Deepika-Ranveer 'yelling' at a fan: Do celebrities have a right to privacy?

A question on Quora that has some interesting answers is: Who is the rudest celebrity/actor of Bollywood?

Katrina Kaif, Kajol, Twinkle Khanna, Rishi Kapoor are some of the top names on the list for various reasons, as explained by those who cared to answer. Most of these opinions stemmed from either personal interactions with these stars or from media, including social media.

There it is: Bollywood stars are always on the radar — when they are with their family members, vacationing, or dropping their kids to their schools — always, as long as their careers are in the pink of health. If not, they will be featured under the: ‘You won’t believe how these actors look now’ section.

So, don’t Bollywood actors have any right to privacy, given they have chosen a ‘showbiz’ career, and as they can’t just wear their celebrity status like a robe when they choose?

Or, do they?

While this is a full-fledged debate which requires both parties (stars and their fans) to be heard, a fan recently accused Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone of yelling at her, while she requested a photo of them in Florida where the two were vacationing.

The video the fan posted on her Instagram account shows Deepika coming towards her with a smile, but as she wrote, Deepika was apparently annoyed and allegedly yelled at her. The video does not have the 'yelling' part, well, because the person with the camera was supposedly being yelled at.

So, it is not known whether the incident is true or not as the star duo has not given any reaction, even though the news and the video were picked up by several media outlets.

The incident had their fans divided, as they were divided when Anushka Sharma was seen yelling at a litterer and Virat Kohli posted a video of the same in an attempt to teach him a lesson. In turn, Virat was taught a lesson about why he should have blurred the face of the litterer before calling him out in public, keeping his privacy in mind.

So, how did we come here where a citizen can stake a claim to privacy while littering, but a celebrity can’t, even during vacation?

It has an answer.

There is a thin line between the private and public life of celebrities and the line has often been blurred by them, by their increasing social media presence for professional reasons.

Most Bollywood stars are on Twitter and Instagram. Some of them handle these accounts on their own, posting various details of their day. They also come ‘live’ to interact with their fans before movie releases. They promote products on Instagram. This increased interaction has led to what was supposed to happen now.

A 24x7 watch, often a judgemental one.

Now, can celebrities compromise on this popularity base by being less available on social media?

It is interesting that many such vacation photos of celebrities, including Taimur’s, Priyanka-Nick’s, etc., actually owe their circulation to such citizen journalists. Media can be officially kept out of an event, but how to control these citizen journalists?

For these fans too, celebrity-shaming is a sure shot to fame, momentary though. It has certainly been proved to be the best way to get noticed — be it trolling Swara Bhasker on Twitter, or slamming Ranveer-Deepika on Instagram.

A few years ago, a woman who claimed to have studied with Mira Rajput (Shahid Kapoor’s wife) in the same college wrote an open letter to her, ripping apart her “flawed feminism” after Mira made a controversial comment comparing hands-on childcare versus keeping a puppy. She mentioned details like how Mira apparently used to “walk around with your posse in college, belittling women who were not skinny enough.” Such details found their audience, and will always do so.

So, the situation is a double-edged sword. A star will be followed intensively. A star will be trolled for objecting. A star can even be attacked for bad behaviour from some other decade. What is a star to thus do?

Do the celebrities even care about the new 24x7 act required of them? If they're not bothered, then they shouldn’t shout at anybody. If they are, then also, they shouldn’t shout at random people. Shout at other stars maybe. They'll appreciate the drama.

Also read: SRK's daughter Suhana is just the trailer: Why social media is already outraged over a magazine cover