Filmi folks - above it all?

Let me first add that to be fair to them, at least in Bollywood, film folks are subjected to intense media pressure. Having said that, it has its positives too, a) being in the news is good news and b) it helps in the publicity of their films and make no mistake about it, people are people, seeing themselves being written about pleases them too (negative and positive). Cause lets face it, everyone wants to be
in the news.

The problem stems, when Film Folks start to think of themselves as "above it all." That is when you have to question this whole obsession with them, when the uncomfortable truth of the matter is, in the larger scheme of things, film making and acting, does not really make a difference to countries and humankind, as opposed to inventing things, saving lives, taking the country's economy further,
alleviating poverty, etc. Although a rightful counter argument is that Bollywood, has been an export of India and hence earns it foreign currency...yes...but that still does not give the leeway to Film people to act like gods. Exporters of goods that earn foreign currency behave in the norms which are respectful to their parameters and their country and the country they are visiting.

Clearly, being in the news brings, whether they like it or not, a certain sense of responsibility.

On the one end of the spectrum, and you can call him boring, or politically correct, or whatever...the fact remains that Amitabh Bachchan has held himself together amidst the kind of media glare that would drive most regular people up the wall. But perhaps his "regularity in the face of constant onslaught" and his "this is a job that needs to be done" prevents him from going berserk.

Then we have the other end of the spectrum. The folks who go absolutely crazy and are not able to hold themsel ves with any sense of propriety and become the laughing stock of not only the Bollywood industry but an embarrassment to the profession. And two recent (as in the last couple of weeks incident) comes to mind. One is Rajeev Kapoor who showed up in Bangkok Airport, drunk enough that he did not even recall his name when asked for by the immigration authorities.

The other case was a double whammy for his brother Rishi Kapoor who first started smoking in a non-smoking area of a hotel in London (a serious crime, forget the health hazard but it's a blatant fire risk) and then when asked to step outside (politely I am given to understand), started to get abusive and then when he did step outside, started to drink on the street, which banned the consumption
of alcoholic beverages. I mean c'mon!!!

This is not even a laughing matter. This is pure nonsense. I am pretty sure both these guys, having lived in a metropolitan area and global city like Mumbai and having traveled overseas prior to their
respective TRIP's, are well aware of things like Immigration Counters/No Smoking Signs and Public Places which ban the use of alcoholic beverages.

To then behave the way they did, is clearly a mindset which seems to suggest "I am above all this." And why may I ask, are you?
I think the response will most probably be "because I am an actor and can get away with it."

Well given that one is a former actor and the other is closing in on retirement, this makes their respective behaviour all the more unacceptable.

The response to their future travels?

Do what the US government did (and rightly so), deny a travel Visa to actor Sanjay Dutt. In fact if you did a search on the number of time Bollywood types have broken the law and ended up "still ok," it might end up being as thick as a book.

So the next time you watch a film, watch it for the overall work done by all the folks behind it, as opposed to a couple of "law breakers" trying to get all the attention.

Sincerely,

Vivek "at the end of the day, movie making is like any other profession so it is time it's members behaved in a professional manner" Kumar