‘Keep the camera rolling’

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Prabhu Deva with Sona and Akshay during Rowdy Rathore’s promotion

“Mainstream cinema is so crowded these days that if I am not in the news for about two-three months there are chances that people might forget me,” says actor and director Sartaj Singh Pannu. He further adds that being in the news has become a part of the job. “Actors are like products and if the product is not visible then it loses its value,” he adds.

Gone are the days when we used to idealise actors like Rajesh Khanna even if he rarely cared about being in the news. There was no chance that the superstar could fade away from audiences’ memory — or he could afford to think so.
“Things have changed since then. Now, out of sight is out of mind. Actors have to go to various cities for film promotions and are asked the same questions to which they give the standard answers. Most of the time they are just repeating themselves. It’s just like a marketing job,” says a PR professional on the condition of anonymity.
No wonder Nawazuddin Siddiqui recently said that he has never talked so much in his life as he has been talking just to promote the sequels of Gangs Of Wasseypur. Not just interviews —Twitter, Facebook, blogs and Web chats have made celebrities more approachable than ever before. Many have aptly used these platforms to their benefit. Poonam Pandey is one of the many actors who is in the news just to be in the news. From what she eats, where she had her holidays, what would she do if the Indian cricket team wins the World Cup—she had promised to go nude but did so only recently when the Kolkata Knight Riders won IPL —or what she thinks about the things she has nothing to do with at all. Everything about her can be gleaned from the social networking sites.
But to be in the news can have its own drawbacks. Recently, Priyanka Chopra uploaded some of her close-ups that attracted many nasty comments. But it’s not possible to keep everyone happy, says actress Anjana Sukhani. “Everything comes at a price. Sometimes it maybe a bit interruptive but you can’t help it when people want to know more and more about you,” she says.
And so it happened with Deepika Padukone, who recently said that she would not speak about her personal life anymore. “They (fans) wanted to know more — when I was getting married, when I was having kids, if the families were okay with our relationship, it all went overboard. So now, I have decided to shut that side off completely,” she was quoted saying.
PR professional Monika Bhattacharyya insists, “How much and what the actors want to talk about is a matter of personal choice as it dictates the levels of intrusion or interest in their lives.” However, in the end she adds, “Publicity is a very valuable tool when used judiciously.”