Ram Bharose
Ram Kamal Mukherjee
Need your dose of goss on everyone from Rani to Rajni? This is where you get the stories right from the bedrooms of the stars
Amitabh is getting it all wrong…
Monday, May 12, 2008
The entire idea of writing a blog is not just about settling personal score with your detractors. I think most of the celebrities have started writing blogs. With websites cropping up everyday, people are getting more and more hooked on to blogging. Most of the celebrities are writing about themselves and their problems with detractors. I don't blame any of the stars, because I have not seen many stars who can think beyond, 'Me, mine and myself!'
But when I heard about Mr Amitabh Bachchan planning to interact with his fans through his blog, it was seemed exciting. I had the opportunity to interview Amitabh many a times and needless to say, my experience was good. I remember Amitji reacting to one of my SMSes, where he wrote back saying, "Your messages are rude. You need to be polite!" Frankly speaking, I was a bit taken aback and was wondering what made him think so? He further clarified that I need to be careful with my words and write it in a way, which would not make the other person offensive. I took his advice and made changes with immediate effect.
The Bachchan that I know of and probably the entire nation knows of, is humble and polite. He has never heard of hitting anyone below the belt. But I think, his recent blog (on Khalid Mohamed) was really uncalled for. I mean he has every right to counter reports on his film Bhootnath and promote his film through his blog, but I don't think he had any right to make a 'gender' comment on any critic. Calling Khalid as Khalida was a complete shocker for all Bachchan fans. If he wanted to settle score with Khalid (for Khalid called him Daddu in one of his columns, Honey's Hat, published everyday in Hindustan Times) then he could have done it with a bit of humor. And I am sure even Khalid would have taken it with a pinch of salt.
Stars have taken personal interest in hitting out at journalists and media persons through their blogs using the power of pen… or call it the pen-drive in i-age. The stars need to understand that any story published in a newspaper or aired on television or uploaded on websites are not fake. The reporters must be having their sources (genuine ones) and they are not in a position to disclose their sources. One must understand that none of us have any personal vendetta against any of these stars.
Imagine, if Ram Gopal Varma takes all these source stories seriously then he would have to spend most of his time giving clarifications in his blog! In my nine years of journalism, I have witnessed that very few stars (excluding few stars like Amitabh, Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan, and Shah Rukh Khan) have bothered to thank reporters for a good article. But they would go all out, and send nasty SMSes to the journalist and talk about the reporter in media if the read anything that doesn't boost their ego as an actor. They just want to be loved, but they will never learn to reciprocate.
I think the stars need to understand the basic fundamentals of blogging. People who would log in to read the blogs would want to read some information about their favourite star. In West, people talk about politics and social issues. They talk about weird incidents and meeting special people in their lives. They try to make it as personal as possible. And yes, they do hit out at others, write bitchy comments and also play with words. But then they know how to balance it out.
I am glad that these tinsel town stars have become cyber friendly (finally) with Facebook and blogs, but I think they need some time to understand the medium properly and utilise it in a better way.
Posted by
Ram Kamal Mukherjee
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comments
Well i ahven't read the article where amitji has taken a dig at khalid mohammed but i have read of some comments which he made regarding the current show " paanchvi pass ". Its seems that there is some cold war between the shahenshah and the king although in public it has not been noticed. I think amitji should share his immense experience as an actor par excellence with his fans. We are so much influenced by his movies but we have no idea how it was working with immensely talented co stars, directors, writers etc of those times during which amitji was at his peak. While blogging can be used to clarify certain issues it should certainly not be used to bring down or degrade any person. Recently one heard of a dog named shahrukh khan which aamir has and how he had stated that what more could he ask for as shahrukh licked his feet daily. While shahrukh responded with the right spirit, i think aamir's comment on his blog was in bad taste. So bottom line is use any medium of communication in a constructive manner. There is already too much abuse and misuse of different communication platforms and the last we could expect is further abuse or misuse from the people we admire most ;our stars.
i think ram has touched on an important issue here. So kudos to him and i hope he uses his blog well too :)
Hi elisha, thanks for your comment. But i would like to clarify that i never mentioned that hemaji didn't call me after reading good articles. In fact, she is one of the most stunning lady and she would even call me after reading kareena kapoor's interview. I meantioned "excluding" and not "including". I also remember mr bachchan smsing me after a small clarification appeared in midday. So these are the stuff which keeps us going. Thanks dear.
Whenever any journalist has been averse to some celebrity,in political field,in silver screen world,in theatrical world,the small-minded people used to throw brickbats at the journalists(who are obviously in close contact with the celebs.The pople of the peculiar mentality imagine that one day such celeb will shake their hand!! Pity poor fellows and bravo ram.
This man really needs to pick up manners.I mean amitabh.
if he cannot live with criticisms t hen he should quit. Khalid mohammed has been harsh to many bigwigs of bollywood. No one has stooped this low! This was horrifying. Through his blog he is slowly revealing himself. Look at amir's blog..It's so much fun reading his articles. But amitabh's blog has become just another way of settling scores with his enemies. This man has no class. I 'm so sick of amitabh bachchan and his comments! He's desperate for publicity, so he's making all his idiotic statements about kappsth, he knows they will appear in the papers. Pathetic old man!
His take on khalid mohammed was low, supremely low to say the least...
Buddha (amitabh) paagal (laal`chee) ho gaya hai... Amitabh and jaya are the cheapest and meanest of mankind !
Ha...35 odd years old tsabloid journalist giving advice to 65 year old most famous indian on planet earth.... Dude first try to understand what bigb has said.. He actually clarified that he is not making a gender comment in a sort of funny way...
Lol...Ya ab should just continue to take khalida's abuse on ht...Thats the most dignified thing to go....! The thing is......Ab left the interpretation of 'khalida' to mean what, you, the reader felt...He cleared himself quite nicely when he said jaya refers to him as that....So my dear ram kamal...If you were thinking what ab didn't mention.....It's your perception hence its our fault for what your mind was thinking....So dont go blaming bachchan for that! You journalist are just so insecure right now coz bachchan isnt playing the mr niceguy with you anymore and you have realised that his writing and english is far superior than most of you....So i guess he beat you in your backyard as well!!!!
Well written and bravo!!!! I guess the old man will be writing about you in his next blog. He has been my favourite actor and so it is even more sad to see what has become of him.
his khalida joke ( i understood what he meant there ) was in very poor taste.
Great read as usual..........
but today i learnt sumthing bout u..........
that u dont hesitate to say the truth even if it is about ur favoritest actor
i mean i kno how much u like hema malini but still u included her name among the stars who dont thank the journos fro writing good stories on them
Ram i agree that thinks can be said in a more dignified manner and also taken in the same manner. I have read both mr. Mohammad's as well as mr. Bachchans word fight and i think u may have misunderstood the 'gender' thing which is a bit of surprize for me as u so rightly mentioned that u have an exp of 9 long yrs.
mr. Bachchan in his blog did mention mrs. Jaya bachchan's name saying that she refers khalid has khalid da...Which is a respect tag in bengali and u being one, may have taken it as khalida.
i do understand that mr. Bachchan must have forgotten to add an extra 'd' which is why it has been read as khalida instead of khalid da.
coming back to critics hitting on actors is no new thing for many of us and we also know that how badly it has backfired on them. Living examples are devika bhojani-dharmendra slap-in-cheek [pun intended]. Also khalid has been rude or punning with most of his reviews but why he did not write about the non classy stuff of his films...Fiza, tehzeeb and silsilay, which literally tore [pun again intended] everyones pocket.
i mean with due respect to critics, if they are so true or think to be honest in their profession, why dont they write reviews about their own flop films? Another critic turned director flashing up is kunal kohli, who left right center behind top and bottom insulted actors, directors and everyone for their film and end result being that his films were wash out and he himself got insulted from a canteen owner of yash raj studios after which he had stopped coming for his edits...
my only say is that please read in between the lines and then write something against anyone.
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