It is how fact is, increasingly, treated like fiction. Be it Jessica and Aamir, Karisma and Sanjay or Govinda and family, in each case, the news channels converted real events into soaps. Scene I: correspondent outside Govinda’s Mumbai house breathless with news that Govinda not there – he’s on his way to Jaipur. Scene 2: highway to Jaipur, still no Govinda. Scene 3: outside Jaipur hospital, Govinda’s nephew thanks TV cameras. Scene 4: inside hospital, correspondent admires bloody face of injured. Scene 5: in Delhi, correspondent outside Rishabh’s house describes grief inside. Scene 6: Finally, Govinda’s car…

The way Aamir Khan’s story played out on TV in the last fortnight deserves a full-length melodrama, the kind he may have acted in at the beginning of his career. Aamir’s personal life is a very private place, where only he and whoever embrace. Third parties strictly out of bounds, media persona non grata. Unlike Bachchan and Shah Rukh who accept every single invitation that might result in publicity, Aamir avoids the media like it’s catching.

Until now. To promote his first film in four years, he came out of his closet. He was in the newspapers, on every single channel – even Pogo. MTV spent Independence Day toasting him and The Rising. Shah Rukh’s tied his long hair into a ponytail but it’s Aamir’s Mangal Pandey locks and those now adorning his forehead that had us oohing or naahing. Mostly naahing.

Aamir didn’t realise that the media is governed by the law of gravity: what it shoots up, it also shoots down. So last Wednesday night, Star News, Aaj Tak, Zee and Channel 7 rushed out to purchase the latest Stardust and displayed its cover/photographs of Aamir and his supposed child throughout prime time (you can’t buy this kind of publicity). The same photos on all channels, with cameras on two pairs or eyes, begging us to see the father’s in the son’s: SMS us on if you think this is true, polled Star News, Jessica is very emotional when you talk to her about Aamir, sobbed Aaj Tak, dil hai ki manta nahin, exclaimed Channel 7. ‘‘Mangal, mangal, mangal…’’ you cried.

This was a non-story about two pairs of eyes. The Jessica-Aamir affair is too old to make news. Govinda’s family (not even Govinda) was just one of hundreds involved in road accidents every day. Not ‘breaking news’. What’s going on here? It’s competition, stupid. As Star News challenges Aaj Tak in Mumbai, and they’re all battling for eyeballs elsewhere, news is something they make up along the way.