Column

Is there any aspect of our quotidian existence that has not been invaded and infiltrated by Bollywood? Turn anywhere and you will see the presence of that great entertainment machine, as inspirer, participant or player. Politics? They got in a long time ago. Media? Which television news channel, entertainment or news-related can do without its film stores? Journalism? Film stars are now becoming guest editors of newspapers. Even cricket cannot do without a touch filmi glamour. Why, even that last bastion of snobby high-culture, English language publishing, where the clique of writers ensure that there are no gate crashers, invited Aamir Khan as one of the delegates at the Jaipur literary festival.

The public cannot get enough of film people. We want to know about their lives and loves on a minute by minute basis. Many channels have been reporting, breathlessly, on the latest developments in the Saif Ali Khan-Kareena relationship.Farmers’ suicides? What’s that? The media wants to get stars’ views on everything under the sun, from glamour-related stories to major social questions. (I haven’t yet seen actors being interviewed about the nuclear deal, but how far away is that?)

It is almost as if their views validates the issue, indeed, validate us. Serious discussion programmes on television run by self-important anchors and full of ‘The People’ must have at least one film star on the panel. After Rang de Basanti its cast was hopping from studio to studio talking about the idealism of the youth and the need to change the system. That it was in the end just another movie and not a life-empowering event, much less a social revolution did not matter; the film got its play, the channel got the TRPs and the viewers got to see their stars on television talking like normal people -- everyone was happy.

Stars talking like normal people is always a big deal. When we see them on the screen, we know they are playing a character. There is a high degree of artifice which we, as film-goers are aware of. Yet we invest a lot of emotion in the stars. They become larger than life for us, appearing on that 30 ft screen, singing, romancing and fighting. We want to know all about them.

Yet, nowhere in the world have actors invaded the public space as in India. In the last decade or so, as television channels have proliferated and the ‘mainstream’ news media has started publishing Hindi cinema-related stories the stars have become ubiquitous. We love to see them off the big screen (especially on television) acting oh-so-casual, apparently affected by the same concerns and interested in the same things as us ordinary mortals. (Isn’t the traffic in Mumbai really terrible? I love Pan Asian food, and so on). At the same time marketers have realised that there is nothing like a familiar, well-liked face to sell a product. The result is that there is now no escaping Bollywood.

Part of it has something to do with the fact that with new markets opening up and corporates slowly entering the picture, Bollywood is a much larger industry than before, with much more at stake. The marketing effort has to be bigger than ever before. Om Shanti Om’s high-decibel promotion strategy sank its rival Saawariya; whatever the latter film’s merit, there is a good chance it would have done somewhat better if it did not competition from a Shah Rukh Khan starrer.

But marketing is only part of the story. The monumental presence of Bollywood in our lives also reflects what we have become. The earlier generations of leaders propagated high culture and scoffed at anything that was too mass-oriented. The populace followed their lead. As our role models in public life dissipated, we turned to other sources - cricket and cinema at least gave us an approximation of perfection. The former also tended to disappoint us occasionally, but the man and woman on the screen are perfect all the time and thus believable. Once everyone, from political parties to multinationals realised that, it was only a matter of time before actors became a part of our daily lives.

The actors have understood this and while they may enjoy the attention, the clever ones are slowly rationing out their public availability. They talk only when they want to, on subjects they want to. No media outlet dare offend them, for fear of being shut out of future meetings. Maybe one day they will even charge money for interviews. Why not? It’s not easy becoming a star, and everyone wants a piece of you. Why not make the most of it while it lasts.

Email: sidharth01@dnaindia.net