Ripples on the brain

Aamir, I have a question for you. How did you suddenly turn an activist just around the time of release of “FANAA“? Why didn’t think about Narmada Bachao Aandolan when Medha Patkar started it? Or atleast when Arundhati joined it?

I was irritated to see him in almost all the news channels two weeks ago. He was giving a recorded interview in one, talking live with viewers in another one, talking with Kajol again and again in yet another one. How did he suddenly think of supporting NBA? He read about it in the newspaper and felt for it. Oh! Didn’t NBA feature earlier in the newspapers? What did he think about reservations? He feels that meritocracy should prevail and no section of the society should be disadvantaged. Wow! What a fresh thought? Why couldn’t anyone think this way? In a sentence he’s provided the solution to the reservation issue!

I think Aamir is the first person in Bollywood to manipulate media so effectively (okay, atleast differently) for his movies. He did it successfully with Rang de Basanti (”It is a phenomenon”, Siddharth would claim when he was at Infosys Hyderabad where there was a special screening of the movie) and tried it to some effect with FANAA.

But this time he didn’t get to talk anything about the movie, so he resorted to other gimmicks. By banning the movie in Gujarat, the government, knowingly or unknowingly, generated more interest and possibly more revenues than what the movie could have achieved through a normal release in Gujarat. My respect for Aamir (whom I even now hold above any other star in Bollywood) is definitely dipping.

Aamir is definitely not alone in using novel ways to publicize his crap movies. Namba Simbu is trying something similar with his sudden interest in Nayanthara before the release of Vallavan.