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For as long as he has been famous, it has been difficult to be Shri Amitabh Bachchan. Privately, it must have been even more difficult when he wasn’t the most famous Amitabh Bachchan but that’s another story. Soon after he became super famous and deposed Rajesh Khanna from the number one spot, Bachchan boycotted all film media from his life. Since this made no difference to his career — as the movie-going public was gaga over him and did not care what English film journalists wrote, he could safely say that the media was incidental to his career. You might say that the film media didn’t care either and they just continued to write what they wanted and that included baiting him.

Luckily for Amitji, though, the mainstream media was exempt from this ban. Which means whenever he needed to say something, there was someone willing to listen to him. Like after the Miss World fiasco. Shri Bachchan was very angry then. India, which had come to a standstill after his Coolie accident, was suddenly looking at him askance. It would not do. Boycott or no boycott, his voice had to be heard.

Now, the love that was spilling over from all sides seems to be in danger again. The Wedding of the Year has not been looked upon kindly by all. The general public has lambasted the media, while watching the wedding non-stop on various 24-hour newschannels. I know people who screamed at the frivolity of the idiotic Indian media, never once taking their eyes off the image of Abhishek Bachchan sitting on a horse while a bus went past. I can only assume it was Abhishek since his face was covered by strings of flowers. But not one of the media-haters I know decided to switch channels, turn off the TV, stare at a tree or read some uplifting book about a priestly type who sold a fancy Italian car. Or even drink some Old Monk instead. The image of Kiron Kher standing at a gate while a bus went past on a non-stop loop was far more compelling. So much for the great Indian public. (By the way, what was it with this wedding and buses?)

Thusly, we reach the great man himself. The media, apparently, is responsible for disrupting a very private wedding. Now let’s get this straight because it’s not easy to understand. India’s greatest film icon gets his son, a rising star himself, married to India’s world famous in Hollywood if not so popular in Bollywood anymore and world’s most beautiful woman. Yet, members of the general public and diehard film fans are not supposed to be interested? It’s a private wedding? Between two ordinary citizens of the country? No one can stand outside and sing ‘Shava shava’? Even if the Bachchans had hired an island and flown everyone there in stealth bombers, it would have been news. We’d have tried to get into the love shack, then.

The media, unfortunately, cannot afford to be arrogant at times like this. Even if it wants to. I, for one, would have never had anything to do with this wedding if I didn’t know that the Indian public was interested in it. Once that interest is established, everything else is a question of degree. Did the TV channels go too far? Maybe. Did our photographer deserve to be beaten up by UP commandos? Maybe not. Was it front page news? Maybe. Could it have been boycotted completely by the media and the people? Maybe not?

For Shri Bachchan, Shrimati Bachchan, Shri family member Amar Singhji and the minor Bachchanlings, this may be news but the rest of India was interested in the wedding and only asked for a little gracious consideration from this great family of Indian cinema. The hundreds of fans who gathered outside the Bachchans’ two homes were there for love, not because the media had told them to. They need to be treated with respect, not disdain. Because by trashing the media for disrupting The Wedding, you only disrespect your fans.

There is no cause, then, for the Bachchans to get stroppy. Had no fans stood outside the door, had no TV vans blocked the road, had no newspapers competed over which cheap Abhishek-Aishwarya pun to use on page one, they would have sulked even more. No one loves us, after all we have done, boo hoo.

Look around. Everyone loves you. Now say thank you.