Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Is Amitabh being paranoid....?

You know what?? I think not! Amitabh's fears are for real. You know why?? I received a strange request from the editor of a daily that is not doing all that great. I was specifically asked whether I'd like to do a 'hatchet job' on Amitabh. I was totally taken aback! This is the first time in my long career that someone has had the audacity to make such a preposterous request. I said, " Why don't you do it yourself? Why are you asking me to perform your dirty job?" This was because I needed to get to the bottom of this nasty plot. The person admitted candidly that it would serve no purpose writing the piece since his\her opinion doesn't count! But, added the editor smoothly ".....if it comes from you, people will believe it." Flattery at its most dangerous! What a waste on me, though. Of course, I told the person to go to hell .... but it made me think about Amitabh's anguished response to the deliberate slights and snubs he and his family have been at the receiving end of recently. This isn't cricket. It isn't even hockey. So, what is it? How about a 'conspiracy'?
Consider this : All the attacks have been emanating from the same camp. It is obvious from the key players involved that there is a strategy at work. While I do find it bizarre that Amitabh should dole out his 'ambassadorships' so generously and randomely - I will not challenge his right to do so.
Gujarat today, Kerala tomorrow, maybe Mizoram day after. So what? If those state governments believe he has the power to project them favourably, that's their prerogative. As it is his - to take up the offer or not. Someone else in his position may be more selective, far more discriminating ( credibility counts, too, doesn't it?) but then again, it's his call. What cannot be disputed is the fact that someone's out to get the guy. And get him good. But why??? Ahaaa - now that's the interesting question. Those in the forefront of the battle are merely the foot soldiers. The main players remain behind the scene. Is it another repeat of the old 'raja aur rankh' story? What has gone wrong and who is instigating these attacks?
At a dinner party last night, a couple of canape intellectuals said they wouldn't be at all surprised if Amitabh too is chased out of our country ( like M.F.Husain) and forced to accept the citizenship of another. I don't see that happening. But what I do see, is not pleasant. It is Amitabh today. It could be someone else tomorrow. Should we become silent witnesses to this new, covert form of terrorism ?
Civil society must speak up. Not necessarily for Amitabh Bachchan. But for itself. Survival ka sawaal hai.

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

No reply - The best reply

Digistrom said...

He's obviously entitled to make his decisions but I just can't get myself to accept things at face value.

He has dabbled in politics himself, has a wife and "brother" for politicians, could write a thesis on the nature of the media and seems to weigh, without exception, every syllable he utters. So why the sudden bout of "naivete"? Does he love Gujarat THAT MUCH??

Harish said...

Every Lakshman rekha of controversy has been crossed by this Flop Neta, and Hit Abhineta.... it all started with Rekha and it goes on and on and on...

And most of the controversies are simbly the making of "rai ka pahaad"... it is there in his name only - Rai... and we end users are left wondering "aiyyo Kaiko Bhai?"

This drama of congress was so uncalled for. If amitabh was the phukkat ka brand ambassador for Gujarat.. lehhh... Uski Marzi..

Why is congress PMSing over it?

And if congress walle smell fish... let them find the fish... roast it and share it with us naa. Why this cheepo issue over no issue?

I know this will also be made into a film one day... Amitabh- Rajiv- Sonia-Jaya drama... perfect film story... It is hard to believe that these 2 families that seem like Jaani Dushman were actually as happy as Jai-Veeru.

now paraye..then were bhai bhai...

for entertainment sakes lets bring the kahaani mein twist...

Okay.. let me add a bollywood flavour to the story...


was rekha responsible for the for the rift....

(aiyyo! that was too much of a bollywood twist naa... )

Sevekari said...

Really well written by Shobha De.

Amitabh is do big a person to bother about such small things.

Prakash

डॉ महेश सिन्हा said...

find out who's running this show and expose . media is all in the range of fire for common man.. they (common man) takes everything with a pinch of salt from media . media has been fastest deteriorator.

obssesor said...

I agree with the first comment!!

Divyansh said...

I guess nobody is intreseted in what Amitabh is doing or anybody else in the country is doing .. its just some people are so idle that they are out of any issue to speak . How will they get puplicity? How their names or their organization names will be in media? Every one want to be the talk of the town... unfortunitely poor Amitabh is been made the "bali ka bakara"

Thought(s) of an old man said...

"......new, covert form of terrorism"
You said it Shobhaa! Far more dangerous to civil societies than the real action terrorism, right?

Another Kiran In NYC said...

I dont understand your consternation. This Hatchet job business is hardly new on any of the sides. Some have been more subtle than others. Raja and Rank have played passive agressive games with each other and everyone within shouting distance. So why the whinyness and sudden alarm about this "covert terrorism"? All of them have vast and well oiled machineary in place to fix each other and every thing else. The operative word being "fix".

I think Amitabh and his Parivar, Gandhi (which one I wont tell you... guess) and his Parivar, The Anti Gandhi (guess again) and his Parivar, and Tiger and his Parivar... are all competing for Head Annoyance Title, now that the incumbent has departed for Qatari shores.

They are all idiots and I dont feel sorry for any of them.

Okay I need to get back to making a living, so that I can make all the above people even richer through my taxes and spending. They are all laughing thier way to the bank while we worry ouselves about why they are feeling persecuted.

ekta khetan said...

Amitabh Bachchan should be leave alone from all these controversies. He is such a revered actor of the country and the least we can do is to spare him and his art from nasty politics, controversies and scandal.

Congress be damned. They shud better concentrate on larger things in country.

ekta khetan said...

Amitabh Bachchan is not MF hussain or anybody for that matter and for sure. He is bigger than any or all stars/celebrities put together in this country.

He is like Sachin Tendulkar to cricket.

Sidhusaaheb said...

Congress versus BJP.

As for Mr. Bachchan, he'd probably be as happy signing up as 'ambassador' of Maharashtra, provided the price (in cash or kind) is right.

Kapil Paraji More said...

You are correct...its his prerogative..who are we to decide for whats right and wrong for him...same is the case for those opposing sania's marriage..its her personal choice and no one has right to label it right or wrong ..freedom of choice ,as long as it doesnt affect anyone else's , should be respected...but politico's do this coz they know there is a section of society which will agree with them...they are not fools...they have a audience which they cater to

Vinita said...

Dear Shobhaa,

You should read a very interesting blog by ex-art of living teachers who were the part of the very few who know the closely guarded secrets of Art of Living. There are others who have also contributed to this blog.
Now that they have left Art of Living they are exposing some of these truths which 99.9% of the followers do not know.

http://artoflivingfree.blogspot.com

Perhaps the media should look into this.

Unknown said...

Why the heebie jeebies Shobha?Apprehensive that celeb journos (like you)will be the next targets....????Why on earth should
you lose sleep over Amitabh's niggle?

Anamikaa said...

Sorry for doing this, but I get hits on my blog when I tout it here under Shobhaa's shadow.
my take on Sania, MF Hussain and Kasab- Pseudo Indians and a Pakistani.
http://amapuna.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/pseudo-indians-and-a-pakistani/

Really, really sorry for being a parasite.

PS said...

Amitabh ka to pata nahi but you are rally being paranoid about the issue unnecessarily , not everyone around would be chased like AB, after all any tom-dick and harry can not be AB, taking clue from your own write-up.." if it comes from you people will listen".

Anonymous said...

mz de, cast your mind to an event a few years ago. mrs bachhan aplogising for offending the marathi man(h)oos for her 'hindi only, sorry' comment, great muscular arms tearing down posters and hoardings featuring Baap, Bahu and Baby, subdued media conferences etc etc.. nothing complicated to the recent activities, just an extension of bihari-bashing, now it is northindian ka naash!

goodluck said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
krish said...

hello thr...

Intresting read...in my view its all abt being in th good books of " SONIA INDIA GANDHI"..........Th JAI HO SYNDROME........

lv

Kris

Unknown said...

Shobha I commend you for the guts to right this article and bring the obvious in the open.
It is very much obvious for any sane person to find out the games being played here.There is some one huge behind whos playing these games and attacking Amitabh and his family and trying to tarnish his image .But Amitabhs Blog has changed everything .Now hes connecting with the public directly and everything is coming in the open.Those behind the scenes people trying to destroy him shall soon be uncovered.They have tried for years but not been able to touch the Big B.He is still the biggest ever Indian icon and they cannot digest that fact.But sorry state of bought over media in this country hurts big time.

neelima garg said...

All this needs to stop somewhere...

Nalini Hebbar said...

Even truth has two sides to it...none see truth as you see it because truth is abstract and relative.
The big B has not been as open with his ways as he would like us to believe...he has been flirting with politics and for sure is being hurt becoz of it.
No one can take a stance in the public eye and not be affected by it...trouble has come to roost...he has stirred up more than he can handle...not his doing I would say but a sort of chain reaction that unintentionally makes interconnections.

Anonymous said...

I think whatever he is doing he is doing it for money, as we have seen before also he sold out the copyright of abhi-ash marriage fotographs to hello magazine for some meager amount!!


And my question is to numerounity that why does she always like to drag and criticize MF hussain does she have any personal problems with him??

Theyoginme said...

Shobhaa, here here for speaking out in support of this man. I read his blog regularly and I feel for him - he is fighting this lone battle and I am glad you have spoken like the trooper you are in his support. Whatever camp is after him, they obviously think he is too powerful and want to squash him. Unfortunately he and his wife have gotten entangled in the politics and its created a life of its own into a complicated mess. Ironically on my way back home from Mumbai on Monday I saw the movie Milli and it reminded me of his persona of the angry young man and now its becoming of any angry old man...Not that these recent events should force him into hibernation, but he is being forced into a corner and he is going to need to fight yet another battle. The public should come to his support and so should Bollywood.

Hello said...

Why there would be a conspiracy against Amitabh? It's not correct to compare him with Hussain. Hussain made some paintings that irked certain section of society. Amitabh on the other hand does seldom things of severely poignant in nature (even he does few mild things here and there, those are "mild" and he is quick to make up for that i.e. the whole issue of being from UP and hindi speaking, he was quick to apologize). I do not find it convincing that people are out to get him.

Latha said...

I agree with numerounity.
I think the Congress is paranoid.
They are back to their own rhetoric. Just like 'Indira is India', it is Narendrta Modi is Gujarat. So if you love your country, it is not the people, not even the states but the politicians that you love & intend to support. These people are so magalomaniac that they see the country as a bunch of politicians & they cannot see anything beyond that. They need some patriotism to see India as India & Gujarat as Gujarat. You can't expect such fine feelings from such 'mutlabi' people who think everybody is like them & everybody does whatever they do to gain power, position, money etc...
Afterall the cat cannot change its stripes !

Theyoginme said...

Ahm, ofcourse there is a conspiracy, if Shobhaa is being asked to do a hatchet job on Mr. AB and the recent incident with his son and the whole controversy of his attendance of the opening of the SeaLink lanes (big deal!!) what do you think is happening? The press is taking shots at him and the poor guy is all over TV news defending his position - even I as a visitor can understand his predicament. Let AB exist and just leave him alone. He has done nothing to hurt society. He is a great actor, a consumate professional and businessman.He has the right to exist without being constantly attacked or put in positions of defending himself and his family. He has a right to his opinions and I dont see any of his actions being contrary to anything but the best for India.

Please read his blog bigb.bigadda.com - his team does a great job of posting all the crap (and the non crap) from various sources.

Anonymous said...

Shobha,
If one reads Big B's Blog, then one will understand who is the main culprit (more than the Congress) behind these GAMES.
In some of his Blogs of Feb/Mar 2010, he had an altercation with Mumbai Mirror over an article on Ash. re her illness and inability to conceive.
He was very upset, and rightly so.
However he thought he was in the movies and was a bit immature in dealing with the situation on hand. He wrote some filmy scipt/dialogues and threatened to sue MM, if they did not apologise A.S.A.P. and that too on the front page.
MM did not oblige and to add insult to injury, wrote another article on Ash a few days later, which was also not true (according to Big B).
Subsequently for a couple of days, Big B's Blog started (in RED)demanding an apology from MM, and later wrote that he/his lawyers had sent MM a notice.
He added that MM called him and apoligised verbally, but he insisted on a written apology in MM, which has not fructified till date.

From the above clash of the Titans, (if you can call MM one), one can conlude who the winner is likely to be. Sure it's the one who has the upper hand and majority readers/viewers.

Incidently the issue died a natural death, as he has not mentioned what has transpired since the notice was sent.

Hey, this happens to every one in all stages of one's life, especially if one is successful.
You should be able to take it in ones stride, with a pinch of salt.

The more touchy you are, the more it would affect you, and the ball keeps on rolling.

Big B has a huge following (Internationally too)he should not look behind. He should treat his detractors like dirt, and do what pleases him, except not use revengeful and frightening scripts to his critics.
Yes one has to be careful when one comments on his Blog.
He sure is having a few bad days, but then he should count his Blessings. He has so many invites Worldwide, and is wanted almost every other day.

Cheers!

Norman

Adnan Khalid said...

Dear Shobha jee,
I am a writer/poet/movie buff/bookseller/publisher from Pakistan. We have a huge collection of your work at our bookstore.
I am a big fan of Amit Jee's work, but was utterly disappointed at the fact that Teen Patti was a cheap copy of the hollywood film 21. I saw both films and was ashamed that being as amazing an actor as he is he didnt bother to see the scene to scene copy. On top of it he gave a statement about this to omar qureshi defending the film rather than rediculing the blatant theft of creativity. We idolize him but he shud also respect our intelligence. See these posts for details.
http://eddyishere.blogspot.com/2010/03/teen-patti-confirmed-copy-shame-on.html
http://eddyishere.blogspot.com/2010/03/bollywoods-fixation-with-inspiration.html
Please leave your comments on the blog.

Jyostna said...

I think nobody really concerned abt what Amitji is upto these days except the media. they think amitji's any news creates chaos around..but its not really true. ppl hardly care abt celeb stars who r too much in the news. n moreover amitji is also paying too much attention to all the crap news abt him n his family.

V said...

What I don't understand is that when Mr. Bacchan is becoming a brand ambassador of 'state of Gujarat' and not of any political leader or party, why should there be a problem? I think, this doesn't fit into democratic values of a nation. It may send a wrong message in a society.

Unknown said...

Bachchan brand has no steam left in it. why would somebody target him or his family? consolidating international brand "Aishwarya" did not help much. SP dumped him. He is trying real hard to stay in the news and come across important enough to be a target of some conspiracy. I really feel for him though.
OK Shobha, this "hatchet job" story was a good try though. lol
I liked your interview with Ash.

pranav said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
pranav said...

i think comment no.3 "aham" has been written by Ms DE herself and uploaded by someone known to her

The style of English used is "too similar" to the ones Ms DE. uses as i have been reading her for 11 years.

She used to write in the 'week' magazine in this style.

I am a writer myself and the Hinglish vocab used bears her personal imprint.



1) Okay.. let me add a bollywood flavour to the story...


was rekha responsible for the for the rift...

Such a statement can be made by someone who knows the film industry --in and out--Ms DE was filmfare editor for ten
years.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2)Flop Neta, and Hit Abhineta

Why is congress PMSing over it?

the above two phrases have been used too frequently by Ms DE in her previous blogs and for many years in the WEEK.


3)aiyyo! that was too much of a bollywood twist naa.

fish... let them find the fish... roast it and share it with us naa.

aiyyo Kaiko Bhai?"


Ms de has often shown her fondness for fish delicacies in her blogs and these South Indian phrases can only be
written by someone well versed with these languages.


I hope i am proved wrong and this blog is not another internet marketing sham

pranav
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

डॉ महेश सिन्हा said...

@ Pranav
first of all nice to learn some hidden facts about a celeb though everybody has their own.
my ? is why she should accept all this to you personally only. If she has been not fair , she should have guts to accept it openly.
what time frame you have put to get an answer & how others will know about the developments .

डॉ महेश सिन्हा said...

@ Pranav
You have deleted one of your comments? It has reached to all who have subscribed.

pranav said...

Dear Mr Sinha,
You have raised a very good point...only time will tell what will happen...
I had immense respect for Ms DE and she was an icon for me...someone we would look upto...but a writer of such stature...buckling under pressure from her publishers...really made me feel disgusted and i wrote the previous comment(which i deleted) as i didn't want to hurt Ms DE sentiments..after all she is also working according to the diktat of the market...but in my next comment i retained the main points on which i stand by even today ..i am 100% sure that the "aham" comment was written by Ms De and uploaded by an employee attached to a media agency. I would request the support of perceptive readers like you and stop these internet marketing shams on the blogs which we regularly visit.Ms De though would continue to be an inspiration ,if not an icon. I can only forget this aberration as even celebrities are human and prone to make mistakes. As informed readers, our duty is to correct her when she goes wrong but support in her initiatives to provide us with her incisive social analysis for all times to come.

Harish said...

@pranav

this is most hilarious... but also extremely flattering. I am not shobhaa de, it's lovely to hear that you found my writings like hers though.

well since you asked and averred.. Aham is my pen name, my name is Harish Iyer. if you want to read my writings www.hiyer.net is my blog... on twitter I am @hiyer and on www.facebook.com/harishiyer add me up, if you care to be friends.


De and I are blogdosts. We agree, disagree with each other too.

And, I dont feel she needs to ask someone to post something like that, she has had enough masala - tadka maarke in her everydayness. She is by herself a fataaka and not a pusky bomb, she needn't engage in this kind of cheapoo dhamaaka that you alleged ... she has and can take criticism on her stride - she is a big girl.

again, thank you pranav.

Narayan Narayan said...

You are maddarchod shobha de how can you right such rubish things about the great Mr.Bachchan

It seems that you are being paid to defame big b, I hate you shobha randee hai tu

ekta khetan said...

@ Rolling stone

I don't have anything against the great painter MF Hussain. Its just that his context is fresh in public memory and just used as a reference. I am sure he would be loving all this attention. So don't worry all well with Hussain! :)

ekta khetan said...

@ Latha,

Thanks for supporting my views. India needs a change in leadership. With Congress it doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

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