The great Indian wedding is over!! The days of frenzy and fanfare are gone. I feel relieved. It was suffocating to see all the news taking a backseat to the wedding coverage (covered coverage). When I look back upon the last one week, as a journalist, I feel pity for my profession. The run up to the big wedding had seen stories being aired or printed on the preparations of the wedding. The requisitions started pouring in from the head office, "fill us up with stories from your city on the Ash-Abhi wedding". In Kolkata we got our very own Sharbari Dutta designing the wedding suits for Abhishek Bachhan, covered. Some people covered the vermilion for Aishwarya Rai going from the city's Kalighat and a few more. It was fine till then. We sent occasional stories on the wedding preparations. In most of the cases the hungama over this marriage was limited to the entertainment bulletins and the stories went as the tail ender of the bulletin.
But I started feeling suffocated on the wedding day. The other day I heard my editor giving our entertainment chief a free run on going live on the wedding. I could see the fate of the "news" the day after. And a day before wedding the hungama started in all the channels. The reporters standing outside Bachchan's bungalow started giving "gyan" on the wedding. Unfortunately none could get any exclusive visuals of what was happening inside the bunglow. It was all depending on the glimpses of the Bachchans and their guests and fed by "sources" the reporters went gaga over the event. And here I tell you something very interesting. In such cases none would contradict or send any rejoinder to what you say based on your sources. You may confidently say Aishwarya is wearing yellow saree and the ornaments. None would contradict you as none could see Ash, including, probably, your sources.
So the drama began since morning. Some senior once told me on such days and occasions break some big news and do somethinglese, the channel would take your story and you could make your mark. I try to follow that advice. So did I on the wedding day. It worked initially. I broke a news at 2 in the afternoon. It went top in the headlines. But another breaking news came in at around 3: 30 pm and my story was pushed back and then the barati came out and my story went into oblivion. Everyone got busy with the wedding. How Abhishek came out of his bunglow, how Amitabh led the barati, how Amar Singh took the control of the situations and all the details came out of the reporters standing outside the Bachchan's house. I really felt how stupid we are. In fact it was nothing but stupidity. The cameras couldn't capture anything beyond the guests getting off the cars and walking into the house and coming out of the bunglow and whisking away.
It's not that sometimes I also fall prey to such stupidity. Being a journalist of Kolkata, I also need to go to Ganguly's residence to give live link to the studio and show how the cars are coming out and going behind the iron gate. But I must thank Bachchans for at least arranging for some snacks for the media persons waiting outside his home to cover the wedding. We don't get this minimum reception anywhere.
But it is not the end of it all. We know the columnists would start writing about the craziness and enthusiasm the media covered the event with and, like me, would call it stupidity and mention about hundreds of serious news that could have been covered at that time. The counter argument remains: it is the demand of the viewers. And I also subscribe to this view. It is the viewers and the readers who want to know about the lifestyle of the celebrities and more the celebrities maintain secrecy, more we are interested to know. We Indians in general are 'gossip lovers' and we always love to act as a peeping Tom. Be it in our neighbourhood or be it the glam world, we behave in the same way. And the media follows the taste of the average Indians. It is as simple as that. You call it business or name it anythingelse. But can media take a chance to change the taste of the viewers and readers? That is a separate debate kept for some other time.
But I started feeling suffocated on the wedding day. The other day I heard my editor giving our entertainment chief a free run on going live on the wedding. I could see the fate of the "news" the day after. And a day before wedding the hungama started in all the channels. The reporters standing outside Bachchan's bungalow started giving "gyan" on the wedding. Unfortunately none could get any exclusive visuals of what was happening inside the bunglow. It was all depending on the glimpses of the Bachchans and their guests and fed by "sources" the reporters went gaga over the event. And here I tell you something very interesting. In such cases none would contradict or send any rejoinder to what you say based on your sources. You may confidently say Aishwarya is wearing yellow saree and the ornaments. None would contradict you as none could see Ash, including, probably, your sources.
So the drama began since morning. Some senior once told me on such days and occasions break some big news and do somethinglese, the channel would take your story and you could make your mark. I try to follow that advice. So did I on the wedding day. It worked initially. I broke a news at 2 in the afternoon. It went top in the headlines. But another breaking news came in at around 3: 30 pm and my story was pushed back and then the barati came out and my story went into oblivion. Everyone got busy with the wedding. How Abhishek came out of his bunglow, how Amitabh led the barati, how Amar Singh took the control of the situations and all the details came out of the reporters standing outside the Bachchan's house. I really felt how stupid we are. In fact it was nothing but stupidity. The cameras couldn't capture anything beyond the guests getting off the cars and walking into the house and coming out of the bunglow and whisking away.
It's not that sometimes I also fall prey to such stupidity. Being a journalist of Kolkata, I also need to go to Ganguly's residence to give live link to the studio and show how the cars are coming out and going behind the iron gate. But I must thank Bachchans for at least arranging for some snacks for the media persons waiting outside his home to cover the wedding. We don't get this minimum reception anywhere.
But it is not the end of it all. We know the columnists would start writing about the craziness and enthusiasm the media covered the event with and, like me, would call it stupidity and mention about hundreds of serious news that could have been covered at that time. The counter argument remains: it is the demand of the viewers. And I also subscribe to this view. It is the viewers and the readers who want to know about the lifestyle of the celebrities and more the celebrities maintain secrecy, more we are interested to know. We Indians in general are 'gossip lovers' and we always love to act as a peeping Tom. Be it in our neighbourhood or be it the glam world, we behave in the same way. And the media follows the taste of the average Indians. It is as simple as that. You call it business or name it anythingelse. But can media take a chance to change the taste of the viewers and readers? That is a separate debate kept for some other time.
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