Why do politicians want to make a fool of themselves by getting their photographs embedded in ridiculous places... Some of the public service ads like this one amuse me no ends.
For last few days... there has been ample debate about Baichung Bhutia's refusal to carry the Olympic Torch when its in
While supporters of Tibetan cause believe that Aamir/Saif should boycott the torch run in support of the Tibetans who have made India their home now... there are many others who suggest that Olympics is not about China and the spirit of the game and all that...
Aamir has explained his own position in his blog here... making clear that he would not boycott - for blah blah reasons. He argues that all governments in the world commit human right violations and thus, its not a reason enough to protest and refuse to associate with the Olympic torch...
Now... if you read between the lines - what he basically wants to say – but doesn't have the balls to say is:
"Coca-Cola,
Come on!!! If Coca-Cola were to get in infrastructure development projects - I would be actually doing events in support of
Forget -
Double standards? Myopia...? Or just plain commerce...
PS:
This takes away nothing from the fact that he is an awesome actor - who made most of India wake-up with TZP... but then he needs to stop acting in real life and get down from that self created high pedestal of free ideology... and admit that its 'pure commerce' that works...
While browsing through news channels today evening, I was stopped at NDTV for a while. Prannoy Roy was the news anchor - and thats what amused me and made me stop at the channel - wondering how attrition in his ranks
must be troubling him, like it does in my industry.
But yesterday, I got the shock of my life… when in one of her serials on Star Plus, the whole Virani family was shown blatantly promoting “Karyasiddhi Graha Shanti Dhoop”. I didn’t notice the promo till they focussed on the packing which carried Ekta Kapoor’s picture on it. What got my goat was the shameless promotion done in the soap. It seemed like a paid advertisement instead of soap… I for a while thought it was a joke or a spoof, till my wife (who happens to be the know all of tube-world and soaps… and the reason I have to watch this stuff) confirmed that it was indeed a product Ekta had launched in the market.
I am still amused as to why a media house like Balaji Telefilms would diversify into manufacturing ‘dhoop’ and incense sticks – maybe coz it didn’t make sense to make toiletries like toothpaste and shampoo, given their portfolio of soaps sucks… and coz they have 300+ year old brand ambassadors like Baa’ to cash in on.
I was left wondering if people will actually buy this product…imagine buying Graha Shanti Dhoop from Ekta Kapoor – to get the kind peace Aggrawal’s, Bajaj’s, Basu’s, Virani’s etc have in her stories. Damn!!! I would believe this dhoop if anything is a curse – to never-ending family feuds, conspiring relatives, multiple failed marriages, women with multiple husbands, men with multiple affairs and marriages, illegitimate children and what not.
Do you want such ‘Graha shanti’ in your home…? At least I don’t want the kahani of ‘Kahani Ghar Ghar ki’ to be the kahani of my ghar…
Yeah yeah… I know the co-relation is illogical. After-all, using Anchor toothpaste doesn’t mean your teeth get electrified. Huh… but Ekta Kapoor Dhoop… still makes me laugh.
This thread reminds me of another news item from last month which referred to a survey revealing “that jawans posted to remote locations around the country love watching saas-bahu serials to de-stress in hostile terrains”. Do you know how it de-stresses them? Well, simple. They figure out that they could in far more stressful situations back at home than dealing with the terrorists here, just if the “kahani of their homes were to be just a shade of kahanis of Ekta’s homes”
Annu Malik)
judges.
by Laughter Challenge show on StarOne. And well – how could others not copy it to be innovative and different. They have had a long trend of uniqueness in their shows for ages – so what is all the serials in all the channels are the same or even cooked by the same chef. Or when one KBC kicked off a chain of me-too's. Or even the spate of imitation laughter shows flooding the channels.Watching the snapshots of Indian Idol Season-3 today on television, I was left wondering... "What the hell are most of these people thinking?"
Don't get me wrong... of course there are a handful of good talented singers out there.
But what is the vast majority of the crowd out there thinking... worse so what kind of feedback have their friends, parents and well wishers given them. Most of them can't sing a line right... even a stone deaf person can tell that they have no business even singing in their own bathrooms – least of all coming for an audition. Yet there are such characters in hordes' each time, making complete fools of themselves on camera in front of the whole nation.
Are we a nation of hugely delusional people? Or is it a new pass time to prove how stupid you can be to the whole nation? Most of the time, the audition rounds look more like a laughter show than a music talent search... Do these folks really believe that they are 'good' singers… didn't their friends or people at home show them the mirror…? Its actually funnily shocking to see parents and guardians of some of these people get wild when their wards are rejected...Geez!!! smell some coffee.
But then maybe many of them are banking on just being sheer lucky to get a ticket to Mumbai – and then hope that some regional vote bank will catch fancy of them and push their envelope further. It's not impossible – we have seen Qazi Tauqeer get to the top with less than a spoonful of singing talent, or a Sanjay Malakar fight it out for long with just popular vote bank support.
Why does the channel actually show all this to viewers instead of cutting straight to the selected lot? Maybe Sony is indeed fighting the dilemma of combating TRPs of both Star One's Laughter Challenge and Zee's "Music Challenge" at the same time... thereby making the initial rounds of the music search more of a comedy show.
Blood Diamond – starring Leonardo DiCaprio
Why are we Indian’s obsessed with foreign acceptance?
This is the question that has been frustrating me today…
Earlier today – I saw a not so well known TV actor Gaurav Chopra (has been seen in some TV soaps on Zee/Star Plus and also recently as the first round elimination along with his live-in partner Narayani Shastri on “Nach Baliye”) giving a loooooong interview to a TV news channel – about his part in the Hollywood blockbuster “Blood Diamond”… and his interactions with Leonardo DiCaprio. He even had anecdotes to share on how he was mistaken for an Italian football star – and how he and Leonardo had their trailers parked side by side….and the learnings he had from Leanardo about not having starry tantrums like the other stars in Bollywood do. Quite a lot of learning from less than 5 seconds of screen time with him…
Mistaken by this bravado – I went ahead and watched the movie later today…
Much like Mallika Sherawat’s much hyped appearance in “The Myth” which didn’t last more than two minutes… Gaurav’s appearance turned out to be lesser than that a 30-seconds long with barely an un-heard dialogue “there is no space inside”.
Had the TV channel even bothered to find out what he was upto in the movie...? What did Gaurav think before making such long statements...
What made Gaurav come on national television with such hype and pride? Maybe he thought not many will see the movie anyway (which is probably true) and yet he will get away with some brownie points… and some better scope with the talent hunters for the next soap on air… Or is it the sheer over powering urge we Indians have with getting a phoren’ stamp – be it the ‘now here now gone’ appearances of Gulshan Grover in Hollywood flicks which he doesn’t tire speaking about or be it the - ‘I will get an H1 before marriage at any cost’ attitude of each and every South Indians…we want a stamp of ‘phoren’ acceptance – irrespective of whether its worth anything at all. I have seen a few good close friends, who delayed getting married around the 2001 slowdown – just because they didn’t want to marry without an H1 stamped on their passports, bore the costs of their visa’s by paying the bodyshoppers, went to USA and hunted for tech jobs at their own cost – and once finally industry turned around and they stuck some good luck – they did get married too, the same traditional way they would have got married a good 2 years ago. But aaah… they wouldn’t have had the foreign colour to they visa that time.
Why is every Indian obsessed with when Aishwarya is doing her next Hollywood film, when Amitabh or Hrithik will break into a Los Angel’s movie career or what happened to Salam Khan’s Hollywood escapade “Marigold”, and what even an otherwise not-so-starry Kabir Bedi did in Hollywood or the American soaps like “Bold and Beautiful”…or when Sush will be seen alongside Richard Gere…or they never ending question - Oscar?
Be it the movie arena, or be it the whites adopting our age-old yoga, ayurveda, pranayama techniques or vedic thoughts - we seem to acknowledge and accept faster once the west has given a stamp of approval.
Are we still living in a colonial past…? Are we still burdened with the load of acceptance by the white skin…?
Yesterday there was one more news story in all the news channels – Sanjay Dutt performing a pooja/havan in Siddhivinayak temple – we all know why?
This sort of had a deja-vu… or rather a news burn-out effect on me. Why is it that every second day there is a news item of someone visiting
I have come believe now that all TV news channels have a dedicated team of reporter/camera-man deputed permanently to watch the visitors in this temple now…It’s a great place for celebrity spotting and getting some scoops for news… Whether its some one coming to pray for a favourable judgment in the courts, or reality show contestants coming in to pray for more SMS’s in their favour, or cricketers for finding favour with selectors, wannabe leaders or have been leaders just before the election results, parents and family members of ‘Big boss’ hostages, the finalists of Indian Idol or Nach Baliye, or someone from Ekta Kapoor pack emoting for a dying ‘husband’… yahan sabh milta hai!!!
So why go elsewhere pleading and begging some so-called celebrity for news bites… you get them fresh and easy here – served to you on a pooja thaali.
For years, star crazy Indian’s have flocked to
Yeah…I won’t be surprised if the last one too shows up some day on one of these channels.
And why not? Aaj Tak began this crazy marketing gimmick few years ago – and what a gimmick. TV channels in partnership with the service providers have been raking in a cool moolah for a while… each time a gullible viewer yields to the exhortations and punches away an SMS, either voting on some irrelevant questions or sending in a comment which no one cares for. And of course, there are millions of such gullible viewers in this land of tube addicts. The folks at the channel who worked out this idea for the first time must have got a hefty bonus for it…
But what amuses me beyond limit is the stupidity of the questions… and worse still the stupidity of thousands of viewers who actually spend their own money (sending one such sms costs anything between Re1 to Rs6) responding.
Do people really fall for the idea that their SMS will cause a change of heart in Bharti Yadav… or does CNN-IBN claim to have a power to influence the judges with the revenue they earn from the poll campaigns.
Do people believe their SMS will pressurize BCCI into picking Saurav again (he did it finally)… or does the Star News mean to tell the viewers that they can actually buy him a place in the team with the revenue they earn…
Or they can sign up the President for a image makeover contract with some good deal, or convince the Bacchaans, Rais and the stars to fall in-line with the public opinion.
If not, then what compels these people to really send in those SMS’s…?
To my understanding, the closest explanation that exists is – a false sense of control. People get a false sense of ego satisfaction and control over forming an opinion – which, given the total lack of control we otherwise have in spite of our democratic setup, is a huge boost for the otherwise battered middle class. Having failed to get their due from politicians they elected, the bureaucracy that abuses them, the judiciary that keeps them waiting, the taxes that don’t benefit them… the thousands of actions they take daily without a power to change anything and not off their own sweet will – people get a false sense of salvation – when they get to give an opinion. Not withstanding that this vote of their makes no difference to anything at all – except to their next cell phone bill. Not withstanding that the result of all such polls is more predictable than the way Indian cricket team will loose next time. Not withstanding that this poll and its result will be forgotten the moment the next breaking news happens…
Reminds me of a dialogue in “You’ve Got Mail” where Tom Hanks’ character says something like –
"The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are, can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall! Decaf! Cappuccino!"
That’s the story of this Indian middle class viewer too…
