Shahrukh khan bollywood actor controversy

THE BLOGGING bug has bitten Bollywood denizens in a big way. Blogging has been a very popular thing to do in Hollywood for a very long time but is relatively new amongst our Bollywood hunks and beauties. Some like Aamir Khan have been doggedly at it for quite sometime now and others like Amitabh Bachchan are just cutting their teeth in the world of blogs.

Aamir’s posts until recently have been an interesting but tame affair. Now, however, stirred into action, perhaps, by the growing popularity of the latest kid on the blogging block, namely Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir has thrown all caution to the winds. His latest post about a smelly, family dog named Shahrukh has the world of bloggers in a tizzy. As expected, this post has attracted thousands of comments.

While many object to his posting as an ‘unsporting’ post about a fellow actor, others have enjoyed seeing Shahrukh being taken down a notch. Lending a hand to this new Bollywood obsession with pulling King Khan down is Amitabh who has christened King Khan’s new show ’Paanchvi Fail’. Blessed with a good writing style, Amitabh masquerades on his blog as a well meaning patriarch of the movie world whose interest in finding out the reasons behind Khan’s show failing are supposed to be purely academic in nature. Yeah right, academic they are what with graphs and pie charts comparing the television rating point’s (TRP) of his show, ’Kaun Banega Crorepati’ (KBC) with Paanchvi Pass!

This is the brave new world of blogging. Say what you want to about your fellow actors and get fawning and fuming fans visiting your blog in droves. As they say there is no such thing as bad publicity so court controversy now outside the folds of conventional media without the fear of legal headaches. Am I being cynical? Maybe, I am. But what else are my options when I read in a respected daily that Big B was paid Rs 100 crores for his blog. Excuse me, money for running a blog? A blog, that then masquerades as an outpost of Big B’s genuine thoughts and feelings? Maybe his thoughts and feeling are genuine. Who am I to judge? But when you have a price tag of a hundred crores attached to your thoughts and feelings then maybe the stage is set for a sell out.

Its early days still in the Bollywood blogosphere and I am not sure where things will lead. Big B took a lot of flak, via the comments on his blog, for his ruminations about ’PaanchviFail,oops err, Paanchvi Pass’. So he has now come out offering an apology to Shahrukh for any insult caused to him via the blog or otherwise. I am now waiting to see if Big B will quit blogging (I don’t think so he can if has pocketed a hundred crores for it) or tone down his posts and comment only on non-controversial issues.

Aamir being Aamir, a self-styled rebel of the world of Bollywood, has not posted anything after that post about a smelly dog named Shahrukh licking his feet and asking for his attention. The bloggers have generally plastered his blog with comments condemning his post. From cursing him in four lettered words to just expressing their disappointment the readers have left no doubt about what they think about such low brow use of a blog.

But then aren’t blogs meant to be your little bubble in life where you post what you want to, when you want to and as you want to? There are no easy answers. Where does the limit of personal freedom lie in the world of blogs? Can truth, decency, moral standards and civilised behaviour all be brushed aside in the exercise of ones’s bloggo-freedom?

While many of us ponder these questions, the media savvy Shahrukh has taken the steam out of Aamir’s post by brushing it aside as just a humourous post that is tongue in cheek but not offensive. This is where King Khan scores over his rivals. He is the master conductor of the opera called media and manages with a few words and a dimpled smile, which eludes both Big B and Aamir, namely the art of generating good public relation (PR) out of any situation.

The current round of Shahrukh centred posts proves one thing for sure. You can love him or hate him but you cannot ignore King Khan. Both Big B and Aamir may posture about how irrelevant Khan’s status in the industry and his place in the mind space of the average Indian is to their work and popularity, but the fact is that they too can not venture too far without returning to the topic of King Khan. They just proved this with the posts on their blogs.