Ambani Grandson Viral Photo: Paparazzi's Obsession With Celebrity Kids Is Unhealthy

The grandson of the richest man in India attended his first day of playschool and the Indian paparazzi went berserk. Prithvi Akash Ambani, the year-old child of Akash Ambani and Shloka Mehta, was clicked in his mother's arms earlier this week in Mumbai's upscale Malabar Hill, where the school he attends is located. Photos of the toddler soon went viral on social media, with media houses as well as netizens resharing them without restraint.

In India, the celebrity obsession culture doesn't just stop at the celeb themself. The mania extends to everyone associated with them even by a remote margin. Kids too do not escape this purview. While the spotlight never budges from the Ambani family, should it necessarily glare over an underage child as well? He went to school, yes - but what's the headline here?

With the news media, buttressed by social media today, anything goes. Celebrity kids doing even the most mundane, kid stuff finds its way into national broadcasts. The euphoria peaked when Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor gave birth to their first child in 2016. Taimur quickly became a national darling, with people cooing and awwing even over his potty activities.

But did that bode well for the kid? As documented through the paparazzi's own videos, the now five-year-old often reacts to the media with some hostility and a face clouded in suspicion.

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Ambani Grandson Viral Photo: Kids deserve personal space

Our fixation with superstar babies exists in a space of irony. Where on one hand, the undue attention given to VIP families in public fora irks us, making us question their privilege, we shower them with similar adulation and voyeurism when it suits our interests. How can both ideas co-exist?

The Ambani baby's first birthday celebration in December last year had made the online audience simultaneously groan and gush. Evidently, we like to tune into the lavish habits of the rich and are so deeply invested in their lives that we are ready to take a no-holds-barred approach in following every little thing they do.

Does that warrant conjuring up headlines about something as basic as a kid's first day of school?

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The celebrity kid culture has even stretched so far as to try and legitimise breach of personal space. When actor Anushka Sharma was pregnant with her first child last year, a prominent media publication deviously clicked her spending time with her husband Virat Kohli on their balcony, despite the couple requesting the cameras to be kept away.

While some famous parents may revel in the popularity of their born or unborn child, many others may want to start their children off on regular lives away from showbiz. And isn't that only fair? Do we hold entitlement to question these choices of &t=28s">parenthood they make?

Should fan frenzy toe the line of privacy?

Views expressed are the author's own.