TELEVISTA
This is not done
Amita Malik

I have been watching with increasing dismay how all the channels, not forgetting news channels, are making it their main business, after politics and sport, to pry into the private lives of people in the public eye. This is legitimate news when it concerns their careers. For instance, the affairs of former US President Clinton and his wife’s reaction to them were the subject of endless public discussion. At the moment, the hottest topic is the President of France being the chief guest at the Republic Day function and the protocol problem caused by his girlfriend and, perhaps, wife-to-be, who is also coming, now as a delegate. This is of public interest.

Storm over a tea cup? Deepika and Yuvraj are continuously being chased by the media

We in India, meaning the press and media, are extremely tolerant of the affairs of our top people. Everybody knows about the man-woman relationships of various presidents, prime ministers, state ministers et al, but they are seldom written about or discussed in the media. I am not sure whether that is a good or bad thing. Let us call it the Indian way. What I am objecting to is the relentless pursuit of young people in various walks of public life, whom the media pursues in gleeful detail.

At the moment it is the example of the relationship between Yuvraj Singh and Deepika Padukone. No one would mind if they were shown on TV and their relationship was discussed occasionally with factual details.

But it is not done that way. When Deepika goes to Sydney to shoot for a film, that fact is cleverly underplayed and the media mentions, instead, that Yuvraj Singh is paying for her passage and her stay. Well, that is his and their business and it seems mean to go into such sordid details. In fact, when they are dining quietly in a restaurant in Sydney, the spying cameras capture a shot of their eating food, and this sort of half shot is presented to viewers as a great piece of investigative journalism.

For that matter, at least three channels have devoted their entire programmes, one a full half hour and another a full hour in bits and snatches to the two.

It is not confined to their present relationship, including the earlier speculation about her being admired by Dhoni and whether these two cricketers remain friends with the focus shifting to Yuvraj. No, it is much worse than that. The so-called investigative journalists have dug up who are the men who pursued Deepika earlier. How and why Yuvraj’s much-publicised relationship with Kim Sharma was called off. Even Yuvraj’s mother was dragged in.

It is perfectly natural for young people to fall in love and out of it. After all, it is love which makes the world go round. But must the prying cameras get imperfect shots of a young couple dining in a restaurant? Do viewers really want it? For years the Bombay film industry fed the box office with tripe, saying that was what cinegoers wanted. Until they were found out. Not that some people do not relish the publicity.

Shilpa Shetty thrives on it, and as a family the Bachchans seem to enjoy holding up the general public on what should be their private visits to temples so that TV cameras can show them in the act of worship. I feel permission of people who do not want this kind of publicity for their private lives should be taken as also that of viewers.

What seems to be the most ugly controversy in cricket from Down Under is dominating the screen these days. Symonds, with his plaited hair and white paint smeared on the face, finds it strange and insulting when people allegedly refer to him as monkey, which is hardly a racial word in India. But when it comes to banning Harbhajan, who probably does not know the meaning of the word racist, one is glad the BCCI is trying to salvage some prestige. But is the BCCI doing enough? We should not be overawed by the goras. If the Australians are treating India (and the Indians) like a colony, we have only ourselves to blame, and this is amply demonstrated on the small screen as far as the Australian attitude is concerned. Just see the way Ponting behaves.