Yellow journalism acquires shades of purple

Arjun Kapoor and Malaika Arora Khan have done what other aggrieved celebrities should have done against arsenic gossip writing years and years ago.

They have not just taken the bull by its horns but also identified bullcrap as what it is: pure garbage which has now become a norm rather than an exception on many entertainment portals, all in a hurry to grab eyeballs by getting the news before others do. Or better still, just manufacture the news, no matter what the ramifications.

I am not against gossip journalism provided it is for fun. To take an example, it is okay to link actors and actresses with one another. Many of them are seen together constantly. Everyone can see they are a couple. They are not hiding that they are a couple. They attend parties together, take holidays together, they are in and out of one another’s homes. But they don’t want to talk about their relationship.

Fair enough. Then some juicy Page 3 fictioneer masquerading as an entertainment journalist, decides to impregnate the actress. This is where the fantasy gets sticky. This is where the damage starts.

It is good that Arjun Kapoor called out the portal and journalist. Most stars don’t pull up the offenders: they fear repercussions. About a notorious gossip writer, who is known to spread false news for his headlines, a star once said to me, “Kya farq padta hai? Let him write what he wants. People will read and forget it tomorrow.”

This is wrong. Take them on. Expose the liars. Defamation cases are tough. But they are not impossible. Preity Zinta went to the Mumbai court for years armed with piles of files when she took on a tabloid. I don’t know how it ended. But at least she went down with a fight.

This was many many years ago. Nowadays the portals think they can get away with any slander, no matter how defamatory. Politicians take on the offenders. We hardly hear of celebrities bothering with “yeh court-wort ka chakkar.”

At least Arjun Kapoor has made a beginning.

When a portal wrote, “It’s good news… It’s pure hearsay. A lil’ birdie from London told us that Malaika Arora is expecting her first child with Arjun Kapoor” Arjun retaliated vehemently saying, “This is the lowest you could have gone and you have done it by being casual, insensitive and absolutely unethical in carrying garbage news.”

I think this is historical moment of reckoning for gossip writing in Bollywood, on a par with the time when yesteryear’s superstar Mumtaz took the notorious Devyani Chaubal to court because, in the gorgeous actress’ words, “There is a line that you don’t cross.”

Juicy write-ups about stars can get instant eyeballs, and I am all for it. Even the fabrications. But don’t cross the line. I remember once the legendary Hema Malini’s formidable mother had called up a gossip journalist and said, “Do you have a family? Children? How would you like when rubbish is written about them?”

I think Malaika Arora Khan and Arjun Kapoor can breathe easily. No idle mind will manufacture garbage about them. At least for a while.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.

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