Gone are the days when actors were considered as heroes. They used to carry an aura which differentiated them from the rest of the crowd. Wherever they went, they were worshipped. [Rajnikanth being an exception who is still worshipped]. Whatever they said was considered holy by their followers. There was a huge fan following in the past which still exists for the elites like Amitabh Bachchan and the Khan trio.
There were reasons for this fan following. The interaction of the fans with the heroes was less and when they were spotted in public, they were surrounded and the fans came closer to their superstars and seeing them in reality was like devouring a forbidden fruit.
In the past, the number of superstars could be counted on fingertips which gave far lesser options to the people to choose. The expansion of Hindi cinema has led to a significant increase in the number of actors, among which only a few qualify as superstars and merely one or two as heroes.
These days every other Friday a new actor starts his pursuit to become a hero. A new film releases every Friday and the actors associated with it go gung-ho to publicise it and garner as many viewers as possible. The era when people waited anxiously for the movie of their hero has waned.
The movies those days carried a message and it was quite evident from the movie what the director wants to convey. Now a day, a movie is not a movie, it’s mostly drama. Getting a message from the movie is the least thing a viewer expects.
These things have particularly made a difference between an actor and the hero. Today’s actors focus less on acting and more on promoting and advertising. They have personified the real meaning of an actor as a person who acts. They are given money to act and they do it, which is beyond criticism. But what hurts the most is when they indulge in publicity stunts.
They put all their hard earned fame on stake to promote one film by raking up controversial issues and indulging in negative publicity. They play on the fickle mindedness of their audience to promote their movies as they also know, that the content of their movie or their acting would not garner support for them.
In this era of powerful activism, social media has played a vital role and has acted as a mode of renaissance among the youth.
The youth today is not as gullible as it used to be. They are expressive and fear none. If they do not like anything or any ideology, they criticise wholeheartedly and support with no less fervour either.
The actors today, indulging in negative publicity have an easy access to do so via social media and when their own feelings are not in compliance with the larger mass, they get trolled in the most diabolic manner.
What the youth today believe is that a person should do what he is good, at and what they certainly reckon is that the actors are good at only acting. Their talents do not adhere to the social ethics and common sense. The youth also cannot be held fully responsible because of some ruthless and wayward comments by these so called celebrities.
Few incidents portray these observations as indubitable; the latest one being the tweets of actresses Sonam Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha. Loquacious as she always is, Sonam Kapoor was caught in an altercation with the twitterati when she tweeted on meat ban in Mumbai.
Our country is going to remain a third world nation because of the intolerant misogynistic close minded few.
However when she was confronted with negative tweets about herself on using the word misogynistic by cracking jokes about her fascination for brands and fashion, she retaliated abusively. Her reply was
Before being judgemental assholes. What I said was a critique of the general mentality… Which is not exclusive to the banning of meat.
Sonakshi Sinha was also trolled when she made two contrasting comments showing how incoherent and susceptible the actors can be depending upon circumstances in which they are put into by their PR firms. On August 27, 2014 she tweeted
Please protect animals @drharshvardhan. Ban import and sale of animal tested cosmetics. Guys please help, RT this.
Whereas her latest tweets were
This is free country! Welcome to Ban-istan… I meant India… stupid autocorrect… why no ban on ignorance/negligence? What about the flood affected people of assam? Priorities people… priorities [sic]
In another squabble with the people on social media on Yakub Memon case, Salman Khan had to face people’s ire when he tweeted “Get tiger hang him. Parade him not his brother.” on July 25, 2015.
The misinformations of these actors are quite evident when Anushka Sharma tweeted and retweeted the wrong name of the People’s President Late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam on his untimely demise. She tweeted
Very sad to hear about the passing of ABJ Kalam Azad. Loss of an inspiring visionary and a wonderful soul. May his soul RIP.
Singer Abhijeet made an unfortunate tweet on Salman’s verdict when he commented
kutta rd pe soyega kutte ki maut marega, road garib ke baap ki nahi hai. I was homles an year nvr slept on rd.” on 6th May, 2015.
He further commented
Mumbai ke road aur footpath pe sone ka shauk hai?? Y not at your village no vehicles to kill you… support @BeingSalmanKhan.
There are many more incidents where the actors of today have proven that they need not be taken seriously. They should be taken seriously only when they are doing their job. For the rest of the cases, we have unlimited examples to be followed, leave apart the actors. The earlier these actors understand the fact, the better will it be for both the parties.
Its high time people understand that they are no less than double mouthed politicians who can change their views and ideologies with the change in the content of each movie. They have grown money oriented and portray the ideal actor and not a hero. So we should take them seriously till they are on 70mm screen and on televisions and not on social media or any public meeting till they change their habit of being irrational.
NOTE: All the tweets are taken as it is from twitter.
