Why Salman, SRK, Aamir shouldn't stoop to Rakhi, KRK level

At the rate the fad is trending, all our Bollywood award nights will soon have to institute trophies for Lip-Slip of the Year.

Suddenly, our stars seem more interested in shooting from the lip. Shooting anything that counts as memorable acting seems so passé.

As always, it is Aamir Khan to the fore.

Bollywood’s trendsetter par excellence made news last year giving Quit India a whole new definition. He was at it again recently, when he said he felt like “a waiter” walking into a room — the analogy meant to underline that he felt eclipsed in comparison to Salman Khan or Shah Rukh Khan’s star-like aura.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” Aamir added immediately, almost echoing Salman Khan’s retort after his raped woman comment. It hardly mattered.

Social media trolls would be keeping Aamir in the news over the next few days.

That is exactly what happened to Salman Khan too, post his raped woman comment (incidentally attested by Aamir as “unfortunate” and “insensitive”).

Furore over Salman’s comment was yet to die down when Irrfan landed in a storm for criticising Islam over animal slaughter during Muharram and fasting during Ramzan — quite notably weeks before the release of his new film Madaari and days ahead of Eid.

It keeps them in the limelight, of course — irrespective of whether such sound bites are planned or not. Plus, any verbal gaffe on the part of a star is big business for social media, news channels, websites and newspapers alike.

Suddenly, the art of callous comment has become a small-scale industry. Those who make the remarks bask in its controversy for weeks. Then there is an entire jingbang waiting to dole out follow-up quotes, for or against the original comment.

Bottomline: any publicity is good publicity.

Sure, uttering slipshod comments is nothing new in showbiz. We have always had celebrities who made more news with motormouth antics than substantial creative action.

Think Mallika Sherawat, Rakhi Sawant, Abhijeet or Kamal R Khan.

As long as Rakhi or KRK do it, though, it does not really matter. Reckless hullaballoo to draw popular attention would seem a necessity when job offers start to dry up. The rattling bit happens when a superstar as Shah Rukh Khan, like Aamir, serves an offhand dollop on intolerance.

Icons such as Salman and Irrfan, too, command the mindset of millions. They ought to remember they are no ineffectual C-listers to spew careless quotes.

Is there a marketing spin here? We can never be sure.

Also read - How Salman Khan missed his chance to be a real Sultan for once

Outrageous behaviour of celebrities has always made news, but the old tricks such as affairs, denials and break-ups no longer suffice.

Such traits do not even make for film scripts these days. Maybe a twist of the outspoken is necessary for new-age stardom.

In the end if things go drastically wrong, there is always the media to blame for blowing it "out of proportion" (stock expression used). Salim Khan recently tweeted it was the media’s “commercial compulsion to carry it (the discussion rape over Salman’s rape comment) to the saturation point”.

What about industry colleagues, Khan Sahab, who gleefully line up before the press to dole out bites on Salman’s awful lip-slip?

(Courtesy of Mail Today)