Celebrities or Demigods?

Let me preface this blog by admitting that I'm not the world's biggest fan of Indian ultra-star Amitabh Bachchan. I admire some of his work and I think he is talented in certain roles but I don't consider him by any means to be the end-all-be-all actor and person that he is often made out to be. That being said, let me continue. I know that I'm rather late to the whole blogging thing but still, I've been blogging for about the last two years now and I can say that it's certainly helped me keep up the practice of writing. Lots of people say that if you want to be a good writer you have to keep writing and so I've been writing blogs nearly every day for the past two years. I've had over 10,000 visits from all over the world and have made over 500 posts.

I honestly don't know just how many people happen upon this blog and stay to read some of the contents when they do happen to find it by mistake. Usually the search strings tie into some key phrase that I've used in one of my blogs and that leads to a record number of hits. I remember getting over 200 hits in one day when I had blogged on the discovery of a new planet last year. I got the hits because when you did a Google search for the planet's designation, my blog was the first hit on the list. Take that NASA! Still, luck and happenstance likely have a lot to do with people finding my blog. Not so with Amitabh Bachchan, the Indian star who has started his own blog several months ago. On his blog he does what most bloggers do and that is relate his experiences during recent trips or events; talks about his thoughts on certain issues; and answers questions that some of his fans leave on his site.

Now a small time guy like me doesn't get very many comments nor do I expect them but usually the comments I receive are statements of agreements or the occasional refutation of what I've been ranting about. This is fine as I don't expect everyone to agree with every single thing that I say but in the case of Amitabh Bachchan, his comments reveal a slight more... well... disturbing side to his readers. Now as I've said, Bachchan is a household name in India as he's been a big star in Bollywood films going on four decades now. In recent years his appeal seems to have exploded and the number of people literally singing his praises can be seen on his blogs. They range from the mundane about how the reader thinks Bachchan is the greatest to the ludicrous such as the post that was made on his blog earlier this week by a disgruntled concert goer. Now to clarify quickly, Bollywood concerts aren't real 'concerts' per se. They are usually songs from popular movies of the time being sung live by the actual singers or cover artists with the stars themselves lip-syncing and dancing live. (An interesting side-note... I don't think the Indian media would have wasted even a column of news over the Chinese lip-synching 'controversy' at the Opening Ceremonies seeing as how no Bollywood star in today's market would ever consider singing their own songs a la the Hollywood stars of something like "Mamma Mia").

So apparently one of Bachchan's now former fan-for-life readers, Mr. Parag Gandhi, posted an angry comment regarding the fact that he shelled out nearly $600 for tickets and a chance to meet Bachchan and his fellow artists at a show in San Francisco. Mr. Gandhi also flew from his home to San Francisco just to see the show and due to miscommunication and an apparent 'dis-interest' from Bachchan and company, did not even get to meet the artist. Mr. Gandhi proceeded to then rail against Bachchan and his ilk over their apparent willingness to 'step on the public that built them up'. Now kudos to Bachchan for responding to the comment in such a public fashion when he wrote up his response. He indicated that such 'arrangements' with the producers of these shows are not the responsibility of the artists but of the producers of these shows and though they make an effort to meet all fans, they don't have an indication of when these incidents are supposed to occur. He apologized to Mr. Gandhi and indicated that rather than blogging about his mother on her death anniversary, he chose to respond to a former fan-for-life. And therein lies my problem.

I was intrigued by the whole discussion about this blog and the comments so I went online to check it out myself and I was rather appalled at how Bachchan was treated on this site. Not that he was insulted or bad-mouthed but he was praised like... I don't even know how to describe it. But it was almost as if he was infallible. He was perfect. He was humble. He was the greatest (though I would argue that title still belongs to Muhammed Ali). In essence, he was being treated like a demigod. Not quite God, but God-like and I find it to be something very much prevalent in our Indian culture and that is hero worship. Now I'm not saying that paying respect and acknowledging our elders is a wrong cultural tie, but this 'bowing down' in reverence to celebrities is a bit much. Take a show like "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa" which is somewhat akin to "American Idol" and when the music director judges reap praise on participants, they are quick to go and touch their feet in respect and treat it like an acknowledgement from some 'higher authority'.

That's fine, there's nothing wrong with it if it is genuine respect but sometimes it borders on excess and frequently it falls quite far across the line. And then the line that many of these commentors on Bachchan's blog take almost seem so familiar or friendly it's as if they are ordering him to do something now that he's responded to his readers. What do I mean? Now that he's shown how 'big' he is by writing about his former fans as opposed to his late mother now his fans are piling on the insults to Mr. Gandhi for making his comments and lauding Bachchan for being the bigger man and answering his jibes. Forget the fact that Bachchan then goes on to challenge Mr. Gandhi to prove that he even did some of the things he claims in his letter such as producing Bachchan's 1993 concert or being roommates at one time with his son. I doubt very much that Mr. Gandhi will respond now that he's been insulted quite vehemently on the site.

It shows just how much Bachchan's fans are willing to fight and defend their ultra-star and to what lengths they are willing to go to show their devotion. According to Mr. Gandhi's post (and this must be taken with a bag not a grain of salt) that one of his friends spent in excess of $20,000 to meet and speak with Bachchan at the same concert only to be left crying at the wayside. My question is who the Hell is Amitabh Bachchan for you to even consider spending $20,000 to meet him? Wouldn't you rather put that money away for your kids college funds? Wouldn't you rather use that money to pay off your debts? Wouldn't you rather use that money for so many other things rather than the chance to spend ten minutes with an actor? I have met some stars from Bollywood and for the most part they have been quite low-key and very reserved and humble. I'm not saying that Bachchan isn't all of these things but people in general need to be reminded of that fact. He's only human albeit a very famous human but human nonetheless. Don't make him a God.