Category Archives: Features & Trends

Beauty From Another Border

09 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by in Features & Trends, Interviews (All), Interviews: Cinema, Interviews: Cover Stories, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Published: November 2013, Cover Story, Verve Magazine

Indian cinema has become a multi-ethnic turf with the foray of Eurasian or non-Indian fair-skinned brunettes. The film industry continues to open its arms to a posse of beautiful foreigners, which may be a sign of globalisation or reverse exoticism….

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“I have never believed that I’m better at my work, more famous or more beautiful than my Indian colleagues, even if I look different.” Yana Synkova Gupta, Czech model and item number girl, formerly married to an Indian, once said to Verve. The Indian film industry continues to be a leveller, an industry of opportunities – allowing for the foray of international faces into its desi waters. Far before the country opened up its economic arms to globalisation, women from abroad found themselves trying to woo the Indian audience, with varying results.

Possibly the first grand entry into India cinema of a foreigner was that of ‘Fearless Nadia’, born Mary Ann Evans in Australia, but brought up in India. With her theatre and circus background she carved a unique spot for herself after being introduced to Hindi films by Jamshed Wadia of Wadia Movietone in 1935. The tall blue-eyed blonde ‘Hunterwali’, held her own in Indian cinema for over three decades. Raj Kapoor brought a Russian circus down in Mera Naam Joker (1972) and Kseniya Ryabinkina, the fair maiden therein who won his heart on screen, was one of the early entrants to Indian cinema, albeit in a blink-and-miss role. While women from the subcontinent have found presence for a long time, hardly any actress made a major impact, until two Nepalese girls who studied in India (though separated by decades) came to the fore: Mala Sinha and Manisha Koirala. It may have helped that they could easily be mistaken for local artistes (much like the Sri Lankan Jacqueline Fernandez today). And who can forget how Burmese actress and dancer, Helen Richardson, set the screen on fire with her sensational moves? With over 500 films to her name, she is the one who created a unique space for special dance or ‘item’ numbers in popular Indian cinema.

Today, the roster of international faces hails from all over the world including remote Eastern European countries to the big Western ones. In Thomas Friedman’s ‘flat’ world, you find markets becoming interchangeable: Hollywood is realising that India is a huge audience for their films while Indian cinema is growing all over the world because of the number of Indians living abroad. Globalisation and the exposure of Indians at home to foreign cinema and television over the last couple of decades have provided access to visual material featuring people of different races – making it more acceptable to be admiring of or drawn to them.

WHY INDIA?
India’s thriving film industries are a big market for aspiring actresses. International, non-Indian models already here, like Yana Gupta or Giselli Monteiro, are looking for opportunities to break into the small or big screen – in the way Saif Ali Khan’s former-love interest, the Italian Rosa Catalano, once attempted. Those who are ‘discovered’ from abroad, like Rockstar’s Nargis Fakhri and Madras Town’s Amy Jackson are willing to take a chance to become popular in a foreign country. Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa runner-up, the American Lauren Gottlieb, who is a natural brunette, says most people wonder whether she has any Indian roots. Add dark hair and good looks to the Indian desire for fair skin, and you’ve got a Katrina-Kaifesque winning combination. It is harder to stand out in one’s own country than it is to gain exotic recognition abroad.

Hindi cinema director, Imtiaz Ali, who has cast foreign faces in two of his movies, believes that signing an actress from abroad can be more economical than hiring an established actress from India. “What you would pay a foreigner would be the same as a new person in India, with the added advantage of a fresh face. The only difference being, if you have specially invited the person here for an acting role, you would be responsible for providing them their life here – the travel, the lifestyle.”

So you have Eurasians, women with Indian roots or origin, eager to give it a shot, even if they, like the Indo-German Evelyn Sharma, have been discovering their roots for the first time (and for the longest time believed that biryani was a German dish).

SPEECHLESS NO DOUBT
Unlike Kalki Koechlin (born and brought up in India to French parents), most actresses of foreign origin struggle with the language issue. Hindi – or any Indian language – isn’t easy to learn. It isn’t remotely like any other foreign language and tends to form a natural barrier to success in Indian cinema. Brazilian model, Giselli Monteiro, played the role of an Indian in Imtiaz Ali’s Love Aaj Kal (2009) because she had no major speaking role. Ali points out: “Speech makes a huge difference; while feelings are much the same way in any part of the world. Punjabis felt that Monteiro really looked like a local girl.” The success of this casting probably led Ali to offer Pakistani-Czech model Nargis Fakhri a chance to play the lead role in his next venture, Rockstar (2011). A complete unfamiliarity with the language and culture led to Fakhri floundering in the lead role and facing a lot of flak. In the recent Madras Café though, she moves forward to play an English-speaking Indian girl from London, therefore with an admissible accent. Lisa Ray, born in Canada to an Indian father and Polish mother, had her stint in Hindi and South film industries, but her inability to speak Hindi possibly deterred her from moving further, leading her to English-speaking cinema, including working with director, Deepa Mehta (Water).

Except for South Indian cinema where dubbing is more acceptable – British model, Amy Jackson, regularly has her lines dubbed – it is likely that language will continue to play a major hindrance until Indian films are made in English. As Koechlin points out, “It is fine in the beginning, a beautiful face and then somebody else’s voice; but it becomes tough to relate to the celebrity who doesn’t speak your language and that’s when they lose contact with the audience.” Born in small-town Germany to a German mother and Indian father, Evelyn Sharma, who didn’t know a word of Hindi when she came to India, underwent exhaustive Hindi training to know it well enough by the time she started her first movie, From Sydney With Love (2012).

And what about body language? In an inherently visual medium like acting, the body language plays an important role in conveying the character’s emotions. Imtiaz Ali admits that the criticism he received on casting Fakhri – while he still stands by his casting decision – is that her body language was innately Western. “She wasn’t Hindustani. The way her mouth shaped and moved when speaking the local language was innately alien and disconcerting. When she was talking in English it was fine, but the rest of the time, the cultural heritage was missing. So in general, a foreigner can’t be as believable when speaking in a foreign language. Janta can’t accept ki yeh hamari ladki hai.”

AH, KATRINA
A British model who spoke not a single word of Hindi and couldn’t dance at all now reigns supreme in the Indian film industry. Born Katrina Turquotte, the arresting girl began her modelling career in Hawaii at the age of 14 and made her debut in Kaizad Gustad’s box-office dud, Boom in 2003. (Incidentally, a year after, Kaizad Gustad faced jail time for the accidental death of British-Pakistani crew member Nadia Khan, on the sets of his film Bombay Central).

Working in South Indian films and in Hindi cinema, Kaif clawed her way up the movie reels through sheer grit, determination and – if such a thing exists – luck. And yet, while she has turned detractors into admirers, is considered a bankable star, has made it to Power lists (including Verve’s 2013 power cover) and has heavy endorsements; industry insiders (like director, Imtiaz Ali) doubt that she can hold her own against an Indian Kareena Kapoor Khan when it comes to the quality of roles offered, because Khan is a local girl who gets all the local nuances.

There has been speculation of Kaif’s origins – despite being a gorgeous brunette, there are talks that the Kashmiri link doesn’t actually exist, it’s just a clever marketing ploy to not alienate the Indian audience and create a foundation of acceptance. Which may be why there is a surge of Eurasians attempting to try their luck in Indian cinema. Even Ali admits that Fakhri’s Pakistani lineage played a significant part in casting her as the lead in his movie, Rockstar (2011).

With support from her then boyfriend and industry stalwart, Salman Khan, and a fierce desire to succeed by observing her co-stars, Khan and Akshay Kumar, Kaif has the learnt the ropes and knows how not to drop the ball. She has a fierce regime – exercises brutally, never stops her dance practice, has managed to master Hindi far better than Sonia Gandhi in a far shorter time and is her own best PR manager. So is Kaif an anomaly or an inspiration? She is both. There possibly will be many years before another Katrina Turquotte may become the Indian superstar Katrina Kaif, but she will serve as inspiration to many aspirants until that happens.

REALITY-SHOW DIVAS
Foreigners undoubtedly add the great masala element and exotic appeal to reality television and hope to have it kick-start their celluloid career – in much the manner that Shilpa Shetty managed to work the British Celebrity Big Brother 5 television show in her favour. While Indo-Canadian adult film star, Sunny Leone’s racy presence in the Bigg Boss house led to her being cast in Hindi films, Yana Gupta became a household name after Fear Factor – Khatron Ke Khiladi (2008) and Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa – 4 (2010) despite being introduced way back in 2003 with the Babuji song in Dum.

But the greatest success story in recent times is possibly that of professional dancer and choreographer, Lauren Gottlieb, a finalist in Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 6. The hit American reality show, So You Think You Can Dance (2005) star and Hollywood actress got a break in Bollywood with UTV Motion Pictures emailing her to play the lead in Remo D’Souza’s 3-D dance film, Any Body Can Dance (2013). She hasn’t had a moment to look back since.

BEST FRIEND, VAMP OR ITEM GIRL
Jerry Pinto’s Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb examined the unequivocal charisma that the Burmese dancing sensation brought to the fore. ‘Helen was the desire that you need not be embarrassed about feeling…because there was something about her that transcended the tawdry clothes, the bizarre make-up, the invasive camera angles, the inane lyrics and the repetitive choreography and suggestive movements.’

Today, the foreign girls that are a part of Indian cinema often get relegated to risqué roles, or the best friend, or the vamp with one sensational item number. In the recent Prakash Jha film, Satyagraha, Eastern European model, Natasa Stankovic, is introduced in a dull number and an equally dull performance. A choli, a bare midriff and gyrations do not a successful item girl make. Actresses like the Arab-Brazilian Bruna Abdullah have been relegated to smaller roles – the hero’s fling in I Hate Luv Storys (2010) and item numbers like the popular Subah Hone Na De from Desi Boyz (2011); while the Mumbai-born, foreign-raised Indo-Australian Lisa Haydon got recognition as a model and is now finding small roles in movies like Aisha (2010), where she plays a New-York return to explain away the accent.

Through popular demand, Sunny Leone gyrated to Laila, an item number in this year’s Shootout at Wadala. Even the Sri Lankan beauty queen, Jacqueline Fernandez, does a choli-and-ghaghra number with Jadoo Ki Jhappi in Ramaiya Vastavaiya, in an attempt to woo over the local audiences. Is an item number a foolproof method of instant recognition, or does it relegate them to sleazy status? It’s a fine line between maryada and besharmi that very few manage to get the better of.

GOING BIG TIME OR STAYING SMALL
Are these women being relegated to item girls because they have a particular kind of body and are more likely to wear skimpier clothes? Does it appear that they would more easily be cast as the lead actress’ best friend or the girl the hero has a casual fling with, because our version of Western morality being such, Indians are likely to be more convinced that the foreigner is of easy virtue? Indian actresses aspiring to become leads may also be less willing to ruffle the feathers of the audience’s ethics – they would like to be thought of as pavitra; leaving a greater opening for foreigners to capitalise on to become the audience’s fantasy.

Evelyn Sharma initially wondered whether people would accept her in Indian cinema – “Even though I had signed five different movies I was worried people might slot me into the ‘foreign girl’ role.” Even Koechlin admits that she had to refuse a lot of film offers that had come her way because they were the background dancer or the vampy extra white girl. It was only after proving her acting prowess in edgy and risqué roles in movies like Dev D (2009) and That Girl In Yellow Boots (2010) that Koechlin began to play strong character roles in mainstream Indian cinema like those in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) and Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (2013). In a move that suggests that she is the only actress to successfully shuttle between playing Indian, semi-Indian and foreign roles, she is soon to essay the role of Victoria Ocampo, Rabindranath Tagore’s Argentine writer muse, on stage in Manav Kaul’s Colour Blind, speaking in five languages.

CAN ANYONE MAKE IT HERE?
Whether you face judgements from the audience or you have to work doubly hard to prove your mettle, it isn’t as simple as talent reaching great heights. Lauren Gottlieb, who probably has had to counter more challenges than others, says, “I don’t think anyone can make it anywhere. You have to view everyone individually. You have to have the guts, determination. It’s one thing to be a good-looking face and try to make it but when you have dedicated your life or career to something and studied for it, that’s when you rise. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world; I was rising in Hollywood – I didn’t know I would rise over here! You have to be fearless. I’ve been challenged with rapidly adapting culturally, language-wise, dance-style-wise…. It’s scary sometimes, but if you tackle it, you can succeed.”

Geographical barriers are one thing. Culture and language is another. The former is pretty much redundant; the latter can be circumvented. In a country that is exorbitantly heterogeneous with an inherent love for things foreign, there can only be more opportunities for the ones that strive to make it here. Maybe all that’s required is what Raj Kapoor popularised in Shree 420:

‘Mera Joota Hai Japani,
Yeh Patloon Englistani,
Sar Pe Laal Topi Rusi,
Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani’.

SHORT-TERM IMPORTS
A brief moment in Indian cinema

1. While Uruguayan-Mexican model and actress, Barbara Mori set the screen on fire in Kites (2010), there was no room to have her back because she was introduced as a foreigner.

2. British roses Rachel Shelley (Lagaan) and Antonia Bernath (Kisna) only served to play a specific foreign part in their respective films.

3. British models Aruna Shields (Prince) and Sofia Hayat (Diary of a Butterfly), South African model and Playboy cover girl Candice Boucher (Aazaan) debuted in Bollywood but have yet to make their presence felt.

4. The Norwegian-born, Iranian actress Nigar Khan known for the Chadti Jawaani video and the Australian actress Tania Zaetta (Bunty aur Babli and Salaam Namaste) haven’t had any takers so far.

5. The British model with an Indo-Mauritian mother, Hazel Keech, who acted in Bodyguard (2011) and Tamil film Billa (2007), popped into Bigg Boss 7 last month; but beat an early retreat.

AMY’S WAY
Verve cover girl, British model, Amy Jackson on becoming a desi heroine

“It is unbelievable that I was asked to play top lead roles in films where my lines have to be dubbed!”

She’s petite for a British girl, has stunning eyes and a persistent sniffle at the cover shoot in Kashmir. When she turned 21, she felt she was growing old – and yet, she’s just embarking on a journey in Indian cinema.

The fresh-faced Amy Jackson got noticed in Hindi cinema for her role in Ekk Deewana Tha (2012), where she played a Christian girl opposite Prateik. While the movie didn’t make waves, it served to bring Jackson, a British model, to the attention of the local audience. The 22-year-old equestrian was discovered by model scouts at the age of 15, soon after which she became a Miss Teen World (2008) and Miss Liverpool (2010), seeing her modelling career track across UK and Europe.

South-Indian-cinema director, Vijay (who thought she resembled Kate Winslet in Titanic), spotted one of her pageant images on the Internet and traced her to London. She was auditioned for the Tamil film, Madras Town/ Madrasapattinam (2010), in which she played a British girl. The movie was a super hit. It led to another film, Thaandavam and Jackson is now doing Telugu films, Yevadu (due to release soon) and Shankar’s Ai. “Ever since I got the taste of acting as the leading lady, I’ve never looked back,” she says.

Jackson travels all over for her shoots but has set up home in Bandra, Mumbai. She has made friends from the fashion industry and regards the South directors as her mentors. “When I first arrived I’d just turned 17…I missed my family and friends. I’m very lucky to have a supportive family: my mum travels everywhere with me, my dad has flown over to watch me shoot. For my first ever movie, my friends organised a premiere in my hometown, Liverpool, and that was the first time they ever watched an Indian movie…they loved it!”

She finds scripts from the South to be more exciting as they offer lead and meatier roles. “While they are beautiful actresses and great dancers, I wouldn’t like to be known as merely an item girl. Maybe after I have established myself as an actor I would consider it.” The young girl who turned vegetarian overnight enjoys a dash of Indian food – minus the spice. “On a Sunday I like to chill out and watch movies all afternoon. My Indian favourites include Jab We Met, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Ghajini.” While she offers that she is currently single, she laughs, “Male attention is the same world over.”

India has been “life-changing” for Jackson. “India excites me. There’s no place like it in the world, and my favourite part about it, is the people. The energy; the fact that Mumbai is constantly alive and buzzing. Even if it’s 3 a.m., I know that when I look out of the window I’ll never feel alone. It’s exhilarating! It’s such a welcoming place; I love calling it my home. When I am away, I also miss the sun…after all, we don’t get much of it in England!”

“I don’t see how an actress’ race or origin determines getting ‘propositioned’. I believe that things like that happen based on your character and how you portray yourself.”
– Amy Jackson, model and actress

Verve Man: The mysterious appeal of these men…

16 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Features & Trends, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Published: Verve Magazine, October 2012, Verve Man supplement

The Mysterious Appeal of These Men: Salman, Chetan, Rahul, Karan and Sachin. (Admit it – you knew their last names as you read it.)
In a perfect world, we want to see people who are famous because they know their craft exceedingly well – the ones who are untouchable because you can’t surpass their talent. It puts them on a pedestal of excellence and it silences detractors. Sometimes there are those who may or may not have talent, but have an x-factor, which makes them incredibly appealing to a large number of people. Sitanshi Talati-Parikh decodes the controversial appeal of five successful men across industries

 

Salman Khan, actor
In a recent TV interview, Salman Khan said something that sounded ridiculously ostentatious. But if you take it in context of who he is as a person – simple and direct – you would understand that he was just stating the obvious. Ek Tha Tiger’s release and people’s reaction to that movie and others before it, Dabangg and Bodyguard in particular, lend complete strength to the fact that Salman Khan exists in the industry for his fans. (And he has many of them.) As he points out, if you need an actor to play a role, there are many people to choose from. A director and producer will think of Salman Khan, only when they want the full Salman-Khan-ness in a particular film. He’s unapologetic about who he is or what makes him popular among the masses. He’s also matter-of-fact about his popularity, without being self-propagandizing. It doesn’t matter whether the movie has a story, or whether the film is completely OTT, or even that the character does the strangest things – like manage to pop the buttons of his shirt as he struts. His style of dancing – not updated over the years, but true to form with certain pelvic thrusts or iconic hand gestures; his action sequences, where he isn’t a hero, he is a super hero; his romancing – which is stilted and subdued; are all aspects of the Salman Khan phenomena that his viewers expect. It’s suggested that he dresses like James Dean and picks nuances from Dharmendra; two actors he believes should be closely watched. And in his smile, lies his resemblance to Dean, though he doesn’t smile enough – off screen and on it. While his cinema may be regressive in it’s form, it’s appeal – rather his appeal – remains eternal. He has consciously chosen to be a performer and entertainer, and removed himself from being an actor. And yet, maybe it was his cleverest move, the secret formula to being one of the biggest movie stars of the Indian film industry. Behind his rather simplistic appeal, quotes and choices, lies a sharp brain that has managed to find a bankable spot in the industry. He has, very possibly gauged his strengths and weaknesses, and put his money in just the right place.

 

Chetan Bhagat, writer
Some time ago, on an episode of Love2HateU, the celebrity guest was Chetan Bhagat. The poor girl – the ‘hater’ – stood no chance against Bhagat’s generous Gandhi-ism, so beatifically patronizing and condescending. But that’s Chetan Bhagat – a huge icon and idol to some and an even huger eyebrow raiser to others. Bhagat’s success – and he is astonishingly successful – is because he has crawled through the cracks and found his target audience. And what a target audience that is. The non-readers. Instead of churning out a highbrow book filled with beautiful metaphors and aiming for the Booker-reading intellectuals, Bhagat does what he does best – appeal to those that have admittedly never read a book before. And therein lies his claim to fame. Bhagat has automatically found his safety in numbers. While Bhagat makes no pretentions about his literary aspirations, he basks in his own stupendous success, often lying on a raft of self-appreciation. And what irks people is that his raft never, ever capsizes. Top models can have a bad hair day, brilliant directors can have a box office flop, the Sensex can crash, but Chetan Bhagat only goes from strength to strength. As he smugly states, ‘I’m happy to be on this show (Love2HateU) because my new book has just released and I want to know that there are people who don’t like what I do, not just people who enjoy my books.’

 

Rahul Gandhi, politician
Is it possible to bank a country’s future, its political aspirations on a set of irrepressible dimples? While our democracy is far more discerning than that (we hope) it is true that as the younger Gandhi scion grew up, a great deal of hope was vested on his future. He had the political pedigree, and most importantly he looked the part. It didn’t really matter what he said – or didn’t say – he was just so easy on the eye. Every woman could imagine him at the helm of India, attending the topmost international discussions and global summit roundtables looking stupendous representing India. And yet, that hasn’t really played out well for him – while remaining a member of Parliament, he hasn’t proven himself as a strong candidate for the topmost office of the country – despite the looks. Whether he manages to get any further, we can only wait and watch, and hope that there is more depth to him than his dimples, or India may end up having her own frat-boy-politician in the making, served up American style.

 

Karan Johar, director
You watch Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and you see that plump friend of the hero, put there so that the hero can shine. A school misfit, no one would have guessed that Karan Johar would become a phenomenon. Johar has lived his high school misses through his films – creating the candy-floss make-believe world that he would have liked to be a part of, making his protagonist (more often than not played by his buddy Shah Rukh Khan) the popular kid in school. The kid Johar should have been, going by his current personality. What he may have been unable to achieve in his school years, he’s more than managed in his adult life. He is the force behind one of the biggest production houses in Hindi cinema, Dharma Productions, his movies do record business, he can make or break an actor or director, and often can control the future of a movie star, as evidenced by his power over the future of one top actress who wound up in his bad books. His talk show became an iconic talking point at every Koffee-table conversation. His rapid-fire questions allowed for his sharp wit, humour and personality to shine through, even if he did demonstrate that he lives happily in his own industry bubble. Only on Simi Garewal’s show did any of his vulnerability come to the fore. Johar is a complex animal, but his success is because of these complexities and layers to his personality. With Student of the Year in the offing, we wish we would move beyond the chasm of his youth to the brilliant success of his grown-up years in his directorial offerings. But would that be a cathartic story worth telling?

 

Sachin Tendulkar, sportsman
The Master Blaster. Anything said against him is akin to blasphemy. How did a supremely talented teenage kid manage to bear the weight of a nation’s hopes on his young shoulders? One who should just concentrate on the game is made to feel like the savior of the country. Every poor man’s hopes, every rich man’s dreams are with Sachin Tendulkar as he takes strike after strike. As if that were not enough, he had to attempt captaining the Indian cricket team. It’s a wonder he didn’t retire early, just to find inner peace. He has dealt with it all with equanimity – reminiscent of great players like Roger Federer in tennis – where nothing sways him. Victory brings a smile
, and when he’s down, he’s generally outwardly calm. Children are named after him in quick succession, he is revered to the point of blind faith, and he can do no wrong. Even if he gets out in duck thrice in a row, it’s okay because he has given us many centuries before. People cannot be logical around Tendulkar, he is more than human, he is God. With anyone else it would be dangerous, this blind idolization. As Wright Thompson in an insightful study on his charisma pointed out – Tendulkar’s meteoric rise took place in parallel to India as a country and economy opening up. He symbolizes everything we dream and wish for, all that is balanced and good. He steadies our racing hearts; he lives our greatest hopes. And he does it all with a clean chit. He makes people feel good – about themselves and their country, and he gives people a sense that we can be better, that we can be the best. And he forms the bridge – between the insecurity of the past and the brash confidence of the future.

Spa Thoughts: Scrubbed, Wrapped and Polished? @VerveMagazine July 2012

10 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by in Features & Trends, Humour, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Published: Verve Magazine, July 2012, Features

We’ve taken great strides in the personal pampering space. Gone are the days of the kashti-sari-wearing maalishwaali bais. Herald in the age of exotic, fragrant scrubs, anti-ageing wraps and BlackBerry massages. But it’s not all fun and relaxation in the spa-going netherworld…

Upper-class Indians have inherited a special gene (assisted by years of sedentary lifestyle and ghee-chawal-laddoos) that contribute to their bodies becoming so packed with soft adipose tissue that they find it difficult to withstand a good maalish. When the bai turns up with her sari tucked out of way, her glass bangles tinkling and her tobacco in place, you know you are in for one major masochistic-ride. Knots you didn’t know existed get squeezed, muscles you should have used but never got around to working out, get plummeted and your bones actually creak. They make tuk-tuk noises as if sighing under the pressure of pressure. Your skin is rubbed so hard it turns red from the friction and it automatically sheds its dead cells and self exfoliates under the angst. The bai’s hands are now hot from all the massaging and your skin gets a quick-and-ready spot sauna simultaneously. For a perfect steam-finish, keep the tropical air in and switch the air-conditioner off.

Those who can’t withstand the tender care – or sadistic advances if you please – of a home-grown maalishwaali bai, prefer to make their way to the chic spas dotting the landscape with a masala mix of herbal tea, soothing music, water fountains, dim lights and carrot scrubs or honey wraps. And nope – that’s not an accompaniment with the tea to nudge the stomach into a contented stupor, as the motherly-types of yore would have suggested. A wrap is a less layered sandwich and more be layered and sandwiched as you begin to look, feel and smell like a smoothie that no one will ever venture near. These are meant to do something clever and wonderful to your skin – on the exfoliating path – which would make you glow and shine like a beacon. It’s no wonder that soon-to-be-married girls flock towards being wrapped before they are unwrapped.

You lie down on a bed (which would have a thermal blanket) – we are back to the spas and away from the mating ritual – and then a wrap product would be smoothed onto your body. The products could be anything from eucalyptus, honey and rosemary to mud, butter or clay. Or you could have minerals or special ‘vitality’ or ‘anti-ageing’ solutions. Then you get wrapped in plastic sheets. Wraps started with linen and have ended up with plastic – much like most of the world, and to the great stress of environmentalists. (Maybe they could use this treatment to de-stress?) The great spa eyewash is all that talk about mud wraps in the same breath as weight loss – not exactly a proven fact. While the loss of bodily fluids (through the heat/sweat) makes you feel lighter, you put all that weight back on the next time you eat or drink. So – a word of advice, spa-goers – when you choose your treatments, remember that it’s about being pampered – not about losing weight. A wrap on your body isn’t going to fix the problems started by the wraps you eat. Just cotton down to the fact that you are going there to relax and make your skin feel completely moisturised.

‘Moisturising’ is the kind of term that always has so many implications. It never fails to remind me of a sensational experience, related in shocked whispers by a dear friend. She was sold on this excellent mud bath spa, celebrating the open air and nature among the undulating Californian hills. Pre-paid package for two, and terribly romantic at that. At a rather delicate stage when they were escorted to the actual treatment area, she balked at the fact that she was to get into a big mud pond, in her birthday suit. The best part being – every other person who had had the treatment previously had also been in that very same pond. Sitting in there for the better part of an hour. Maybe even experiencing an odd call of nature…or two? Shuddering as she related the tale, she bathed and re-bathed and bathed again, trying to mentally and emotionally scrape off the ‘moisturisation’ that her skin had just experienced. Maybe that’s why scrubs became an important addition to the spa-going experience?

I’ve never quite understood the charm of body scrubs. Freshly (you hope) grated and mashed edible items layered on the entire body and slowly finding their way in orifices they should never be introduced to, setting up a massive itch and tickle which you try to combat with wriggling…. Your upper limbs are of no use – they would just scatter more of the food material around if moved. So you lie there in the semi-darkness, hoping whatever the products are supposed to do to your skin are working their magic rapidly, and hoping even more that the helpful lady who quietly and gently buried you under all that food – enough to feed a few hungry children – would soon reappear and save you from this self-inflicted misery. You actually get the time away from your smart phone to think – about your life, your choices, and who you really are as a person. It is a really cheap price for so much potentially destructive self-reflection. Or maybe the whole point of a scrub is to actually work on your will power – to make you a stronger person from within, while the veggies your mama told you to eat are now decomposing on your body. Call the food police! Now!

At what stage these treatments become de-stressers, I have yet to figure out. These over-priced lie-there-and-relax spa elements are always more complicated than they look and more trouble than promised. What about all the time and effort you have to put into washing yourself after? You can’t help but imagine the spa staff – after having swiftly completed the layering and covering – all gathered in one little corner snickering about another sucker. After all, there’s nothing like a good scrub or wrap to give them a nice long tea-break – and a hefty tip. So basically, it’s all about who’s smarter. The ones who get massages obviously know how to get their money’s worth. It’s a cut-and-dry deal that requires no reading between the lines or dreaming about stabbing someone. You pay for a massage, you get a massage. The ones who choose gently exfoliating scrubs and ultra-trimming infinity wraps are the benefactors of society and the patrons of the good life – they have truly discovered the mysterious worth of paying for just lying there covered with substances that you can’t see – just feel and smell.

Massages are all about getting things just right. The room temperature, the volume of the instrumental music – they never have music with lyrics, it’s as if they want to exhume the inner poet in you as you lie there deftly putting words to the lilting melodies. And most importantly, what has to be just right is the pressure. Working out those knots developed over years of laziness and excessive use of digital devices is a painful task. As you spend hours hunched over that elusive Excel spreadsheet on your laptop while attacking your smart phone simultaneously for the night’s dinner plans, your shoulders and arms are slowly ageing – this was not the workout they expected. Technology has impacted the world in so many ways – and particularly the spa industry. Masseuses are in demand and propound the benefits of BlackBerry massages for your hands, hot stone therapies and tension-relaxer points. Ideally, they should mildly suggest more time playing a sport and less time Facebooking, but it wouldn’t quite be in their place to do so. Instead, you find, it is a great opportunity to market their annual massage and pain-containment packages. Sometimes, you miss the good old maalishwaali. She would grin with her half-broken tobacco-stained teeth and soothingly coo at your aches and pains and suggest taking it easy.

Verve’s Power Issue 2012: Absolute Power

12 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by in Features & Trends, Interviews (All), Publication: Verve Magazine

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Feature, Verve Magazine, June 2012
Absolute Power (text by Sitanshi Talati-Parikh, except for the text on Shabana Azmi).
http://www.verveonline.com/109/people/absolute-power.shtml

Role models all, they rule over their chosen domains. Their undying passion for excellence continues to propel them ahead. their clarity of vision ensures that they remain in tune with the times and their acts of will inspire other women to rewrite their destinies. Verve zooms in on 15 iconic influentials who always push the envelope with their dynamic beliefs to impact the world around them….

 

 

 

 

 

nita AMBANI
48
INSTITUTION BUILDER
Nita Ambani has garnered recognition in her own right: the Dhirubhai Ambani International School (of which she is a founder-chairperson), has become one of the premier schools of the city – the preferred choice of celebrities even. She juggles many roles professionally, being actively involved in Project Drishti, a social initiative taken by Reliance Industries (RIL) and the National Association for the Blind; while remaining co-owner of the Mumbai Indians cricket team. “Unfortunately for me, I have realised that unless I go into the details of everything I never succeed,” she said definitively as a Verve cover girl – referring to managing all her projects. “Power to me is a responsibility – a means of creating new value and building institutions that serve a larger purpose for society.”

shobhana BHARTIA
55
MEDIA CZARINA
From being the daughter of industrialist KK Birla to becoming the first woman chief executive of a national newspaper when she joined the Hindustan Times in 1986, to finding an active place in the Rajya Sabha introducing The Child Marriage (Abolition) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill in 2006, Shobhana Bhartia only grows from strength to strength. Under her leadership, HT Media became a publicly-listed conglomerate – and its newspaper Mint (in collaboration with the Wall Street Journal) has found a large readership. Currently chairperson and editorial director of the Hindustan Times Group, Bhartia features on the Forbes Power List 2012, Indian Express Power List 2012 and the Forbes list of the richest Indians. She also manages to find time to work out and stay fit…every day.

sonia GANDHI
65
INDIA’S MATRIARCH
True power is something you can’t necessarily see or quantify. It’s one that allows you to ‘wear teflon’ as Pritish Nandy once said for Sonia Gandhi. But while we are talking lists, suffice to say that Sonia Gandhi jumps over the first lady of USA, Michelle Obama, in the Forbes list of 100 Most Powerful Women in the World (2011). She is the powerhouse that enables the Congress to steam ahead. She keeps the peace in the party, brokers interventions and truces between ministers, manages the allies, and encourages Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to act. In her trademark simplicity – of speech, decorum and attire – she masks a firm grip on circumstance, determination to control the future, and resolute attitude towards turbulence – evidenced by her recent trademark silence towards the resurgence of the Bofors scandal her husband Rajiv Gandhi was embroiled in. And when it comes to leadership, if her mother-in-law led from the front, the younger Gandhi has found a successful formula to lead and implement from behind the scenes – one that people may mock, but continue to succumb to.

barkha DUTT
5640br> FIREPROOF FIREBRAND
Barkha Dutt has faced fire – both on field and off it. Somehow, like a crab, she clings on and manages to come out stronger each time. Recently, she strongly supported the Anna Hazare campaign against corruption – in her popular show, The Buck Stops Here on NDTV. The fact that she doesn’t balk at bringing up controversial topics and subjects – sometimes bordering on the sensational – and that her subjects are always people with power, has viewers glued to the telly when she hosts a show. In January, she had on board controversial writer Salman Rushdie and free-wheeling American talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. With awards under her belt – including a Padma Shri – it’s no surprise that she has been promoted to Group Editor at NDTV. And in a move that celebrates her professional success, she is to be president of NDTV’s Editorial Board, that’s been set up in a bid to work towards independent journalism and credible reporting. Whether sold on Dutt’s style of journalism or not, everyone has a say about it. As she said to Verve, “I have learnt that I can evoke strong opinions; I prefer it that way to be evoking middling ones for sure. That would make me feel bland!”

jayalalithaa
64
IRON WOMAN
The first elected female chief minister of Tamil Nadu’s calm porcelain composure hides a steely will and iron fist. Politics in India can get messy and combustive – and being able to steamroll the opposition is a particularly useful trait to have. Jayalalithaa’s yay or nay with the opposition alliance will assist in defeating the UPA in the next general elections, particularly after her party, AIADMK’s resounding victory in last year’s Assembly elections – bringing her back as chief minister for the third time. Not to be missed was her recent intervention with regards to the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, which helped end the anti-nuclear protests without bloodshed and made a policy decision to allocate all of the power from the plant for the use of the State to relieve the power shortage. The politician, who has remained a film actress and continues to moonlight as a producer, can also voice an opinion over national policy if she so chooses – as noted during India’s vote at the United Nations over Sri Lanka, displaying a desire to stand up for ethnic Tamils and wielding authoritative control over her territory. Also known for her freely distributing mixers, grinders and electric fans to women to free them of daily drudgery.

shabana AZMI
61
ACTIVIST ACTOR
The veteran theatre, television and Hindi cinema actor, who staunchly supported the recent Anna Hazare anti-corruption campaign and has been known to champion several social causes, was awarded the Padma Bhushan for her work in the field of cinema. A member of the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Indian Parliament, she was honoured by the City of New York for her contribution to cinema and her involvement with the movie industry here, becoming the first Indian actor to receive this honour. She has won five National Awards so far and along with Bengali screen legend Kanan Devi, is the youngest recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award which she received in April 2011 at the age of 60. Most recently, she has made the Mumbai coastline into a personal project, restoring and reviving the city’s prominent beaches.

firuza PARIKH
56
IVF PIONEER
She is a pioneer in assisted reproduction techniques – doctoring South East Asia’s first ICSI baby in 1994, helping conceive the first pregnancy by LASER Assisted Hatching in 1999 and pioneering the Cumulous Aided Transfer (CAT) technique – but Parikh became a household name in 2012 for authoring a book comprising scientific papers, The Complete Guide to Getting Pregnant, launched by Aamir Khan and attended by friends, Nita and Mukesh Ambani and Shobhaa De, among the Who’s Who of Mumbai society. The fact that her roster of patients extends far and wide – including Kashmir and LOC and that she is trusted by dignitaries and premiers is only embellished by a cosmetic conglomerate’s award (Science and Innovation category), which she received this year.

parmeshwar GODREJ
66
LADY G
As long as her parties continue, there can be no other lady of leisure who will wield absolute power in the social circles as Parmeshwar Godrej. In January she hosted an exclusive dinner for American television powerhouse Oprah Winfrey at her home on the latter’s visit to India. But weighing in on the sway of her name isn’t all about hosting that perfect party for the celebrated guest. She also believes in giving back to society by using her clout – she brought AIDS into focus by garnering support from many Indian and international dignitaries including Richard Gere. Godrej has worked for social awareness through the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2011 and has undertaken a number of efforts on AIDS awareness and prevention on World Aids Day last year. The First Lady of France, Carla Bruni also wants to work with Mumbai’s social heavyweight on sensitising people about the disease. Godrej is now raising awareness about the lung disorder IPF (Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis), which she also suffers from. She may be chic under the beret, Hervé Léger or not, but this is one lady with a mission.

kiran MAZUMDAR SHAW
59
SAVVY BREWMAKER
Says Cherie Blair about Kiran Mazumdar Shaw: “Kiran is the prime example of the Indian woman being empowered. Her story in itself is an inspirational one. All women are not the same in the world of men, but you do see that women have certain skills which lend themselves to the 21st century, when how strong you are physically isn’t necessarily the key to your success. It’s much more about how open you are to new ideas, how flexible you are; how savvy you are with using the new technology.” This sums up how the chairman and managing director of Bengaluru-based biotechnology company Biocon Limited, recently named among Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, functions. Power lists can’t seem to let go of the rapid thinker who is adaptable and willing to experiment. She has been featured in the Forbes list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, the Financial Times’ top 50 Women in Business and is a member of the board of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Hyder-abad. As her company continues to win awards, she determinedly heralds it into a remarkable future.

chanda KOCHHAR
50
TRAILBLAZING BANKER
She’s a list-maker, over and over again. The managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank who also heads the bank’s corporate centre is the second Indian in the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. From her position at number 92 in 2010, she shot up to number 43 last year and has consistently figured in Fortune’s list of Most Powerful Women in Business since 2005. 2011 also saw her feature in Business Today’s list of the ‘Most Powerful Women – Hall of Fame’ and ‘The 50 Most Influential People in Global Finance’ list of Bloomberg Markets.

At a time when her predecessor and mentor at ICICI had set a standard for aggressive growth, she took up the challenge to subvert the norms…successfully. She has been quoted saying in Forbes India, “One, if there is a challenge, your shoulder ought to become broader and your back straighter. Confidence is important. Two, you have to be the sponge that absorbs stress. Else, it passes down to the team and they cannot function efficiently.”

The recipient of the Padma Bhushan, TiE Stree Shakti Award and the first woman to receive the Business Leader of the Year award by The Economic Times, Kochhar has marked her place in economic history and in women’s leadership.

zia MODY
56
CASE TIPPER
In a male-dominated society, where a top female lawyer would be an anomaly, Zia Mody proved herself better than everyone else. Another Forbes power-lister (50 Asian Businesswomen), she is on the calling list of multinationals and billionaires like Sunil Mittal and Kumar Birla and on the board of HSBC, Asia-Pacific – for her reputation and prowess as an M&A (mergers and acquisitions) expert. Over the past year, the Cambridge (England) and Harvard (USA) alumnus has played an advisory role in Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources’ $8.7 billion acquisition of a majority stake in Cairn India and BP’s $7.2 billion deal with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries. The Indian legal consultant worked at Baker & McKenzie in New York before returning home to India in 1984 to start her own practice – rather than be relegated to a junior position in another law firm. The Mumbai-born daughter of India’s former attorney general Soli Sorabjee, fights gender bias when hiring for her firm – which comprises nearly 50 per cent women – and believes that her own support system, including that of her family and in-laws allows
her to work extensive hours…often 16 hours a days. In a Harvard Law Bulletin, Mody says, “I was one of the very few women who were trying to take up for the gender at that time. People are much more willing to give women a chance today and wait for them to perform.”

naina lal KIDWAI
55
BANKABLE HEAD
Women like Naina Lal Kidwai make running a bank seem effortless. While being the group general manager and country head of HSBC India, the first Indian woman holding a Harvard MBA also serves various other roles, including being a non-executive director on the board of Nestlé SA, chairwoman of City of London’s Advisory Council for India, global advisor of the Harvard Business School and is also on the governing board of NCAER, audit advisory board of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and on the national executive committee of CII and FICCI. Someone who once found herself lost in an American supermarket is particularly successful in navigating the futures of companies.

 

mamata BANERJEE
57
FIERY PETREL
She is described as mercurial, dictatorial and eccentric. She can hire and fire at will, claim no part in the allegations of misrule and walk away from flaming heat unscathed. The first woman chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee – better known as Didi – has hit the headlines once again. Not just for being in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, but for forcing the resignation of Dinesh Trivedi for attempting to boldly modernise the railways, and for arresting a professor, Ambikesh Mahapatra, for allegedly circulating ‘defamatory’ cartoons of her. Banerjee, who managed to oust the Left Front in West Bengal after 34 years of uninterrupted rule, resigns, withdraws resignations, changes alliances, stages rallies and protests unexpectedly and at will – making her not only the most unreliable, but also the most powerful ally. There was also that meeting with Hillary Clinton. She won’t allow herself to be outplayed. She also remains untouched – in the mire of scams – by the lure of financial gains, as evidenced by her austere lifestyle, traditional Bengali cotton sari sans adornments of any kind.

vinita BALI
63
BISCUIT QUEEN
She may have started her career with Voltas Ltd. – a Tata Group company that launched the famous soft-drink concentrate, Rasna, but the success of that launch was only the beginning, as her career has spanned some of the biggest conglomerates, including Cadbury India (where she gained traction in roles not just in India, but also in the UK, Nigeria and South Africa) and Coca-Cola. From vice-president of marketing for Latin America, relocating to Chile as president of the Andrean Division with sales in excess of USD 1 billion, she found herself in 2001 as the corporate officer of the Coca-Cola Company and vice-president of corporate strategy reporting directly to the chairman. It’s no surprise then that she works from “anywhere and everywhere” – the market, the car, the airport. A fixed office is not high on the list of workplaces for the managing director of Britannia Industries Limited and a Forbes power-lister (Asia’s 50 Power Businesswomen).

shobhaa DE
63
SOCIAL CHRONICLER
She may do saris, social dos, book launches and what have you, but Shobhaa De will remain the ultimate social writing patriarch. A pithy observer and commentator, brash, unafraid and opinionated; the quality of her columns in the dailies keeps her in regular spotlight, but it is her fiction that made her a household name at a time when no other woman would step into her racy writing shoes. An active speaker, panelist and festival attendee, she was also a part of the Karachi Literature Festival, earlier this year.

Superheroes, ha!

12 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by in Art, Literature & Culture, Features & Trends, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Published: Verve Magazine, February 2012, Features

Illustration by Bappa

Superhero02

This summer, costumed crime-fighters return to the big screen in their darkest form – plagued by physical failings and emotional dilemmas. This may be their sexiest avatar, ever. What is it about sinister grey shades that make a woman see passionate purple? And can a woman ever stand by a male world-protector, holding her own? Sitanshi Talati-Parikh explores the subterranean world of fantasy fiction

MALE SUPERHEROES: 
the ultimate turn-on
There’s a general buzz in the air about the much-awaited release of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises where the costumed crime-fighter, Batman, is pushed to breaking point. The Amazing Spiderman, also releasing this summer, grapples with human and super-human crises. Superheroes are by default meant to be indestructible. That makes them sexy. But in the world of karmic angst and philosophical revolt, our superheroes are sexier in their existential and painfully human form. Maybe the allure lies in the fact that these are people who have transgressed above and beyond and are able to fight their own weaknesses and fears, and ours. Every cathartic battle makes them take a leap of fantasy in our psychedelic emotions – our subconscious mind becomes a battlefield of latent desires, every fight is a fight for survival. It’s about power. Not just at the obvious level, but at the level of hope. We hope that good can still win over evil. And yet, we hope that it’s a photo finish, because we are afraid of closure. If it all ends today, if everything is said, and all ends are nicely tied up what will we take home to our fantasies?

Indian superheroes are fantastical caricatures at best and over-the-top mystical drones at worst. There is no real superhero culture in commercial Indian cinema. We watch Ra.1 (2011) for Shah Rukh Khan’s exaggerated antics, Robot (2010) for Rajinikanth’s omniscience, and Drona (2008) for…nothing. In Indian cinema, the movie star is the superhero – he’s not an actor, he’s playing a larger-than-life persona. It gives him the ability to do anything, while also at a very simplistic level describing good and bad. Superheroes of Hollywood are a far more refined species, evolving over time to greater levels of depth and mystery. They have undergone many changes, versions and personalities to reach a point of climax. From a rather simplistic beginning during the time of the World War, where economic downturn led to a desire for a better life, a strong role model and a saviour for the average man; to returning in a new avatar: the confident anti-hero, standing up to the establishment, patriotic and powerful. Today we have a disturbed, grey superhero: who is battling his own demons, external and internal. No one can fight evil continuously without feeling the ramifications. Even in fantasy literature, Frodo and Harry Potter found themselves turning vicious under the brunt of carrying the malicious ring and destroying Horcruxes in Lord of the Rings – Return of the King and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows respectively. Similarly, in superhero fiction, what makes the current Hollywood costumed crime-fighter worth his weight in gold is the intensity of his emotional drama. His mental battles are ours as we make constant switches between the right and wrong decision. What is good and bad? Who defines it? Is making a bad decision for the greater good okay? Most people don’t face the weight of decisions where cities and worlds get impacted. The superhero’s crisis is supreme. He fights more than his own anxieties; he fights a world’s anxieties.

The power to be in that position and the eventual control he wields makes him obviously an object of desire – but the real sexiness comes from how human he actually is. His turmoil appeals to the nurturing instinct in every woman, and the desire to have him win, willing him along mentally, grips a girl through another superhero summer. Gadgets, indestructibility, strength, resilience, super-intelligence, metaphysical abilities…and an inner reservoir of good make the superhero a classic stereotype of attractiveness. What’s a regular girl asking of a regular boy? Physical desirability, material comfort, good nature, the strength to be her man. Every man spends a lifetime trying to be a superhero and every girl waits for a man to become one for her.

Popularised by teenage comic-book geeks, the genre grew from strength-to-strength inside the mental fantasy of a boy who was yet to come into his own. He is exalted in this make-believe secret world of crime fighting, where his deepest desire of leading a life far removed from his own, where what he believed himself capable of in an alternate universe appears to become a reality. He isn’t the jock, but he’s the guy with secret powers to save the world. He will be an outcast, because he isn’t like them, he is more than them. He yearns for the cutest girl in school, but he can’t have her because of the life he must lead to complete his mission. Along the way, he becomes desirable – he is so focused and inherently strong, that women begin to notice him. We begin to take him seriously. And in there lies his fulfilment – he may be too busy to get anything more than a chaste kiss, but the very fact that he is desirable is enough for him. And it must be enough for us. His sexiness is in his unreachability, in his very unavailability.

FEMALE SUPERHEROES: 
a failed species

In this whole scheme of things, what’s a woman’s role? Superheroes have evolved in their failings and flaws, but their women remain the same – waiting to be rescued, waiting to be loved. Spiderman yearns for Mary Jane, but it seems trite that he can never have her, despite being a superhero, because he’s a superhero. Superheroes have a duty to protect and cherish, but no place for love. They cannot endanger their lady love by bringing them into their web of crime-fighting and uncovering their secret identity. Is that merely ironic or is it a foundation for martyrdom? It’s like a Mills and Boon romance with an unresolved ending. Maybe, as the Twilight romance has proven, endurance – in the age of free sex – is a turn on. And it is possible that we want the people we look up to, to not get it all – to suffer and pay the price of power. Who does the superhero come home to after a hard day’s work? Would his failings and existential pangs have been resolved had he been able to experience a companion’s love, advice and support? Is a woman a superhero’s Kryptonite or elixir?

The story of good versus evil is romantic – whether in its blatant form of a leading love interest or in its subconscious form of bromance (Batman and Robin) and in its metaphysical form of evil serenading good, calling it out and finding itself extinguished in the flame of its love. And in this romanticism, detractors find much to say. Spiderman 2 spent too much time philosophising and romancing and too little fighting crime, say some. Indian superheroes are supreme – they manage to dance and make merry love while all along giving a hearty fight to the supervillains.

A superheroine? Does she exist? Catwoman, Batgirl, Spiderwoman, Ice, Wonder Woman, Xena… the list is quite long but unimpressive. While more popular in their comic book versions than their cinematic ones, these fabulous women don’t leave a lasting impression (except for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but when vampires get involved it’s a different story altogether) the way the men do – probably because the men watching want to be in power and not be overpowered. So there is waif-fu. A character dependent on waif-fu is best described as a pint-sized powerhouse: an attractive woman with moves that can bring a man to his knees. Literally. If she is captured or pinned she doesn’t stand a chance, making her a good kidnap victim and a key plot turner. We want our women strong, but our men stronger. In women men look for resilience, patience, love… no superhuman powers and strengths. Men want to be seen as protectors and women as their emotional saviours. One would think a supergirl with powers would be the eternal turn on, but apparently, a woman in power is far sexier than a woman with powers. Demi Moore in Disclosure (1994) wins over Halle Berry’s Catwoman, any day.

The comic book industry may actually be male-dominated – after all, a lack of female readership of comic books was suggested as the reason behind keeping ‘women in refrigerators’: an inside term among the comic book circles implying doing away with the female lead as a plot device. And can a woman be his partner in crime? Fan blogs yearn for a true female superhero, the kind that can be more than just a foil to the male lead. But that may not actually work. Take the case in popular fiction of famous sleuths: The Hardy Boys – if you plan to read them, can you complain about the female positioning (or the lack of)? Bringing Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys together, we have seen, never really worked – it is a recipe for disaster. How can the balance of power sit on the fence? Drew being rescued will make the Boys’ fans snicker with glee and annoy Drew’s fans; Drew playing power woman will turn off the boys. It wouldn’t be much different for a thrilling plot play of Batman and Catwoman, for instance. Coming together of male and female superheroes and crime fighters – unless it is for some fun on the side – is like treading on eggshells. One would have to be subservient to the other: there can be only one dominant hero, and by default and by popular vote, it tends to be the male hero. The fantasy industry does propagate stereotypes, but that isn’t surprising as most of popular culture works on the foundation of male supremacy. And in that world, women are but accessories to the greater good of mankind. And so we must lie.

 

Dangerous Liaisons: Men we hate to love (Indian cinema)

14 Wednesday Dec 2011

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Published: Verve Man, October 2011

Some say women are suckers for punishment, others believe that the young rebellious teen attracts the irresponsible Willoughby, while a grown woman is always in want of a decent man. History is witness to many a woman falling flat in the face while chasing a rogue beau. Sitanshi Talati-Parikh examines the shining Indian silver screen examples of lovable dangerous men

Straight-laced men don’t make for racy fantasies, skipping heartbeats and sexual tension. They lack the edge, the drive, the sizzle, the power to tug at our heartstrings and wreak sweet havoc with our lives. Women are attracted to danger like a moth to a flame – there has to be reason that phrase has become a cliché. There’s something inordinately sexy about a man who knows what he wants and will stop at nothing to get it. Getting a playboy’s attention is not necessarily about a notch on the belt as much as it is about being alluring enough to grab his attention. And deep down inside, every woman attracted to a naughty bloke feels that somewhere, there is a chance that she can fix him. That she can be the person he will surrender to, will change for, and will eventually become some version of the Utopian male they have in their head. And so they all fall.

They Work With Passion

This obsession with the men who are not quite toeing the line possibly began with Amitabh Bachchan’s Angry Young Man. Not a bad lot, but a man who is roaring with discontent – he’s full of testosterone, a desire to avenge all that’s wrong. He’s not passive. He’s not even passive-aggressive. He’s raging male. With a whole bunch of adolescent hormones. You know he has passion – for what he believes in – and you can easily imagine how that would translate – in bed and out of it. Shahenshah’s (1988) avenger became Shah Rukh Khan in Baazigar (1993). He played his hands, the cards turned in his favour and he got his own back, albeit with a massive amount of gore. The cinema of the 70s through the 80s threw up seething, vengeful heroes, those who were not apologetic about treading on a few lives. Recently, Aamir Khan’s Ghajini (2008) – with Khan’s character looming large over the messy revenge scene – in his own words, brought back the action genre with a Dabangg (2010).

They Steal Our Hearts

With the exception of chiseled-chin Vinod Khanna who debuted in cinema as the bad guy, it is only post 2000 that we have become somewhat sophisticated about our wayward heroes. Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom 2 (2006) oozed charm and stunning sex appeal – he didn’t even have an excuse about being bad, he just was.

Luckily though he wasn’t out to kill anyone, just cop a few shiny ones. Maybe it is the Dhoom franchise that has successfully converted our picture-perfect heroes into those with grey shades. Who cares if the guy you date is a bit of a thief? If he looks half as good as John Abraham from Dhoom (2004) or Roshan, or can provide half as much intellectual stimulation as Aamir Khan (the upcoming villain in Dhoom 3)…that would be a love life worth writing home about. Moot to point out that no one really notices the unshaven, paunchy good guy, the cop: Abhishek Bachchan. Has anyone ever wanted the good guy to lose as badly as in the Dhoom movies?

They Kill Us Softly With One Look

Going back a few years, can one deny that Saif Ali Khan actually became sizzling hot on screen in 2004 – in his comeback era – in the completely negative role Ek Hasina Thi? Which girl wouldn’t succumb to his charms? He made being a rogue look cool. And soon after in Being Cyrus (2005). All this, while maintaining his status quo as a premier romantic hero; and ironically, if not surprisingly, consolidating his screen appeal with repeated negative roles – including that of the recent clandestine terrorist in Kurbaan (2009).

They Play Good Cop, Bad Cop With Our Emotions

Anil Kapoor in Ram Lakhan. Was he good or was he bad? It’s hard to tell, even after watching the classic repeatedly. In Shahenshah, Amitabh Bachchan played an ineffectual corrupt cop, while fighting for justice, out of the system. Women go weak-kneed over a man in uniform, especially if it’s an errant cop out to play Robin Hood. The success of Dabangg – and Salman Khan shaking his uniformed body to national hysteria – heralds the revival of cop dramas and high-risk love lives.

They Cleverly Win Us Over

Ishwar ‘Langda’ Tyagi in Omkara (2006) completely took the movie to different heights, and the disgust one felt for the character was smudged with grudging admiration. You give a man brains and his mental prowess is bound to not go unnoticed.

They Wield Power Over Our Thoughts

Ajay Devgn made underworld dons appear cool – with an enviable display of control, smoothness and above all, power. As Al Pacino proved in Scarface (1983) that power attracts women, Devgn proved it with Company (2002) and a few years later with Once Upon A Time In Mumbai (2010). In fact, in OUATIM, Emraan Hashmi managed to keep his girl by his side despite ill-treating her. Katrina Kaif’s character fell in love with the Pratap politicians – played by Ranbir Kapoor and Arjun Rampal – who preferred to work the wrong side of the system in Raajneeti (2010). Forget women, even film-maker and actor Farhan Akhtar admits a strange fascination with Don’s character, leading him to remake the old classic. There is a natural instinct in women – as much as they like to nurture, they like to be protected. And who better to protect them than an unstoppable man who can rule a better part of the world?

Their Good Outweighs Their Bad?

Movies on real-life characters tend to tread on eggshells, portraying a primarily positive perspective of characters that have been perceived as heading down the wrong path. Guru (2007), for instance, portrayed the protagonist, Gurubhai (loosely based on Dhirubhai Ambani) in a very favourable light, in the role of an inspiring leader. Sarkar (2005), where Amitabh Bachchan plays a character assumed to be based on Bal Thakeray, creatively designed like The Godfather, showed him to be a man of steel and goodness parcelled with a lack of concern for human life.

They Win Our Sympathy

While Shiney Ahuja’s character in Gangster (2006) and Sanjay Dutt’s Raghu in Vaastav (1999), were all about the fallen man – looking desperately for love’s respite or salvation, Imran Khan’s Kabir in Kidnap (2008) saved face with his inner good guy winning over the bad. John Abraham touched a soft spot in his I’m-a-terrorist-but-a-good-guy in New York (2009). You may not be able to love these characters, but they do win your sympathy – and strangely that is a way into women’s hearts, sometimes.

They Need Rescuing

A step up from the sympathy vote is actually pulling them out of the quagmire. Abhay Deol has made it his prerogative to be the lack-lustre hero – think Dev D (2009) in particular – who’s always finding himself and losing his love. His women have to deal with his incapacities, and many love him despite it. Sanjay Dutt’s Ballu in Khalnayak (1993) immortalized the hero who loved, lost and died a pitiful love life.

They Have Converted from Lover to Lover Boy

You know this has to be about Salman Khan. He made every girl fall in love with Prem from Maine Pyar Kiya (1989) and then ran away from this good guy image, and embraced that of the playa. He played the field in every possible movie – even played the role of the playing-the-field-mentor in No Entry (2005), and carried a successful bunch of romantic comedies on merely his inability to remain faithful.

And so it goes that there’s nothing like a wayward love interest to make life a bunch of prickly roses. And there’s probably a make-your-bed-and-lie-on-it pun there somewhere….

 

Big Misses, Small Catches

17 Wednesday Aug 2011

Posted by in Art, Literature & Culture, Features & Trends, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Published: Verve Magazine, July, 2011

The masala dailies have wrung their words out trying to understand what happened last year. Heavyweights sunk at the box office and a handful of unknowns, nobodies and alternates walked away with the entire silver screen pie. Sitanshi Talati-Parikh decodes the enigma of the mega-budget losses and small-movie wins

Recently, film critic Rajeev Masand wrote a column deriding the excesses of the Indian film industry. He spoke about the glory of big budgets – including the cost of taking star wives and their entourage shopping – being washed out in the final tally at the box office, when the film faces the music of a silent box office register. While he was talking about an upcoming film, it is bringing back into focus the hot topic of discussion – namely the cold slush of the big-budget movies that failed miserably, against the refreshing warmth of the surprise hits: small films that made it huge.

Like a sudden bad hangover from the ’90s, Indian cinema is facing a crisis of money: too much money chasing an average story, a tired movie star, and refurbished content. The lucrative movie-making business has created an illusionary clout of movie stars and divas, gift-wrapped with zero professionalism and huge egos. These stars continue to be bankable at the box office, which is why big banners are willing to turn a blind (albeit bleeding) eye to their demands. After all, at the end of the day everyone rakes in the big bucks and trills home happy.

Suddenly though, expensive movies are not enough to attract the audience: with a refreshing sensibility that one wished would extend to our political choices, moviegoers have shunned some of the biggest movies last year. Big in the form of stars, directors, production houses, and production costs (see box for details). Think Kites, Tees Maar Khan, Guzaarish, Raavan. Before that, Saawariya, Blue, What’s Your Raashee? and even My Name Is Khan didn’t fare as well as one would have expected or the producers preferred to suggest. What went wrong? The formula elements were there: masala, big actors, varied concepts, established directors, expensive marketing and sufficient money chasing all of it to get a rise out of the staunchest movie buff.

How big can the movie be? The money being poured into the movies has become ostentatious without any sign of equal returns. This has led to a sudden flow of in-movie advertising, a desperate bid to sell music, cable and overseas distribution rights to the highest bidder. The problem lies in production costs. When a great amount of money is poured into lavish film sets, movie star salaries and their entourage fees, shooting abroad, and with relaxed schedules, it becomes impossible to recover those costs. And many times, the glitz outdoes the actual story. In the age of information overload, content is king: a good movie primarily needs a good script to work, the rest will follow. Udaan, one of the best movies last year, did well despite the odds; and others lost out despite the factors in their favour.

The final tally
It is not so much the audience that is changing as much as the amount of money being poured into a film that is challenging the final tally. Does a movie deserve that kind of money? Take Blue, or Kites for instance. Both gambled big, banking on the larger-than-life phenomenon: hoping that international locales (ridiculous when you see Kites which is shot in a barren desert) and a carrot of expensive productions would be a box-office draw. Possibly with the fact that much of the audience is now far more well-travelled, satellite television provides enough entertainment in the form of international scenery, viewers don’t necessarily want to go to the theatre merely to see American scapes or underwater corals.

Shah Rukh Khan’s RA.One, rumoured to have a budget of Rs one billion, makes it one of India’s most expensive films. Releasing later this year, Khan claims that the ambitious movie calls for special effects (collaborating with international teams) and cutting corners just won’t do the trick. With satellite rights already reportedly sold to Star India for Rs 40 crore, the film is playing the high stakes. Even if Khan magnanimously feels that he is setting the standard for technically well-produced movies and is ready to bear the costs of being such a trend-setter, no one can hope to gamble with big numbers and go in ready to fail.

More than the death of the blockbuster mega banner film, as some reports are willing to tout, what has emerged is a license to live for the small or medium film. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s ’70s and ’80s saw the popularity of small films that spoke to the finer sensibilities of a discerning audience. Lately there have been slick mega-budget movies appealing to the grandeur of an emerging and moneyed India. Ironically, rather than get washed away in the gloss of a mega film, smaller films now, once again, have a greater chance of surviving, not only because of a good product, but particularly because their budgets are controlled. The big budget movies’ wins are meagre, their losses massive – so it’s not surprising that established production houses like Excel Entertainment (run by the Akhtars and Ritesh Sidhwani) are willing to stake their bets on smaller films like Karthik Calling Karthik, to give them room for one Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, releasing this month.

Where the star cast is willing to share in the profits than take a big upfront fee also makes a difference in the movie business – think Aamir Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Shah Rukh Khan, Imran Khan. Guzaarish, for instance, started out in the red – after paying out massive amounts to the three heavyweights: director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and actors Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, added to which the cost of making the lavish film, it was left with a massive total to bat towards. Even with a decent opening weekend, you cannot lay your bets on pulling in those kind of numbers. What may change the dynamics of the game is producers getting smarter and not trigger-happy stretching their purse strings for stars like Akshay Kumar who demand larger amounts and who believe in cross-bargaining, or even those directors, like Sanjay Leela Bhansali who genuinely think they are worth that much.

A talking point
Inevitably, the success of a film gets measured by numbers and the total pull from the box office. Which means that for a movie to be successful in a wide and diverse audience mix, it needs to satisfy various segments of society – which is impossible for one trying to be different. It then becomes obvious that such a film must be made with a small budget, so that the niche audience it is catering towards will accept it, and it can recover costs and possibly encourage others to take baby steps forward. There are few films in that mould which can satisfy enough people to become a talking point and generate sufficient traction to make it successful across the board. Udaan is one such film – like Iqbal (2005) was at one point of time. This works because an inspirational story has a universal appeal.

Certain films have recently faced flak because of too much ‘Hollywoodisation’. Kites took a Hollywood-type story, placed it in a Hollywood-style location and brought in technicians and a look from that part of the world. Besides the failings of the story, direction and editing, what didn’t resonate with the Indian audience was the fact that the mindset of the characters also became Western. As the Yash Raj and Dharma stable has proved time and time again, the locales and the clothes can be Western, but the identity and characterisation shouldn’t. While the movie may be echoing how a certain portion of the urbane youth is beginning to feel, it doesn’t resonate with the Indianness of the Indian culture. The audience seems to prefer an aspirational look and styling, with a strong Indian sensibility. Possibly a reason why Tanu Weds Manu or a Band Baaja Baaraat scored over Anjaana Anjaani and Break Ke Baad, despite the fact that the former had an average production and the latter a slick and well-styled product.

Within the milieu of an Indian sensibility, movies that were of the different mould, may not have been runaway successes, have nevertheless prepared us to accept experimental stories: Karthik Calling Karthik, Ishqiya, Anjaana Anjaani, Wake Up Sid, Rocket Singh, Love, Sex Aur Dhoka, Dev D. Rather than embrace the old formula, others would now be more willing to tread unknown waters. Would Delhi Belly – releasing this month – stand a chance if Aamir Khan Productions, UTV and Imran Khan were not associated with it? Possibly not – there is something reassuring about a safe bet. The viewers trust Aamir’s choice, and there will be people willing to see – even if out of sheer curiosity – what he has to offer next.

Great expectations
That leads one to expectations. One expects that a movie that has a big name or multiple big names attached to it would be good. So heavyweights act like our elected representatives – we trust them to be discerning in their choices, to provide us entertainment. And sometimes, as was the case with Madhuri Dixit, we also believe that they can make even an ordinary film superlative by their mere presence. The basic premise when we know big names are associated with a project is ‘How bad can it be? It’s worth a watch.’ This is what producers bank on to recover their costs in the first weekend, and it is what makes stars feel invincible.

And the small films that became conversation starters, centrepieces and endnotes? Besides a fresh script or perspective, what they have in common is that they have at least one big banner backing them and possibly even a big production house overseeing things – Udaan (UTV), Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai (Balaji Motion Pictures), Peepli [Live] (UTV and Aamir Khan Productions), Ishqiya (Shemaroo and Vishal Bharadwaj Pictures), Band Baaja Baaraat (Yash Raj Films), Tanu Weds Manu (Viacom 18 Motion Pictures). UTV readily picks what would appear to be more experimental films – think its round up of Mumbai terror movies in 2008, while other big banners are following suit by adding smaller films to their stable to balance the money being poured into a bigger venture. UTV Motion Pictures has actually been a part of a good number of the losing films last year, but has saved face with the popularity of the small films it backed.

Brand value
Would the backing of notable production houses attract top stars to milder scripts? Maybe, if they didn’t worry so much about their brand value dipping with lower sign-up fees, they (and then in return big banners) would be willing to hedge their bets on smaller films. Would Aishwarya have done films like Chokher Bali or Raincoat (even though it meant working with acclaimed Rituparno Ghosh) in the middle of her career trajectory, had she had plum offers in hand at the time? Possibly not. At a certain stage of stardom, movie stars tend to become particularly risk-averse, afraid to jinx a happy mainstream run. Which is ironic from the tally last year – all the top stars have struggled to make it through, while non-A-list actors like Kangna Ranaut, Anushka Sharma and Madhavan, and a new breed of directors have scored big – simply by having nothing to lose.

Another recent game-changer: in a rapid movement, social media has played a role in reducing the impact of big names versus good movies. With previews and online buzz allowing a good film to gain traction possibly even before the first weekend opening or very quickly during the first weekend, it stands a fair chance of doing well overall, and continuing for a longer time in cinemas and then negotiating a more competitive price for DVD and cable rights. On the flipside, social media still only reaches out to a few multiplex audiences in the urban sectors, lacking a strong overall impact.

At the end of the day, it’s some bad choices that have made this a conversation piece: people will not stop being drawn to the glamour of huge films. As we have seen, the buzz about Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara more than sizzles, with an overwhelming amount of names (Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif, Farhan and Zoya Akhtar) and their unique combinations, including Abhay Deol and Kalki Koechlin, guaranteeing a sizeable opening. With the recent disappointments though, what will happen is that smaller films, which would ordinarily be considered niche and maybe even risky propositions, will now become more attractive to audiences who are looking for more challenging views. So the chances are the urbane audiences will watch Zindagi… and Delhi Belly this month with equal gusto. As long as there are some steady players: financiers, producers, directors and actors ready to take the plunge with small, experimental, unique films, willing to adjust budgets for the cause of the film rather than their pockets or egos, there will continue to be a breeding ground for good cinema. Where cinema remains an art form before it becomes a business.

BIG GUNS WHO MISSED THE SHOT

7 KHOON MAAF
Vishal Bharadwaj, Priyanka Chopra,
UTV Spotboy

VEER
Salman Khan,
Eros International

ACTION REPLAYY
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Vipul Shah,
PVR Pictures

GUZAARISH
Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan,
UTV Motion Pictures

RAAVAN
Mani Ratnam, Abhishek and Aishwarya Bachchan, Reliance Big Pictures,
Madras Talkies

LAFANGEY PARINDEY
Deepika Padukone, Neil Nitin Mukesh,
Yash Raj Films

KITES
Hrithik Roshan, Rakesh Roshan, Anurag Basu,
Reliance Big Pictures

BREAK KE BAAD
Kunal Kohli Productions, Reliance Big Pictures,
Deepika Padukone and Imran Khan

ANJAANA ANJAANI
Priyanka Chopra, Ranbir Kapoor

KHELEN HUM JEE JAAN SE
Ashutosh Gowariker, Abhishek Bachchan and Deepika Padukone,
UTV Motion Pictures

TEES MAAR KHAN
Farah Khan Productions, UTV Motion Pictures,
Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif

Purrfect Relations

17 Saturday Jul 2010

Posted by in Features & Trends, Publication: Verve Magazine, Social Chronicles

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Published in: Verve Magazine, Musings, June 2010

The woman behind or rather in front of the powerful Somebody, is a true gatekeeper: she can smile and grant you permission to interface with Somebody, or unleash the claws as you scramble to find cheese for your daily bread and butter. In the Tom & Jerry-esque melee, Sitanshi Talati-Parikh circumspectly lets a few cats out of the bag

You’d think you would be up against brawny armed guards that patrol the corridors of their high-profile clients, but you’d be surprised to discover that it takes but a wee woman to muscle her way into the upper echelons of high profile relations and become what we fondly call the ‘gateway’ to the terribly famous. These women can vary in designation from PR, personal assistants, secretaries, girl Fridays, media managers, simply managers…you name it and you will find that they exist. What’s interesting is the relationship quotient that exists between these people (gatekeepers or GKs and the Famous Person or FP), with whom the latter spend a good amount of their time – liaisoning, tantrum-throwing, exhibiting their inner idiosyncrasies and unflappable spirit. One of the biggest GKs of the movie industry is possibly Farzana, Rekha’s personal assistant of many years, without whose approval no one can get remotely near the reclusive actress.

You would imagine that the main idea of having this sort of a liaison officer is to make the FP look good – to steer FP’s eccentricities and indiscretions away from the public eye, and to keep them ‘clean’ and ‘lusted after’ as particularly perfect role models. While some GKs manage to do so quite effectively, ensuring that through major string-pulling certain delicious facts are never unearthed and exposed, others in fact, choose to use their shield to create an aura of star presence.

A glittering mirage is not always the aim, though. Actress Priyanka Chopra doesn’t come across as a diva or a star, but rather (in part due to her own personality) as a friendly, hard-working girl-next-door. Natasha Pal, chief operating officer, Vitcom Consulting, is responsible for creating a well-rounded strong brand identity for Chopra which extends to the Internet as well.

But if we go back to those with star presence, what exactly are we talking about? Busy, tut-tut, of course they are. Calendars are never free, they are always either on shoot or constantly travelling or ‘busy’ with other alarmingly important activities. Benefit of doubt given, until you read a gossip rag talking about how they are vacationing and turning down offers because they are ‘waiting for the right opportunity’. This is the lot of the GK of an FP who may not be a public favourite at the moment, but must be made to appear to be!

Entourage? Check. I mean no self-respecting FP will travel without his/her motley crew of spot boy, bodyguard, bag holder, dog walker, coffee maker, hairdresser, make-up artist, mobile-holder, companion, GK/manager(s), chauffeur and ego-panderer. But often we discover that it may not be the FP who believes in crowd-sourcing as accruement of power but actually their GKs who encourage the general view that (a) It’s best to squeeze out the favours one can (b) By throwing one’s weight about one’s star presence increases even more, in fact it solidifies it (c) What’s the point of being an FP if you don’t act like it? The others all do!

At one time, FP’s mummy would say ‘baby ke liye lassi laao’, now the GK informs you ahead of time that FP will require such-and-such items, and that the young and hearty FP cannot under any circumstances climb a flight of stairs for a shoot, or walk ten seconds under the sun (despite the FP being a person known for her athletic prowess) – therefore the most expensive and convenient locations and rooms must be chosen or she will not turn up.

Not to forget that the staff – such as a chauffeur or spot boy – will often have their own letterheads with which they invoice the third party, because if an FP is expected to come to a shoot or interview, her staff must be paid for. So very often, the FP comes for about half an hour, and her staff is paid by the third party an approximate month’s salary. With an FP going regularly on shoots and interviews (supply and demand being such), it makes you wonder if the FP takes a cut from the staff’s earnings! Of course, the GKs, hairdressers and make-up artists when travelling with the FP will want to travel with the FP – i.e. business or first class. The tab, once again, is picked up by the third party. Pal feels that not all clients have insane demands. “This is actually more an archaic myth than a present-day reality. The evaluation of a client’s requirement is subjective really – what is a necessity could be seen as an undue demand.”

While the relationship between an FP and a GK is mutually beneficial, you can never be certain who the real diva is in the relationship. Is it the FP who believes in throwing his/her weight around, or is it the GK who insists on doing it this way? Maybe the FP – getting filtered information through the GK – is quite unaware of what the GK is up to and how he/she is being represented. And maybe, the GK is the innocent victim of the FPs demands, often feeling foolish having to represent these to the outside world as diplomatically as possible.

Archana Sadanand, proprietor of Imagesmiths, who ably handles high-profile clients like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan and top production houses, admits that it is not always an easy road for a PR person: juggling the time constraints of an FP as well as the requirements of the media. “At times it can get sticky: a failed film or a bogie in an interview that needs firefighting. At other times a journo rubs a maker or a star up the wrong way. We have to find ways to mend the situation; some of these moments can be hilarious. It’s like being in cage with a tiger and hoping he won’t have you for dinner, but that’s the fun of it!”

GKs are often way busier than the FP – many who are affiliated to a professional organisation are not dedicated to one FP alone, often manage multiple FPs in one shot. Try calling a GK…actually rephrase that to try ever getting in touch with a GK. It is practically impossible, unless they believe you are someone worth talking to, or have something valuable to offer them in return. And at any point of time, if you have taken the effort to massage their ego, or made their FP happy, you may find yourself welcome with open arms (hyperbole). And lo and behold! If you ever make the mistake of having a personal equation with their FP – and manage to make inroads in the future without the GK as an intermediary, you will soon discover the strange truth in the wise words ‘…a woman scorned….’ You may never get through the GK again, you may find the GK publicly and unabashedly admonishing their FP for ever allowing a friendship to develop, and you may find that GK’s entire remaining client list banned from your access.

Don’t for a moment imagine that the FP controls the strings of this equation. There is no one stronger than the aide of a FP, as you will soon reluctantly come to realise. FPs who are afraid of being alone on travels, have begun to use their GK or their hair/make-up artist as the chaperone that Mummy once used to be, and you will find them even going to the extent of sharing a room with the person for companionship, as evidenced by a minor actress and her hair-dresser. Where at one point of time, you couldn’t get past a top businessman’s secretary until she wanted to let you through, or when the way into an FP’s heart was through that of her Mummy’s (Luck By Chance ably proved that), you find more and more that now you have to break through the tough shield of a GK.

Natasha Pal has often been considered Chopra’s girl Friday – she’s developed a strong personal equation with the actress. “In most situations, friendships do develop. But, there is always a line that we draw between the job that we have to do and the friendship that has developed. In order for us to be fully effective we also have to be brutally honest and in all professional situations the friendship is relegated to after working hours.”

Amitabh Bachchan’s long-time secretary, Rosie is the model of efficiency. Once a request has been received by her, you don’t need to go through the torturous chase of follow-ups. A legit query will always be handled and she will respond promptly.

However, there are those – Who Cannot Be Named – who have taken their role as a gatekeeper much too seriously. Possibly the power has gone to their head a bit, leading to the detriment of their own standing and that of their FP. Unfortunately for all, the demand for FPs far outweighs the supply, so we are forced to continue to play the cat-and-mouse game as long as divas are around and people remain interested in reading about them.

Pixie-dust Romances

17 Wednesday Mar 2010

Posted by in Art, Literature & Culture, Features & Trends, Publication: Verve Magazine, Social Chronicles

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Verve Magazine, Culturescape, February 2010

The immense worldwide success of the Twilight vampire love series and James Cameron’s epic film Avatar have made fantasy a romantic prerequisite. Fangs, love bites, fairy dust and aliens pour out of the Pandora box of magic potions, brewing tales that sell imaginary love to bewitched humans. Sitanshi Talati-Parikh finds herself taking love-struck bites

As humans get more barbaric as a race, romances tend to swirl around a fictional character of an imaginary species. What is it about Pandora and the Na’vi tribe that makes them so beautiful and desired? Or about the blood-sucking undead that makes them the modern version of Byronic or Darcyian romantic heroes? Or what attracts us to a ghost, a spirit or a powerful figment of our imagination? It’s not just the fact that their being unreal or non-real, gives me the ability to superimpose the characteristics that I wish to see in the person I love. It is also the fact that by virtue of being unreal, they can be more than we are. Either as humans we are deeply ineffectual at romance; or as people we need, nay we demand more. The inability of romantic deliverance from a human race appears to send our hearts racing towards the inhuman – in true escapist fashion.

Escapism at one point of time was candyfloss romance – where the romantic hero was kind and considerate and loved you for the woman you were, not the woman he wanted you to be. It was human to be imperfect, it was human to accept these imperfections and it was human to love them. Women have always been suckers for the knight-in-shining-armour story – it is as if, we are still waiting to be rescued if not from atypical danger, then from ourselves, and our deep-rooted insecurities. The age of Feminism masked these things under the coat of smart trousers, shorter hair, and a career. Scratch the surface though, and you will find a rather unapologetic little romantic girl hidden inside every driven woman. As Vatsala Kaul Banerjee, editorial director, children and reference books for Hachette India, publishers of the Twilight, House of Night, Sookie Stackhouse, Blue Bloods, Vampire Diaries, Night World and other such series states, “Feminism is not, and should not be, exclusive to the idea of love. Not everyone who chooses to love a male or be loved by him, even if occasionally beyond all logic, is a needy little twerp. C’mon, we’ve all been there – fallen for someone so bad, it’s been hard to think of anyone or anything else, including school or friends or family. But eventually, you get real.”

What is Edward Cullen, the famous vampire hero of the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer, if not a paternal caregiver to the rather insipid heroine Bella Swan? His primary role is in protecting her, because he is that much stronger and more powerful than she can ever be (until she turns into a vampire, that is). As she gets embroiled repeatedly in danger, he appears miraculously to save her – because she means the world to him. When he can’t be around, it is the young werewolf Jacob Black, who, again with greater powers, remains her protector. Bella, it appears, is in love with security, and whichever good-looking, charming man who can provide that kind of security to her. It is primarily the love of a teenage girl for an older, stronger man, a benefactor, a lover, and a protector.

With the fact that there is a burgeoning cult of ‘Twilight Moms’, the notion that this is merely the infatuation of teenage girls is immediately put to question. As some of these 30-plus women grudgingly admit, there is something deeply hypnotising about this romance – which fulfils their own unrequited high-school love. The trials of high-school romances and self-doubts never change – Bella, in her rather characterless state becomes an easy avatar for the reader to identify with. As an avid reader from France in her 20s, Myriam Belkis admits, “We can empathise with Bella particularly because of her unremarkability.” The reader, hopefully a stronger Bella, can morph into a young girl, who just wants the perfect guy to love her unconditionally. And so what if the guy is a blood-sucking, cold-blooded (literally) vampire? The very fact that he finds her blood intoxicating and thirsts for it, fights a moral battle every time he is with her, struggling to control himself to be with her, kisses her and withdraws from her raw passion, is inherently sexy. It is guilt-edged, morally unsound and dangerous desire that leaves the reader panting for more.

What is bothersome is Bella’s lack of control and vapidity as a heroine – at least in the first three books. While it may be easy for girls to slip into her character because it’s an empty shell, it’s rare to find readers rooting for Team Bella. The men superimpose the woman, and despite it being her story, she remains vacuous and annoying at best, irritatingly dependent on a man to make her life credible (except for the fourth book, Breaking Dawn, where she comes into her own). ‘Even after half a year with him, I still couldn’t believe that I deserve this degree of good fortune,’ says Bella in New Moon. We can’t believe it either, because she never considered herself worthy of anyone. On a very superficial level, her crisis is that of any teenage girl’s deafening insecurity and self-doubt; on a deeper level, it is disturbing to see the protagonist in one of the most popular romances of the time behave like a suicidal sacrificial lamb at the altar of love. It makes you wonder if women have come a full circle – willing to do anything for love and for a man – and does that make it endearing or frightening?

Bella is unnaturally attracted to the supernatural, making us wonder if she is inherently other-worldly (they suggest she was born to be a vampire) or if she is battling a normal teenager’s rebellious nature with an uncanny curiosity for trouble. Isn’t it more likely for Bella’s love to be infatuation than the unflinching deep love it is proclaimed to be? As a 17-year-old she takes the kind of hazardous decisions – in the name of love – that a 27-year-old would shudder to contemplate. Belkis confesses that, “At that age you are often reckless, and personally I remember my teenage feelings as the most intense I’ve had in my life.” While its appeal to a teen audience is understandable, its appeal to an older audience is Potteresque – fantasy captures the imagination like nothing else does.

And it asserts the notion of being attracted to the bad guy, and wanting to ‘fix’ the bad guy. Edward (and later Jacob) try to make Bella believe that they are dangerous and therefore shouldn’t be anywhere near her, but that just draws her to them even more, testing their endurance. We understand why she loves them, but why, oh, why, do they love her? Is it meant to be a beacon call of hope for all the spineless women out there who want to believe that Mr Perfect is hovering somewhere, even if he is an alien?

We are constantly reminded that Edward is beautiful and perfect, Jacob is warm and attractive – and it seems to be okay, particularly from a sound feminist point of retribution, to objectify men under the pretext of unconditional love, in this three-way interspecies romance. No regular teenage boy (or man for that matter) would stand a chance against a sophisticated vampire or powerful werewolf with super powers and a burning, intense, monogamous love.

It is in much the same way that the Na’vi tribe and the female lead Neytiri are objectified in Avatar – their other-worldliness, devoid of the trappings of human failings, the beauty in their every movement and relationships with their environs is viewed with reverence, envy and admiration by the voyeur-protagonist Jake Sully. It is easy for Jake to be reborn as a freer soul, powerful in ways that a human cannot be, and in tune with a better moral and ethic fibre. He is escaping from a rotten life to a better world. Aren’t we all hoping for an avatar that can help us escape the monotony and failings of our world? There is the obvious call for humans to be better, to rethink their priorities and non-ideals, because if not, all the good men are going to be falling in love with good aliens!

The love affair in Twilight is as, another reader in her late 20s, Megha Gupta, believes, “unrealistic and teenage, even stalkerish in the real world – but oh so romantic! What attracted me initially to the first book was the fantasy element, but what kept me hooked was the star-crossed lovers theme. I wanted Edward and Bella to stay young and beautiful and in love, ‘every single day of forever’.” The romance of eternity is an obvious attraction with the love of the undead: to be frozen in time appears to be an acceptable price to pay to remain eternally bound together – even if it is at the risk of losing your soul.

In Carole Matthews’ It’s a Kind of Magic, the protagonist, Emma wishes the love of her life, Leo, could magically turn into a better boyfriend, and lo behold, he does, but with an impossibly fabulous fairy girlfriend, Isobel, in tow, whom Emma cannot possibly compete with. Love has some sort of magical element attached to it that leads you to do uncontrollable things; and yet often rights things that are wrong – because as humans we are sometimes incapable of doing so.

Lara leads a desperately boring life in Sophie Kinsella’s Twenties Girl. It takes the advent of the ghost of her great-aunt Sadie to create delicious havoc and weave a wand of romance in Lara’s life, with the touch of a nostalgic past – that of a more chivalrous time. Are we harping back to a time of better – different, more meaningful love? Is something old-fashioned genetically imprinted in us, where we wish for a time where things were simpler and more complicated all at once?

Banerjee finds that the attraction lies in “an unusual, unreal, unearthly, extraordinary romance, against all odds, enticingly impossible, potentially dangerous and possibly forbidden. Whether it’s shape-shifters, ghosts or vampires…it’s dark, action-packed and sexy. Because it’s not just ordinary men and women, the parameters of romance itself become fluid, different and challenging. The emotional and physical interfaces between two people are transformed…that’s quite thrilling, I daresay. It raises the unpredictability bar and makes for exciting unknowns to unfold.”

 

It is as if we, as humans, yearn for everything good that doesn’t exist in our own version of the world. Is it a deep existential quest for a better world, a better life and a better romance that we are now looking at extraterrestrial fantasy? Or is it just that a Clueless-type romance doesn’t meet our thirst for romantic fulfilment as much as the thrill of a blood-sucking or alien fantasy might? Edward has the trappings of a perfect romantic hero – he has the lineage and hails from a time of great chivalry, he is the strong-silent type, loves unconditionally and is deeply faithful, morals and ethics mean the world to him, has all the right educational qualifications, is knowledgeable and artistic, is extraordinarily rich and doesn’t ever age! It’s true – he isn’t real. It is easier to establish perfection in one that is not human – because isn’t by definition the idea of being human equal to being interestingly imperfect? And yet, Bella and Edward are a romanticised version of award-winning film, American Beauty’s (1999) Jane and Ricky – freaks to the world that doesn’t understand them.

 

So what are we saying? Women thoughtlessly yearn for men they can never have? The fantasies will remain largely unrequited and there will be a deep sense of dissatisfaction with their men – who will, being human, be unable to live up to these other-worldly expectations. Which human man, because he may hurt her with his brutal strength, will be willing to abscond from the pleasure of sex eternally? While Meyer’s Mormon background leads her to spell out a strict moral code of abstinence and a romance of deep fortitude, I wonder if the spellbound teens may follow suit. In a racy age when sex scandals and illicit love are the order of the day, Meyer, Kinsella and to some extent Matthew refrain from it. The sensuality is derived from restrained kissing, controlled passion and stemmed desire. It is the contemplation of the act that leaves one wanting more – it is the romance of mental and suggested foreplay. It draws one to a time where love precluded lust, where instant gratification was frowned upon.

 

These books are not making excuses for what they represent. There is no deep-rooted agenda, no desire to change or improve the world, but in that very sense, as popular fiction, they are making a statement about society as a whole. As Banerjee points out, “Fiction is not about being prescriptive, didactic, apologetic or redemptive…not for publishers, and not for authors. The protagonists are characters, not examples for edification. Readers may subscribe to the subtext in their personality or personal life, and that’s their choice; but for some, saying that they are what they read may be akin to saying something as simplistic as they are criminal-minded if they read crime fiction or bile-blooded freaks if they like horror. Many mothers/parents use books such as those in the Twilight series to discuss issues of love, relationships, boundaries and choices with their girls – now there’s an unexpected good thing.”

 

Whether you consider alien fantasies escapist fare of the worst kind or a subversive pleasure in the other world, the fascination towards romance, whether human or interspecies will remain one of the most popular forms of writing to come. As we explore galaxies, planets and the dark side of human nature, we open our minds to that which may exist outside the realm of our understanding, imagination and acceptance. It’s just heartening to know that romance isn’t dead, even if it is with the undead.

‘Following’ the Stars: India’s Celebrity Twitter Story

17 Wednesday Feb 2010

Posted by in Features & Trends, Interviews (All), Interviews: Cinema, Publication: Verve Magazine, Social Chronicles

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Verve Magazine, Social Chronicle, January 2010

In 2009 the most popular word in the English language was Twitter. This online space has seen marriage proposals, scandals and ‘status updates’ at the altar, but by far the most exciting thing to hit Tweeple-world was the advent of the celebrities. As movie stars, film-makers, opinion-makers and news people took their loves, lives and peeves online, there was an automatic creation of the ‘twitterazzi’. The web crawlers – cyber voyeurs – have made famous people their ‘friends’, innocent people infamous, nobodies into celebrities and the offline media into silent, hapless observers. Sitanshi Talati-Parikh tweet talks, to see what kind of bird brings the top movie stars and opinion-makers out to play

From exclusive scoops and candid camera to Twitter
Voyeurism is one of the world’s deep failings. We can’t help wanting to know what’s happening in someone else’s life. The desire to live vicariously keeps the tabloids, gossip columns and celebrity buzz alive – people have made a living (or killing) out of it. There was a time when celebrity journalists were at a premium – privy to the most private boudoirs and most exclusive soirées. With the advent of television, the paparazzi took an ugly, invasive turn, with visuals of celebs being sold for top dollar, candid cameras trailing them at every step – crawling into their homes, even into their bathing suits. There have been fistfights and media bashing – for simply not knowing where to draw the line.

Then, the Internet changed everything. Vicious MMSes, scandalous sex tapes and politically incorrect tweets aside, celebrities have found a way to access a world of fans (and potential fans) hailing from all nationalities, without having to actually meet them face-to-face. After all, one person’s voyeur is another person’s fan. The anonymity of the Web appeals to the celebrity that is willing to stay connected to the point of involving strangers in their lives: voicing their opinions, sharing titbits about their day, their frustrations and joys, and responding to (often inane) questions. While Rangita Nandy (creative director of Pritish Nandy Communications) may believe that, “It (Twitter.com) is a new fad and people are over-assessing it,” it is an undeniable fact that celebrities are ruling roost over cyber world and we have no choice but to ‘follow’ them.

Mysterious inaccessibility or real charm?
Deepika Padukone may cling onto the good old-fashioned sense of celebrity mystery and power couple Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor may think that anyone with a life would not be on Twitter, but others are quickly finding that accessibility is more important today than it ever was. Early last year, when I first met actor Imran Khan, he remained easily accessible only to those fans that populated his unofficial fan site. Recently, he decided to dive into the vast anonymity of Twitter. We know when he’s awake, if he’s shooting or just playing X-box. He admits candidly, “A huge part of my appeal is my accessibility. I’m the universal ‘bro’ – their college buddy who made it big. It’s different from a star.” He continues with a deeper thought, “My mom couldn’t bear the thought of anyone not liking me. She brought me up in a certain way to ensure that – and I go out of my way to be nice to people to ensure that people will like me. A lot of people feel that mystery increases star appeal – and in a certain sense it does. I try and find a balance.”

Shaima, Leha and Saan, the 20-something-year-old creators of Imran Khan’s unofficial fan site, voice a definitive opinion, “If it’s a nice person, it makes him more attractive, because then fans are not just attracted to a picture or a character but to the real person. In this day and age, if any public figure chooses to remain mysterious, it doesn’t give out a good vibe.” Abhishek Bachchan would easily agree. He believes that “more is better”: “I think that age is gone where mystery sells – today if you are a bit of an enigma you are almost forgotten. Your audience wants to know you, your thoughts, your feelings and they want an interactive relationship – more tactile and approachable – with their actors; not just one of watching them on the big screen.”

Film critic and CNN-IBN entertainment editor Rajeev Masand, who prefers his global film-loving community on Twitter to the “boring incestuousness” of Facebook, seconds the thought: “It is a competitive age – there is a strong need to be quick rather than accurate with the news. It is important for a celeb to stay connected, and to put out information, correct information.”

The rules of interaction have changed
Priyanka Chopra is the queen bee of social presence: she has the most powerful social outreach programme, born initially out of “curiosity and interest” and later powered by Team Priyanka (spearheaded by Natasha Pal, chief operating officer, Vitcom Consulting). Think an active fan base of over 1,30,000 fans which is growing by the day. She posts pictures of herself while chatting, of the view from her room and scenes from her travels. “These kind of platforms do increase accessibility, but you have to put it into the context of how technology and social media networking have redefined relationships, including that of a personality and his/her audience,” she says.

“My appeal lies in my accessibility.”
– Imran Khan

Private people, public lives
Most of these movie stars are not naturally the kind of people who would get attracted to social networking tools. Admits Chopra: “It’s actually quite strange! I am a very private person and to be honest I did find it a bit difficult initially to open up.” So one wonders, what makes these people take time out of their busy schedule and bare their lives – many times a day – to anonymous people online? Of course, at the most basic level lies a desire to directly reach out to global fans, whom they may not have been able to connect to otherwise. Says Chopra, “I now actually know the names and faces of so many people who have reached out to me on these platforms. Many of them are regularly in touch with their viewpoints, questions and sometimes just lovely words of encouragement.”

Or in another exchange, Pritish Nandy and daughter Rangita often discuss their personal lives on Twitter – with public tweets running back and forth: about feeding the dog, coming home, catching a flight, etc. Rangita doesn’t find it invasive: “We choose how much personal space we want to share online. It is about being yourself, not always having to put opinions out there. We are, after all, a society of Peeping Toms. Twitter is not for an asocial person. If you can barely converse with the person sitting opposite you, then you can’t say anything on Twitter. You have to be a milder version of an exhibitionist to be on Twitter.”

Pritish Nandy clarifies, “I am cautious about what I say on Twitter, more for reasons of security than privacy I guess. After all, when we go on a social networking site we know what to expect. There will be serious intrusions: the odd crackpot who comes at you with a slingshot, hysterical ideologues jumping out of the screen at you. There will be a whole bunch of humourless people taking offence to what you say. But that’s all pretty much compensated for by the warmth and friendship of thousands of genuine tweeters having a great time out there.”

Sonam Kapoor gamely accepts it as a professional hazard: “I understand that in my profession privacy is a rare commodity and I am comfortable with these new mediums of interactivity. If Mr. Bachchan, who is reclusive, can do this, then I guess anyone can!” It actually seems to be a case in point that Amitabh Bachchan was one of the first to generate a buzz with his online presence. Often eliciting doubts about whether he is actually the blogger, die-hard fans continue to believe that the Big B is blogging daily into the wee hours of the night, from whichever part of the world he may be in. He has an avid fan base called the ‘extended family’ – to whom he directs his thoughts, angst, stress and pleasure.

The anonymity of the online space creates a great deal of confusion about whether the online tweeter is the real star or not on Twitter. A flurry of tweets are sent back and forth, with an external party confirming that Abhishek Bachchan, for instance, has been merrily tweeting to the wrong Neil Nitin Mukesh, with the fake Neil Nitin Mukesh getting a kick out of pretending to be the actor. (It’s high time the celebs all got a ‘verified account’ from Twitter.

“If you are a bit of an enigma, you are almost forgotten.”
– Abhishek Bachchan

Greater online buzz around a movie: an agenda
As we begin to wonder about stars like Abhishek Bachchan and Shahid Kapoor taking time out to get online on Twitter suspiciously around the time of a big movie release (Paa, Chance Pe Dance respectively), Bachchan apparently felt the online tug from his director-friends Tarun Mansukhani and Rohan Sippy. He suggests that, “people do end up promoting a lot of their work over there and that’s fine – but that should not be the only reason you are on Twitter. It is nice to share your life with the audience, too!” While Sonam Kapoor insists that there is “no larger plan” to her online presence, we cannot miss the fact that during the good-natured online banter between Imran Khan and (Sonam) Kapoor they are unconsciously recreating the characters of their upcoming film I Hate Luv Storys, which they happen to be shooting for at the time. Inadvertently, a buzz is created surrounding their films – and what the directors and producers hope will lead to more eyeballs on the first weekend. Not surprisingly, a fan recently tweeted to Khan, ‘I’m excited to watch IHLS becoz you give us day to day updates…I feel somewhere I am also connected with it.’

Rajeev Masand may not be off the mark when he suggests that a larger weekend turnout for the movie Wake Up Sid was because of Karan Johar’s (and Konkana Sen Sharma’s) tweets. What would have happened had Ranbir Kapoor found the time or the inclination to twitter talk?

Khan, on the other hand, thinks it’s debatable, pointing out that Twitter can actually damage collections from the first day with the spiralling effect of a bad review.

I won’t promote myself online, someone else will
Twitter can easily become polluted as a space for blatant promotions and in-your-face marketing. Rangita Nandy battles with using the domain as an area to promote the films she is producing. “The noise on Twitter is revolting people. We need to clear the clutter. Marketing should be done intelligently.” Actors like Priyanka Chopra, Imran Khan and Abhishek Bachchan have kept the demarcation pretty clear, with a separate handle for their personal tweets (managed by themselves via their mobiles), and a promotional fan handle for their marketing tweets (managed by their staff or fans).

“I understand that in my profession privacy is a rare commodity.”
– Sonam Kapoor

Podium to direct public opinion
Speaking directly to this young global audience is also a perfect platform to generate public opinion or voice their own on important issues. Like voting, for instance. Chopra tweeted a picture of herself and her brother showing their voting mark, while Khan (who also lends his voice to being environment-friendly) and Sonam Kapoor urged the youth to get out and do so. Newscasters like Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt, opinion-makers like Pritish Nandy and political leaders like Shashi Tharoor inform us about their opinions (some more strongly than the others) and thoughts on a daily basis. Gul Panag, considering herself “more of an opinion-maker than a celebrity”, believes her credibility and integrity comes from not mincing words – despite who may be ‘listening’.

Pritish Nandy believes that the dynamic online space is not just about interaction, but about sustained interaction, and prefers to watch to see whether these celeb tweeters will stick. “Film stars can get a huge and instant fan base on Twitter, true. But can they sustain an interesting dialogue Currently I see only Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Gul Panag, Riteish Deshmukh, Mallika Sherawat and Imran Khan reaching out to their fans through Twitter. Some are succeeding. Some are already getting boring.”

The good, the bad, and the ugly…
An autograph is so 1950. A mobile photo is dependent on being at the right place at the right time. An online chat is a rarity. But being ‘followed’ by a star is the new mantra for young fans who throng Twitter-world. Lording it over their friends when they get a response, fans are incessantly demanding and movie stars are responding to their demands. It takes a lot of courage for celebrities – despite the fact that they are gathering brownie points and a huge online fan base – to engage an audience that can be as fickle as they are loyal.

Privy to some of the disturbing hate mail that Khan got after simply requesting people to avoid air and noise pollution via firecrackers during Diwali, leads me to see how people misuse the platform to lash out with personal angst and impolite criticism. “The downside of accessibility is that you’re also open to abuse and negativity. It takes a lot to not snap and react,” says the young actor, who chooses to concentrate on the landslide of positive responses. “I do feel overwhelmed, that’s why I go off Twitter for a few days. There are weird people out there; people who feel that you owe them something – ‘why aren’t you replying to me?’ or pleas of ‘please follow me!'” Creators of Khan’s fan site agree that even on a moderated forum, the space is deeply invasive. “The weirdest one was a guy, spamming our mailbox everyday to pass the message that Khan was in great danger and that only he could save him!”

Personally-intrusive negativism aside (Celina Jaitley and Mallika Sherawat have had to fight off online pursuers); through this medium, work criticism (and praise) also finds it way easily to the eyes of actors. But maybe, as Masand suggests, the bitter pill is better digested when coming from a fan rather than a critic “The celebs are happy to respond to the praise and the criticism – they take to criticism from fans better than from critics. After all, you are doing it for them, you have to lump it!”

The changing role of media
The big question is where does the media fit in? Chopra believes in its continued importance: “Platforms like this present the opportunity to connect one-on-one with the audience, with a two-way direct dialogue, with no one else in between. Currently and for some time in the future, I believe that both will continue to co-exist. The only difference is that, as with the Internet, information dissemination on these platforms is immediate, creating, in a sense, an alternative source of news and information, as many recent world events prove.”

Khan finds that there will always be a space for deeper interactions. “There are some people – I am one of those people – who want to know more about people they admire in some way. There are some things I won’t find out through Twitter or online chat. Besides, you don’t realise how many people are in places that don’t have the Internet – they wouldn’t know Twitter if it jumped up and bit them. It is arrogant to ignore the fact that newspapers and magazines, particularly in the Hindi language, are immense in scope.”

Panag has found that talking directly online means not waiting to be interviewed to share an opinion or a thought. Besides, it is an optimum place to make an announcement – replacing a press release – she finds herself quoted straight from Twitter on many occasions.

One form doesn’t need to be different from the other, though. The definition of media can be all-inclusive, as Abhishek Bachchan points out: “We are all part of the same medium which is media. A film at some level is also a form of media. Yes, I think artistes do have a new conduit to reach their voice, their opinion to the audience but I don’t think that means they should do without the media – it is a conscience of a nation and it should forever be there.” Pritish Nandy adds another dimension to the thought, “The media is a great intermediary. But intermediation does not always improve or enhance communication. Sometimes, in fact, it distorts it. For me, both media and social networking sites are crucial in today’s world. They support each other and correct each other’s failures.”

I can’t help but agree. Being fatalistic about the future of media is irrelevant. Factually, we have no choice but to embrace newer forms of interaction – whether we chose to be early adopters, or the grudging lot who will squeal, drag their feet and find themselves lost in a sea of information; go online we must. Maybe for the media, the fear stems from a loss of control, even a missing sense of ownership – at a point of time the intermediary remained of paramount importance, now it becomes a bystander in more transparent proceedings. For the others, it’s a whole new world out there – brave and demanding. Sharing your thoughts; and getting to know your ‘neighbourhood’ celeb can be deeply gratifying: find that voyeur in you, and you may surprise yourself by enjoying it.

“I am a very private person and I did find it a bit difficult initially to open up.”
– Priyanka Chopra

Desi Tweeters (Follow the Verve references online…)

Abhishek Bachchan Tweets vary from merely prolific (around the time of the movie release) to interesting and erudite, sometimes including the ‘mrs’ in his personal anecdotes. Twitter: @juniorbachchan Twitter followers: 22,263 Tweets: 1620.

Amitabh Bachchan On his blog, he truly connects with his ‘extended family’ and talks to them, even replies to them on a regular basis. It’s only when the media aggravates him that he starts a bit of a rant online. Blog: http://bigb.bigadda.com/

Gul Panag Ranking among the top tweeters of India, she was asked to be the official tweeter for Delhi Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week. Her views on everything sometimes get lost in the info about her personal life. Twitter: @gulpanang Twitter followers: 32,439 Tweets: 10,307; Website: www.gulpanag.net

Imran Khan It’s his deadpan replies to some of the quack questions he gets (on Twitter) that are really the icing. To really get who he is, read his weekly column in Hindustan Times. Twitter: @1mrankhan Twitter followers: 30,072 Tweets: 1764; Unofficial fan site www.imran-khan.org

Karan Johar His Koffee-time brilliance is missing. No great insights – rather one begins to feel it’s a task he’s keeping up, wishing tweeples good morning and good night, with info about missed flights and problems/ stress while shooting. Twitter: @kjohar25 Twitter followers: 46,992 Tweets: 418.

Neil Nitin Mukesh Engages with his activities and polite replies to his fans. Twitter: @NeilNMukesh Twitter followers: 3,782 Tweets: 287.

Pritish Nandy He has serious views on everything – and right after reading his seven daily papers, there will be a barrage of tweets online. He regularly links his weekly column to his tweets with a ‘try this’ – so you can’t miss it. Twitter: @PritishNandy Twitter followers: 12,459 Tweets: 11,658.

Priyanka Chopra Always her vivacious self, with a powerful branding machine behind her and an ever-growing fan base, it is unlikely that she will stop tweeting any time soon. Facebook; Orkut; YouTube; Official website: www.iampriyankachopra.com;
Twitter: @priyankachopra Twitter followers: 102,640 Tweets: 1182.

Rajdeep Sardesai Twitter: @sardesairajdeep Twitter followers: 19,323 Tweets: 1086; and Barkha Dutt Twitter @bdutt Twitter followers: 39,580 Tweets: 4165. Are as newsy as you’d expect. It’s easier than watching TV.

Rajeev Masand He has managed to engage an audience of film-lovers. Watch out for his never-easy quizzes, updates on his interviews and most importantly, film preview reviews. Twitter: @RajeevMasand Twitter followers: 13,729 Tweets: 4699.

Rangita Nandy Twitter’s her “online diary” and the space is “a world adda for gossip and fun”. Twitter: @RangitaNandy Twitter followers: 1767 Tweets: 2059.

Shahid Kapoor A new advent on Twitter, sneakily close to his film release (Chance Pe Dance). The news leak of Genelia being his first Twitter mate reeks of the true purpose behind getting online. Twitter: @shahidkapoor Twitter followers: 21,009 Tweets: 486.

Shashi Tharoor Claim to fame is the apparently incendiary tweet that sent cows racing. After which we only hear of his comings and goings. Twitter: @ShashiTharoor Twitter followers:525,298 Tweets: 2488.

Sonam Kapoor Can be soulful and fun. Never opinionated, more musings. Check out the bravely untouched pictures of her that she uploads – always managing to look ravishing. Facebook; Twitter: @sonamakapoor Twitter followers: 33,916 Tweets: 1014.

Sitanshi Talati-Parikh: @sitanshi; Verve Magazine: @vervemagazine
(Listing in alphabetical order. Data current at the time of printing.)

Tweets Buzz

@Imrankhan (replies)
‘the thing to remember is, no one ever starts out thinking “this time, I’m going to make a REALLY bad movie. A real stinker!”‘
‘I take compliments where I can get them!’ (in response to: After all, you don’t look like a liar)

@juniorbachchan
‘We actors are a weird lot. Out of the thousands of well wishers and compliments and good things said to us, it takes just one negative… To ruin it all. Why are we so myopic? Wish we could focus on the positives. Takes a very strong person to block out negativity and focus.’

@kjohar25
‘i woke up feeling restless today…wondering if only my work defines me…do i really have a personal life?’
‘Saturdays and i have a strange relationship!! they always get me down for some reason! so..’

@priyankachopra
‘one of those nights… decisions???!! why do we even have to take them…’

@PritishNandy
‘We cant afford to have both dying on us together. The integrity of media n the integrity of our art n culture. Tweeple must be vigilant.’

@RajeevMasand (reply)
‘Lol..we shd all be allowed our own opinions, don’t u think? If u hated it, why shd I be expected to feel the same way. How foolish.’

@sonamakapoor
‘Feeling very lazy. Very comfy and relaxed. Sometimes being single is fun. Watching TV series and vegging out alone is really rejuvenating.’

Dialogue between @kjohar25 and @Imrankhan
kjohar25: ‘hey tweeple…at the office…feeling terrible for my best friend and CEO apoorva mehta…he is a huge pile of work everyday to tackle…’
Imrankhan: ‘I believe that’s called a Freudian slip.’
kjohar25: ‘sorry…i meant he HAS a huge pile of work to tackle’
kjohar25: ‘ha! ha! trust me it was a genuine language slip!!!’
Imrankhan: ‘I’ve met very few people with better grammar than you. I ain’t buying the story!’