What’s with celeb bashing?
I was on Twitter and was getting used to broadcasting my thoughts and agenda on the world wide web. Though it is a bit tough to do in the beginning, one does get used to it. It started with one hate response and very soon I realised that there were less good things that people had to say to me and a whole load of hurtful things, and of that a lot was personal in nature.
Served me right, I thought. Why in the world did I have to be so arrogant as to even think that people would be interested in my life or what I was doing? I promptly closed my account and felt guilty of narcissism.
Fade out and then fade in to a few days back when I read that Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar had also stopped tweeting owing to the amount of hate responses that they were getting. Ah! So I was not alone! Other narcissists had also got their comeuppance. And yet, is not Shah Rukh Khan a big star? Yes, he is! Are people not supposed to love him? Yes, they are! Then why so much hate? This issue has always amused me, the issue of celebrity bashing. Why do people who are supposed to love you turn hostile when they get a chance to interact with you?
Could it be that sometimes people might feel that by hurting you in some way they have been able to reach you and make an impact on you? Could hate messages just be a way for them telling you that, “Hey! We exist too!,” or is it that they really hate you.
I remember this one incident clearly. I was chief assistant on Agneepath and we were shooting on a set put up at Natraj studios. We were waiting for Amitabh Bachchan to finish getting dressed and come for the shot. In the meanwhile, standing at the corner of the set I could hear some guests talking amongst themselves that they did not give a damn if he was Amitabh. So what if he was Amitabh? I was amused. If you did not care that he was Amitabh, then why the hell were you here waiting to catch a glimpse of him? Funny.
The story goes on. One of them cockily said that when Amitabh came he would tell him that his cousin was even taller than him. Right!
So Amitabh Bachchan walked in and I have not seen the demeanour of people change quicker in my life. Wordless, speechless and on the brink of fainting is probably a good way to describe them. The cocky guy was shaking as he held the camera for a group shot. So why all these bombastic statements then? Do celebrities make us feel small in some way and does insulting them make us feel better about ourselves?
Celebrities are people and we make them celebrities. They live in fame but they hurt and they feel pain. Reminds me of the line from Merchant of Venice, “If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”
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