“With every conceivable media being obsessed with Bollywood tidbits, the pressure on their public relation agents to churn out stories is so high that almost anything passes of in the name of news,’’ says a trade consultant.
Associated as these PRs are with the vainest of human beings, they are constantly under pressure to massage egos; circulate half-truths and leak out everything including bathroom habits of the rich and the famous.
So if you are in the happy position to be editing a Bollywood segment of a newspaper or the entertainment head of a channel, then be prepared to be deluged with news, trivia and heady concoctions of tripe that at sometimes make you laugh; and at other times make you cringe.
“God,’’ said Bollywood actress Kajol recently. “Even if a star’s pet takes a poop you guys report it.’’ Of course we do. In fact, a star pets pooping is a still an improvement over some of the other items that are circulated. Here’s a steady list of requests that make their way to a Bollywood film paper/tabloid every day.
One is “Tomorrow is June 8 (Shilpa Shetty’s) birthday. So can we please carry an article on her.’’ Now everyone knows Shilpa attained cult status after she won the Celebrity Big Brother in 2007. From then to now she has done precious little. Unless you take cognisance of the fact that she and her moneybags husband Raj Kundra picked up an IPL stake.
However, none of the above merits an article on the ship-shape heroine year after year on her birthday. Honestly, even freedom fighters don’t get such mileage on her their jayantis (birth anniversaries).
Chalo, one can still discount writing a piece each year on June 8 on Shilpa. But what do you do with requests that comes for Arbaaz Khan’s birthday (August 4) or Kangna Ranaut’s birthday (March 23). Please, shouldn’t the people mentioned here themselves tell their PROs that they would rather keep a low profile. How do they personally assess themselves to make such ridiculous demands?
Birthdays apart, other common excuses put forth by media agents are ‘Sophie Chaudhary got mobbed when she landed in Bangkok; Neetu Chandra has a stalker in Timbuctu; Chunky Panday lost his credit cards in London; Kim Sharma got recognised in a hotel in Spain... and so on and so forth.
In almost all cases there is no proof that any of what is claimed in the item happened. Chances of starlets getting mobbed; chances of small-time actors getting robbed are slim (not impossible) and always there are never any witnesses to these famous events/incidents. As also no FIRs launched when these people get robbed or molested.
Ok, if one of these stories makes it to the paper, then beware.
Every other day there is a news item in your inbox where the name changes but the situation is similar. So after Neetu Chandra gets molested or manhandled by a mob in Chandigarh, then you will have Tanushree Dutta getting mobbed in Mandla.
A leading film PR agent says, “Look, very often it isn’t us who approach a channel or a newspaper saying ‘Please print a interview on ex-star's birthday’. It is the other way around. Usually channels approach us saying ‘Can we please get a cake to this Khan’s house tomorrow on the occasion of his birthday’ so we have some cake cutting shots for our viewers’.’’ Point noted. But the important thing here is Aamir or Shah Rukh Khan’s birthday could well be a momentous occasion; but what about Sohail Khan’s birthday? Surely some discretion has to be applied somewhere.’’
Other common topics peddled by PR agents are about their celebrities and the causes they are involved in; how their actors are being offered a vulgar remuneration or how their client sat 10 rows away from a Hollywood star in some auditorium.
On the flip side, the film marketing budgets (not to be confused with personal PR of stars) has gone through the roof in the last five years. In fact there’s an Akshay Kumar master dud that released in 2009 where the marketing budget was Rs.17 crores. And the marketing campaigns of movies like Ghajini and 3-Idiots have been so brilliant that they have attracted IIM students to venture in the direction of film PR. However, such claims seem dubious because the PR handouts lack complete imagination.
Ever since 3-Idiots became the all-time highest grossing movie ever, four subsequent films, produced by four different film producers sent out almost identical press write-ups saying ‘This is the second highest opening ever after 3-Idiots.’
Honestly who is the idiot here?
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