Why controversies flirt with Anushka Sharma and Deepika Padukone. What they can learn from Salman Khan

Try as hard as one might, it would be almost impossible for one to imagine a news headline from the mid-1950s that reads: "Madhubala voted the most talked about heroine" or "Nargis holidays with (un)mysterious lover". While there has always been an interest in film stars, especially women; leading ladies from Hindi cinema, today, seem to be more in the news for things other than their films. Think Anushka Sharma and the first thing that comes to mind is cricket or Deepika Padukone and it's a women’s empowerment video. It's not like these ladies haven't had successful films. In fact, their last releases were hits at the box office, but irrespective, it seems like the interest in today's women stars beyond films far outweighs their onscreen achievements. It’s entirely possible that this heightened inquisitiveness in a heroine’s off-screen life may have to do more with an overzealous PR machinery behind them or their films, but one can’t help wonder where this is headed.

In the early years of the Indian multiplex phenomenon, a big-time film producer told a business reporter that to sustain the mushrooming number of screens one would need a Gaddar, Ek Prem Katha or Lagaan kind of box-office hit every month. He added that as that wasn’t entirely possible, there would need to be a steady supply of small to medium films - commercial or otherwise - but "news worthy" nonetheless to bring in the audiences. Similarly in the era of a million news channels and the ever expanding virtual world, the insatiable thirst to fill slots or ensure hits, there is a constant need to bludgeon the viewers.

Keeping in mind that nothing sells as well as Bollywood in India, film stars are but the perfect foil. The manner in which stars, or more correctly the PR apparatus, utilise every conceivable platform to promote a film during its release, has made certain media outlets believe that they can perhaps pay back in the same coin when it comes to them looking for TRPs. Of course, sponsored pieces featuring these very stars in certain newspapers or TV channels don’t really help. This rather bizarre quid pro quo arrangement puts an immense unwarranted focus on the stars, especially the women.

Of the younger crop of stars, it’s the women such as Deepika Padukone and Anushka Sharma who find themselves in the news for all the wrong reasons. By comparison, the male stars such as Ranbir Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Imran Khan or Ranveer Singh have barely suffered the same amount of controversies. Even in the generation of stars that preceded the current fold, it was Priyanka Chopra or Katrina Kaif who made news for every single action.

Take for instance the holiday photos of Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif. When the images surfaced, it was Katrina who bore the maximum brunt of media interest as opposed to Ranbir, who was rarely asked even a perfunctory question about his rumoured relationship. In Anushka’s case, her appearance at a cricket match featuring Virat Kohli sends the media into a tizzy whereas the cricketer, whose tweets refer to Anushka as "my love" is never asked questions about her! In spite of everything, many still accuse the heroine’s PR outfit to have fabricated the hullabaloo that they find themselves in and the manner in which things play out only add to the speculation. The frequency with which such "newsworthy" events take place, the eagerness with which the media follows them, and more often than not, the ensuing controversy that it builds up into, usually happens around the release of a film.

At the time of the release of NH 10, a film that she produced as well, a video featuring a lady television journalist persistently questioning Anushka Sharma about a certain cricketer went viral and the manner in which Anushka responded could suggest that both parties were in cahoots. The journalist asked specific non-film related questions to Anushka to which the logical answers would have been "Virat Kohli" but much to the chagrin of the scribe, the actress evaded being specific. This continued for a while till Anushka turned the whole thing around by asking the journalist pointed personal questions before signing off with a disclaimer that actors’ private lives should be left out.

From the looks, it seemed like Anushka’s staff had pre-informed the journalist to not ask any personal questions but the latter couldn’t curb her enthusiasm. But having said that if Anushka was on the mission to promote her film and keeping the adage "there’s nothing called bad publicity" in mind wouldn’t her walking away have created a bigger buzz? Even though Anushka seemingly set the record straight, she still indulged the journalist and herein lies the possible reason why this charade is kept up. There is no denying that Bollywood is largely male dominated and while male stars only become bigger with age (Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Hrithik Roshan, etc) heroines are replaced every few years.

Add to this the fact that woman-centric films come once in a while, Priyanka Chopra has had one 7 Khoon Maaf or one Mary Kom in a litter over a decade that she has been around. In this kind of scenario, leading heroines are often compelled to deal with it for some reason or the other and any kind of opposition wouldn’t be appreciated. Films have become such an expensive proposition that a producer wants to recover costs as soon as possible and when a major chunk of the cost involves PR, then once again no publicity is bad publicity. A producer deems making news for no apparent reason as a necessary evil and because top male stars are too big to be pushed around this, unfortunately, ends up becoming the duty of the heroines.

Perhaps Deepika Padukone and Anushka Sharma should learn a thing or two from Salman Khan. Even though he does the obligatory media interaction, Salman Khan couldn’t care less for the media circus that surrounds him. In fact, the press' fascination for Salman only increased once he stopped taking them seriously and as a result today almost every top publication in the country wants an interview because they know the issue would fly off the shelf. People still line up for a new film in spite of a non-favourable review, actors transform into stars even without being hailed as the next great thing... and nowhere in the world do non-tabloid journalists badger actors about personal things. It’s strange that only in India would someone think that making a woman scribe ask a woman about her private affairs not be seen as yellow journalism or harassment. One school of thought believes that popular Hindi cinema is unfit to be discussed seriously and, therefore, the kind of topics that media has to pander to... but by that rationale what does continued interest in something that isn’t fit to be talked about say of some media platforms? Imagine if Deepika, Anushka, Katrina or Priyanka were not to indulge in nonsense.