New Delhi: From what the bride and the groom are wearing to where they are headed for their honeymoon, media is focusing on the most minute details of the Aishwarya Rai-Abhishek Bachchan wedding. But who decides when private matters become public?
Now this is one big fat Indian wedding that you simply can't ignore. The world's most beautiful woman weds India's most eligible bachelor – that's the stuff headlines are made of.
So, there's no escaping the relentless media onslaught into the nitty gritties of the wedding and if all those pages and headlines devoted to Ash-Abhi are not enough, there's more coming.
“The wedding warrants the kind of media attention it’s getting. If we can go gaga over Brangelina then this wedding is too big for us to ignore. Media does what the public wants and this is what the masses want,” argues Editor, Hello! India magazine, Ruchika Mehta.
One look at the sound bite hungry media lining up outside the Bachchan residence for the past few days gives enough food for thought and the requisite masala like Mumbai tabloid Mid Day did by hiring an Abhishek Bachchan look alike to gate-crash into Aishwarya's building.
So, while news channels’ attempt the impossible, just to get a glimpse into what’s called India's biggest wedding so far, the question is, are we reporting news or creating it? And with the spurt in tabloids, newspapers and news channels, the chase for breaking news can only get more frantic than ever.
“She is a young woman and he is a young man. They are both good looking, they fell in love and now they are getting married. What could be more natural? Then why are we going mad?” writer Jerry Pinto asks agitatedly.
But even as the media trips over itself in its attempt to get the news as it happens, is the consumer listening?
“I think they (media) are really blowing it out of proportion,” says a passer-by near the Bachchan residence. While many others believe that the media “should not waste resources and money like this.”
Well, like it or not, as the media goes into over-drive, this celebration will be something you simply cannot tune out of.
(With inputs from Vrushali Haldipur and Shwetal Kamlapurkar)
