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Debate: Media circus at wedding
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The Aishwarya Rai-Abhishek Bachchan wedding has whipped up a media frenzy with journalists nearly tripping over each other for juicy details regarding bridal trousseau, jewellery, mehendi and the likes to even the most intimate details like the couple’s honeymoon destination.
A large media contingent is stationed outside the Bachchan residences in Mumbai to give minute-to-minute updates on what’s been described as the wedding of the year.
But who decides when private matters become public? And is the consumer is the really listening?
Is the Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding becoming a media tamasha?
This was the big, almost incestuous topic of debate on CNN-IBN show Face the Nation conducted by Rajdeep Sardesai.
On the panel of experts tto discuss the issue threadbare were Editor, Editorial Page, DNA-Mumbai Siddharth Bhatia; Editor of Afternoon Farzana Contractor and CNN-IBN Entertainment Editor Rajeev Masand.
Private affair in public realm
Such relentless has been the media’s urge to satisfy its appetite that Samajwadi Party leader and Bachchans’ close friend, Amar Singh has said, “please leave us alone.
According to Singh, the media is converting the wedding into a frenzied event but the family wanted it private.
But can the Bachchans be left alone?
Reacting to Singh’s statement, Bhatia said, “Well, he is right. The media is going bananas but the point is why shouldn’t it do so. They are a glamorous couple, they are brands and in the public eye. So, the media must cover it because there is a lot of interest in the wedding.”
But is it a legitimate news story to be covered in as frenetic a manner as it is being done?
Disagreeing strongly Contractor said, “No, not in the manner it has been. Up to a point it’s ok because they are superstars but the way the media has gone overboard. The media has simply gone mad.”
All dailies have a couple of pages on the wedding but at the end of the day isn’t the media incestuous about it? We want these weddings because we feed on them.
“The reader wants it so we give it. Out of 44 pages we probably devote half a page. So, how can you say that we are full of it,” Bhatia argued.
While there are many who say they are sick and tired of such stories, bit it’s also true that everybody secretly wants to know what’s happening at the wedding.
“But you don’t want it everyday. Not in your face like front page of national newspapers,” Contractor said.
There have been big Bollywood weddings in the past like actor Ajay Devgan married superstar Kajol and then the famous Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia wedding. But it seems the preferences of the viewers are changing now.
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