When Shahrukh Khan sells vegetables and fruits (on bb) it does not feel good. He was supposed to take ‘Dil Wale Dulhaniya’ home and live happily ever after, he was supposed to spread his arms at a twenty degree slant and assure all swooning girls and aunties, ‘ Kiska hai ye tumko intezar mein hoon na’. But no, our swadeshi Tom Cruz had to sell bhajis like my thela wala, and it was not even ‘ papi pet ka sawal’, for him at least. Dear hero, sell if you must, sell those lovely sheets and upholstery with your wife, looking ‘oh so in love’ ; give us the incentive to buy those curtains with our next Diwali bonus. Sell the time keepers watches, for we know that time keeps changing ! Sell the fairness cream if you so want, after all beauty is just melanin deep, and we understand your needs. But please don’t sell vegetables, no matter which side of fifty you are in , don’t try to look domesticated, we are not buying it.
Humanity is a virtue not many can pride to have. But having your own brand of ‘ Being Human’ is another story altogether. Salman khan the bhai of the industry is a man with a large heart or so we are told. Thus when ‘Didi tera dewar diwana’ hero bares his chest at the drop of a hat people don’t count his packs they just see a big heart ! Our heroes take all the trouble to decide which brand of vest is best for us,or which innerwear gives ultimate comfort, in return all we have to do is smile and give a ‘Thums Up’ to our Big Boss. The ‘Dabang’ persona of a hero ends with the word, cut. But in a fan’s mind they remain The dabang man. A character called ‘Bajrangi bhai Jan’ becomes the humane answer to all our cross border tensions. I hope people remember that “being human” is more than wearing a shirt, it is a way of life for some.
Mr. Bachchan senior on the other hand can sell almost everything. That baritone voice gives a sense of assurance, command and comfort, all molded into one. The voice makes you want to believe, job of marketing is half done when trust is ensured. The chavanprash will make you stronger, the cream will heal your skin, the hair oil will cool your nerves, it will all work. We do not buy a product, we buy magic, a solution, a cure. But Mr. Bachchan endorses more than supermarket products. His larger than life persona becomes the common man’s voice when he speaks to us about social issues, from one drop of pulse polio to ‘swatch Bharat.’ His richness reflects even in his mundane regularity. He dazzles us when he buys jewelry for his wife with the elegant ease of royalty. On Sunday Times full page advertisement, Bachchan family portrait smile at us, totally taken in by the grandeur we almost smile back in courtesy. And then when our own need to buy the purest of pure metal arises we ( the malleable aam admi ) go to the same store as shown by our stars ! The chain we buy chains us further with star power .
The Priyankas, Shilpas, Kajols, Aishwaryas, of every neighborhood will trustingly buy the shampoos, creams, and lotions endorsed by Priyanka, Shilpa, Kajol ,Aishwarya and the other leading ladies of Hindi cinema. They are in every sense of the term dream sellers. But when dream girl ( aka Hemamalini) herself sells the ‘sabse shudh ‘ drop of water, draped in a aqua marine blue sari, you wonder what Basanti would sell in those days of ‘ chal dhanno ‘. The star power is big in a country where movies are the biggest entertainment grosser. When the stars sell, it is hard not to submit.
This summer with the temperatures soaring , dear stars, don’t even bother to sell us those bottled aerated drinks , we will drink them anyway. Meanwhile the ‘nariyal pani wala ‘ can stand with his basket full of thirst quenchers at the nukkar, haggling over the price of thirst.
Yes, thirst does sell , we thirst for almost everything, it only needs to be marketed well to make us believe that we are thirsty. Bring in the stars, fill up the pages of magazines and newspapers, prime time and on line shopping with advertisements, and make your product seen ,heard and believed, and voilà, magic happens.
All other professionals, sportspersons, soldiers, leaders ( leading what not very sure ), doctors, lawyers, educationists, can evoke many sentiments in us, but idol worship still rests with the film fraternity and a section of cricketers. As frivolous it may sound, it is the truth with the masses. There is a reason for this trust and admiration for film stars alone. They essay many a roles on reel, and the gullible mind after a point forgets the distinguishing factors. The actor becomes the character they play on screen. The characters bring the credibility to our minds, we start thinking ” Raj, Rahul, Vijay, Vidya, Simran ” can do the insurmountable. The trust is built on screen, the vulnerability of imagination is stretched and played upon to its hilt. The common man in desperate need of change starts believing that the change is possible, only if he apes his hero. Real change does not happen, but the follower follows, the fashion, the brands ; imitate to the point of affordability !
The filmy glitterati are the stars, the brand ambassadors, they have the star power. Their smiling faces stand out in a million, their life inspire millions (surprisingly it does, the celluloid and beyond ), and when rest of the millions, billions, gladly, smilingly, embrace the star power and feel ‘thanda thanda cool cool’ even in this plus thirty degree centigrade, who are we to object. At the end of the day we too are just one in a million ! So let the ending chorus for all of us be “Main tera hai re jabar, hai re jabar Fan ho Gaya”. Fans are mostly reliable , runs all through the year.. without question, but what if it falls or fails one day ! The responsibility to secure the fan is huge, the responsibility to enjoy the cool breeze is even bigger.
sangeeta chakladar 