I plead guilty. Thirty odd years ago, I was encouraged by my then bossman, Nari Hira, to conceptualise another popular magazine, after having launched and run the path-breaking Stardust for a decade. This is how Society was born. It was perhaps India’s first honest-to-goodness celeb mag that chronicled all that was good, bad and ugly about the belle monde of that era. Like Stardust, the new arrival was an instant hit in urban India… and is still around in its original avatar.
Having tasted success with these two “products”, I foolishly imagined I could launch one of my own. That’s how I started Celebrity which struggled to survive for three years before shutting down. I lost money. I felt terrible. It was a terrific magazine. But I was a lousy businesswoman.
Today, the scenario has changed so dramatically when it comes to celeb journalism, I am constantly awestruck by the brazenness of it all. Anybody who has ever made it to Page 3 (even paid big bucks to get there) is deemed an “official” celebrity. Once that tag is attached to an individual, a free market situation does the rest. There is a business opportunity in every celeb sneeze and squeeze. Media-made celebs have realised the potential and swiftly moved to monetise what they see as their “worth”.
Let’s take two-three recent examples, starting with a starlet called Sameera Reddy. Lovely girl, by the way. The original “Sexy Sam”. According to reports in tabloids, she threw a royal fit at Mumbai airport recently when she was denied entry into the VIP lounge, which is reserved for — yup —VIPs! Obviously, the officer in charge of the lounge did not put this Bollywood starlet into the same category as, say, a P. Chidambaram. Or, more realistically speaking, a Shah Rukh Khan. In their case, there would definitely be security issues to deal with in case of a delayed flight. But that is not the case with a Sameera. How many people even know who she is? Yet, in her own eyes, she equates herself with bonafide VIPs. How did this end? She was politely and firmly escorted to a business class lounge, which is what her business class ticket entitled her to. The mobs she said she feared, left her alone, except for a few pesky kids who were brushed off by Sulking Sam. Clearly a case of delusional behaviour. But at least it was a cashless transaction — the Lord be praised.
Take a look at the upside. Our lissome and smart Shilpa Shetty is soon to marry. The entire world has been given the minutest details of her romance with a certain Raj Kunder — jab they met and what followed. Shilpa is a charming and an extremely well-liked individual. But her standing in Bollywood is still where it was before she shot to fame as the late Jade Goody’s bete noire in Britain’s much-watched reality show, Big Brother. After that win, Shilpa positioned herself as a brand worth investing in. And she found a besotted investor-suitor in the much-married Raj. Realising the commercial potential of their new-found togetherness, both of them decided to hire a publicist to feed choice tidbits of the growing pyaar-vyaar to a hungry tabloid press. No problem. That’s how celeb journalism works in the West (think Posh Beckham, Madonna et al).
Today, on the threshold of becoming man and wife, the blissed out couple is going for the kill (think Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas). Their wedding is up for grabs. Going, going, gone to the highest bidder. To kick off the bidding process, Mr Kunder has offered a bouquet of photo-ops as “exclusives” to a high-end publication. In an email to editors, he provided precise details about the engagement ring (£2.5 million, if I remember right), and offered access to the magical moment itself — the proposal! All this, for a big fat fee, of course.
Wake up, India. We have arrived!
There is money to be made in dem celebs. Gone is the coy era of demanding privacy. Now is the time to demand money. Nobody is blinking. Scoops, scandals, affairs, weddings, funerals, births… everything is for sale. Just like in the West. What’s more, everyone is cool with it — readers, viewers, consumers of assorted media platforms. It works great for all the players. It just needed a Raj Kunder to show amateurs how to play the celeb game professionally. If his strategy works, it would mean that technically, the wedding comes for free, so does the ring and everything else. A few eyebrows will be raised. Well… forget them. Kunder is not holding a gun to anybody’s head. If a media house is ready to pay serious money to cover the wedding (honeymoon, too? Or is that a separate deal?), it’s perfectly kosher. If the couple pulls off the coup, trust me, all the rest will follow.
Nothing is sacred in these times of ferocious media wars. Look at Michael Jackson’s father blandly stating that his son is worth much more dead than alive! And demanding free rooms in posh hotels by boasting his presence there would generate great publicity for the property!
Bollywood is still taking baby steps. Cash and carry is here to stay. Deal with it, guys.
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