The Power Celebrities Wield

An interview given by Aamir Khan in Tehelka magazine changed my newspaper reading habits and made me ponder about how celebrities influence opinions, even in the case of those like me who think that they are opinionated enough to make their own decisions. I have been reading the Times of India for some years now- for two reasons - the first is that the TOI is good value for money. When you sell of all those fat sections of the matrimonial advertisements, the classified advertisements sections and the others, it more or less made up the paper’s "invitation price" of Rs1.50 --- secondly the "ascent section" has some thing to offer even for NGO types like me. But then Aamir Khan gave this interview in Tehelka.

Aamir Khan does not give interviews, not even to further his films, so the Tehelka folks would have had to work hard to get one. And Aamir had a lot to say.

He said among other things that over the past decade, many film magazines had closed down because mainstream media had begun publishing the trash that was once the staple of film gossip magazines. He went a step further and said that why would people buy debonair and other trashy magazines at huge prices when the Times of India splashes picture half clad women every day of the week and
passes off as a newspaper.

That made me squirm. What am I doing navel gazing. Every day of the week through the good graces of my newspaper and it took of all things, a movie actor and a celebrity to point this out. Aamir Khan had only two choices to offer for those looking for good tasteful reading - The Hindu and the Indian Express. I was hoping that another newspaper that I liked - The low profile Asian Age would make it as it was also cheap though not as cheap as the Times and had reasonably thick edition- my mind was still calculating the amount I would lose every month at the old newspaper shop, you see. First I thought Asian Age was OK, it was not that Aamir Khan had read every newspaper or knew about and it was not that he was a literary critic or some thing. But as I read the interview a little way down, there it was - Aamir blasting the Asian Age - no not for featuring nudes but for
a reason that I can’t remember now but made a lot of sense when I read it.

So it became a debate between the Hindu. and the Indian Express. My wife preferred The Hindu. She likes all this debates like Amaryta Sen’ book on the Argumentative Indian- actually, I have sneaky feeling that the eminent writer and economist has actually plagiarized the title- the arguments that happen in our home would have probably given him the idea. I didn’t prefer The Hindu.

I have delusions of grandeur that if I spend sufficient time honing my writing skills, some secular paper would carry my pieces, but I didn’t think it would be the Hindu looking at the depth of analysis they carry- I am a pretty shallow individual as any one will tell you. I also knew that the TOI is unlikely ton give me a break either as I am not very good at writing pieces on Rohit Bal’s vamp, err ramp shows.

That left the Indian Express - they carry good social pieces and investigative journalism -I like Shekhar Gupta’s " Walk the Talk" show on NDTV. He walks a lot, and talks quite a bit- most Christians I know love to talk - there are three TV channels spewing out talk 24 hours a day on my set and a lot more in the mornings but don’t walk- so I find the title catchy. I won the debate in our finally to get the Indian Express at home - it is a patriarchal society after all and we are all enjoying " empowering journalism" whatever that means that Indian Express proudly proclaims it gives us every morning.

My wife is happy too.... She likes every one empowered. But you know the price thing ... it still bothers me. The Express carries less number of pages and costs Rs 3 but the Hindu costs 2.50 and every now and then has fat supplements on surveys of agriculture , the farm economy , the budgetary deficit ...none of which I understand but it all adds up at the raddi wallah. The only disadvantage I see .. I will know more about the goings on at the Music Academy in Chennai rather than the Habitat Centre in Delhi but since I have never been to the Habitat centre for anything but official meetings it does not really matter I guess.

But either way - Hindu or the Indian Express - I won’t disregard Aamir Khan’s recommendations. He is a celebrity and we do what celebrities tell us we should. They are the new gods and their word has to compete with the Word of God.