The Indian Paparazzi has come of age. Just when we were thinking that Abhi-Ash saga was behind us, it turned out that there was more to follow! Thanks to an enthusiastic photographer getting roughed up by the Big B’s security personnel.– the actor first apologized and then lashed out through the media, at the media for what he called nauseating interest in a private affair.
This hungama was a clear example of the complicated celebrity–media dynamics, where the two can’t do without each other, however, no lines have been drawn yet on where to stop! So it’s high time to announce the coming of the Indian paparazzi? TIMES NOW asked actor Juhi Chawla to react and this was her response.
“Everybody loves attention. May be when it goes over the top and it gets too much, then you see the other side of it. When I see newspapers carrying personal issues of stars on the front page, I feel that the entire news scenario has changed drastically. Useless, meaningless and sometimes personal details come out in the news, which I feel is not right. That’s what bothers me.”
Preity Zinta, who quite likes taking publications to court, if they overstep the line, is pretty vocal on limits to celebrity coverage! This is what she had to say about the limiting of media’s rights. “I do think that there is a line of decency we draw in our life and that just doesn’t pertain to actors or doctors or politicians, it also applies to the media. So just because the media has the power to go and say ‘it’s on air now’, it doesn’t imply that they will do anything, ” adds Preity.
Of course, we may be jumping the gun in calling it the Indian paparazzi because as compared to the West, we are still taking baby steps! But the lives, lifestyles and domestic disputes of celebrities are hogging our headlines and celebrities often use this overwhelming interest in their lives to their advantage. The classic example being the Abhi- Ash engagement, which witnessed Big B at his talkative best! Coming back to the marriage, media circles believe that a lot of the paparazzi tamasha could easily have been avoided!
Ruchika Mehta, Editor of -- HELLO! India -- feels that it is a chance the media had to miss out on, thanks to the cold reception it received. “It’s a wedding happening in Bombay, its a wedding happening in Mr Bachchan's house, it is a wedding happening between the two biggest stars in the country. How can you expect the media not to be there? Sometimes the media needs you and sometimes you need the media. At this point in time, the media needed you, you should have come out and at lease given a photo opportunity, that’s all. If you would have agreed to do that, you wouldn’t have seen the kind of frenzy media went on to. That was the least the media expected and I think they owed it to us. They owed it to us for all the years that we have been around for them. They owed this one shot to us,” she ends on a matter of fact note.
The rules of the celebrity coverage game there spelt out in black and white! With the media claiming that far from being intrusive news hounds, they can often be used for pushing personal agendas. And so, if it is the rise of the paparazzi, it is with the blessings of the celeb brigade!
Meenal Baghel, Editor of Mumbai Mirror claims, “There are a lot of stories that are manipulated by celebrities, so they are as much a part of this as the media, and I think it’s a very symbiotic relationship. You cannot have a paparazzi culture without the celebs participating in it to some extent.”
So given that the interest in the private lives of celebrities is not going away anywhere in a hurry, the moot question is are we headed to a situation where media rights to access this slice of privacy can be bought or sold to the highest bidder?
“Even if HELLO! India launched with pictures of Liz and Arun, it’s an international magazine,” she added. She further reveals, “It just came to us because it was an international deal. Hello! India is not involved in it at all, so I am not sure that this concept of selling rights is going to come to India. This is a Western concept and it still continues to remain Western.”
So media rights or not, the private space of celebrities is now firmly in the public domain. So more power to the Indian paparazzi and more debates on media responsibility- prepare for eventful times!
