No one is more unforgiving than the flashlight. Celebrities receive showers of love and appreciation. Their fan following gingerly look forward to the events in their life. However, this backfires more times than we can count. Prime example, being Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma. And their newborn daughter. "As parents, we have a simple request to make to you. We want to protect the privacy of our child, and we need your help and support," the couple issued a statement recently.
Earlier Kohli had announced the arrival of their baby girl on Instagram:
The hounds of media spare no one
The lights flickering fairytales and the camera screening the reflection of rumours bearing in the eye of the camera holder are brutal. The news pages, magazines, vlogs and online publications rarely hold sensitivity to the star. Abusing their privacy and right to exclude or include information is considered great journalism. Their lives are not sting operations which can give us our daily dose of entertainment. Their intimate life events are personal to them. Making them public might be a choice. But they fully reserve the right to not talk about anything personal.
Stars and celebrities are also a component of society and face human limitations. They are not media mice or paparazzi pleasers. Salman Khan was banned by photographers for not posing in a particular position, till the release of his movie Kick. Shraddha Kapoor faced the wrath of the ban by them after refusing airport shots. Saif Ali Khan said at many junctures that the media should go easy on his son Taimur.
Kajol in a statement said "If something like this were to happen with Nysa or Yug, I'd be infuriated. It's sad that the Indian paparazzi has reached a stage where it can do this to a kid. What happened with her sounds like bullying to me. We are stars; it's our job to accept all of that. But to be doing that to someone who is nothing more than an impressionable teenager, is harassing her in plain words. They should be more responsible when it comes to dealing with our kids. We signed up for this, they didn't."
Also Read:Anushka Sharma Slams Paparazzi For Invading Privacy: Why Should It Even Come To This?
Will media ever stop blowing the trumpet of celebrities?
Meanwhile the country is simmering with issues and concerns. These concerns are just waiting for an outlet and voice. But how will media lend the underprivileged a flute when they are busy blowing the trumpet of celebrities?
Just because two famous people marry each other or decide to start a family, does not mean they consent to share every part of their life with the public. Nobody needs to know if they hiccuped this morning or what did their house-help wear. The information shared on their public platforms is an official remark by them. Other than that, becoming a Jagga Jasoos to hunt the shade of their underwear or to check if their eyebrows have three undone strands is not the definition of journalism.
Rumour mongering and scandal hunting might be well-paying at times and result in unprecedented traffic. Let us not forget the kind of damage and emotional numbing the celebrity or star has to face due to the paparazzi. Privacy is a valid right and sensationalization of intimate life events genuinely needs reconsideration. Those who wish to portray their personal life in public, are more than welcome by the media. Whereas those who need to reconcile with the cool shade of privacy, can make their own call.
Respecting someone and being their fan does not permit us reckless access to their lives. Stardom cannot mean abuse of privacy. Seemingly media houses, in India, are yet to learn this.
The views expressed are the author's own.
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