A celebrity is not born overnight. It is an evolutionary process. While a few reach that status a bit soon by sheer stroke of luck some will have to wait a fairly long time to evolve into a celebrity. Such is the way of the world.
Aravind Adiga was a non-entity in the literary world, till he won the Booker Prize for his novel ‘White Tiger’. Booker brought him fame and glory and in due course won many accolades.
Arundhati Roy the Booker Prize winner though known across a wide spectrum as a writer, actor and a script writer, ‘The God of Small Things” made her a well-known figure in the literary world. Since then there was no looking back, though she didn’t pen another fiction but plunged into the mainstream as a social activist and writer many of her articles and speeches could set off ripples across the world over and many publishers, all renowned stood in queue to get her sanction to compile her articles and speeches into books, all sold like hot cakes across the world. ‘Algebra of Infinite Justice’, ‘An Ordinary Man’s Guide to Empire’ and ‘The Shape of the Beast’, all still read, discussed and appreciated around the world. Still when her name is mentioned soon comes into mind the face of a Booker Prize Winner.
Kiran Desai, the Booker Prize Winner for her novel ‘Inheritance of Loss’ albeit the beloved daughter of well-known writer Anita Desai whose books came up for consideration of Booker Committee more than once she didn’t have the luck at least for once and Kiran had to run with her manuscript of her novel from pillar to post to get it published but almost all publishers spurned it she didn’t lose heart and was determined to get it published and at last goddess of luck opened her eyes before her.
The rest is history.
Similar are the cases with umpteen writers, regional and international, who had to wage relentless struggles to reach the position they aspired for and those who fell on the way getting depressed are also galore, not because of lack of calibre or potential. Many young men with latent talent and calibre find themselves in the lurch, some gentlemen attributing their failure to their attitude, I mean, not willing to go for any compromises and without the capability to rush ahead in the ever-competitive era of Globalisation with nobody willing to give a push to forge ahead. but some of them came to the fore and hogged the limelight through tireless efforts. Just inquire about their path to glory we can very well learn about the history of their first time ventures like secretly sending their beloved creations with prayers to magazines to get them published and imagine the tears welling in their eyes when they find their ‘creations’ returning to them with rejection slips sometimes even without rejection slips. Writing career should be like a long prayer and one day when one finds his/her prayers answered his/her joy and ecstasy knows no bounds. Since then with the label of a writer he/she walks with his/her head held high, occasionally winning awards and acceptance of awards from well-known figures with photographs published in newspapers and displayed in the visual media. Sense of being an established writer dawns own him/her, gives interviews in style and with pride but from the time this publicity gets to his head he/she treats the upcoming ones with a look of contempt and feels like the fellow getting on his nerves, thus forcing him/her to lose temper. Exceptions of course there are but experiences point towards the overnight celebrities or the gradually evolved ones displaying hubris.
All these ‘about the world of writers and letters’. In comes the tinsel world. Bollywood, Tollywood and the Mollywood.
The shining jewels of ever glittering world of Bollywood or for that matter the Tollywood or Mollywood remain a fascination for many young men and women who nurse dreams of entering that bewitching, fascinating and seductive world, by playing various tunes. Chasing producers, directors, accomplished actors, other friends connected with the profession these dreaming youthful figures ready to fight to the hilt at least to make an appearance if not as a hero or heroine at least as an extra artist. Such is the magnetism of the tinsel world.
We had seen Miss Worlds and Miss Universes of India- in the run up to the announcement of results- answering questions before the grilling jury “if come out successful what would you aspire to become after it?” Within no uncertain terms declaring with ‘confidence’ (My goodness) the enchanting beauties’ intentions to follow the paths of Mother Teresa, the hallowed nun who devoted her entire life to the cause of destitutes or to work for the cause of HIV/AIDS patients thus exhorting the people to shed the social stigma attached to them in the society, for the empowerment of poverty-stricken, mal-nourished women and children in their own country and if god willing around the world.
Upon winning the coveted title keeping no qualms, these enchanting beauties rush to the Bollywood or any wood like that and don glamorous roles. I do not want to name them as they are known to everyone like the lines on his/her inner palms.
Recently I happened to read about a news story about a young boy from Delhi traveling all the way from Delhi and ending up with selling samosas on the streets of Mumbai years back and he later found himself in Bollywood emerging as a shining jewel respected across Mumbai as King Khan to be precise our own Shahrukh Khan ( nowadays I am also thinking seriously about selling samosas through the streets of Mumbai. Luckily I am already a part of Mumbai). And if now he dares to come out into the open the worshipping fans will go to the extend of mobbing him and the security will have to be called to help him come out of the grip of his beloved fans. Idol-worshipping, good or bad I don’t know, even Buddha who was an iconoclast and after his ‘Nirvana’ (demise) turned out to be idol and idols of Buddha abound in Buddhist countries. I singled out Shahrukh Khan, just as an example. Many Bollywood actors, singers, music composers who still hog the limelight must have touching stories to lay bare before us their past lives, their struggles to reach to the top, it is heartening that most of them display no kind of arrogance or excessive pride in these days of glory.
Amitabh Bachan, once known as the angry young man of Indian cinema, if my knowledge is correct must have something to tell us his search for a place under the “tinsel sun”.
Before stepping into the shoes of a Bollywood actor, according to my knowledge he was holding a not so attractive post in a Kolkattan firm. His Bollywood career changed all that and in the glare of flashing cameras he honed his acting talents that won huge applauses from his well-wishers. His imposing personality, his baritone voice and flexible movements, moreover as a singer and TV anchor could attract an army of female worshippers including heroines and in due course he outsmarted the then Super Star of Hindi cinema Rajesh Khanna and donned the prestigious mantle himself. A celebrity known across India and the world over. While feeling proud about a versatile personality at least he ought to bear in mind that all his recent utterances like ‘cheap’, ‘petty’ and ‘rubbish’ to the attitude of a Communist Party leadership for rejecting his willingness to act as the brand ambassador of Kerala were a matter of shame. He should not have used the same ‘yard-stick’ with which he measured the Samajwadi Party’ (SP), a communist party which works under certain ideological constraints and which owes some obligations to its cadres. As to my knowledge for him to lash out vehemently against the Party’s decision it was quite unwarranted and un-called for as the CPI(M) didn’t stoop to such low levels to respond to his allegations. “Damn”, “bloody”, “cheap”, “petty” all such words don’t behove a celebrity.
As he once opined, celebrities are a part of public property and hence bound to bear it and ought to take in their stride. Hope he still recalls it. Sorry sir, I am only a leftist sympathizer and not CPI(M) card holder.
I fear age is slowly catching up with Big B. The angry young man of yester years gradually evolves into an angry old man I feel. Nowadays it seems like he is loosing his cool frequently. He ought to have taken the issue of brand ambassadorship of Kerala with poise and maturity. That kind of approach would have made him more dearer to all.
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