BY BISWADEEP GHOSH
More than a year ago, a story in Stardust magazine had featured Jessica Hines, a lady who had come down to India and was alleged to be pregnant with Aamir Khan’s child. It made news nationwide. Every newspaper made sure it splashed some bit of the interview in which Jessica did not come out in the open. Instead, what she said came close to suggesting that the baby was a technological miracle, in her words, “a computer-generated hologram.”
Cut to The Hindustan Times, whose Mumbai edition was launched very recently. Day one of the newspaper featured a scoop that revealed excerpts from a conversation between Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai. This conversation in which Salman allegedly spoke about everything right from his bedtime stories with heroines to his association with the underworld had been buried for four long years. Nobody had spoken of it, including Ash even after she went to town with her statements against Salman after the twosome broke up. But the day the newspaper set its feet in Mumbai, the interview emerged out of nowhere, making HT a serious rival of The TOI overnight.
Now, think of The Rising. Think of Aamir Khan with the Mangal Pandey moustache that he used for both playing Mangal Pandey and selling Titan watches. The Rising may be utter crap – it indeed is – but there is little doubt that curiosity about Aamir is at an all-time high. Because of the hype surrounding the film well before it was released all over the world on August 12, people are ready to devour any thing and every thing about Aamir. Right now, it won’t be wrong to say that Aamir is India’s number one star, which is also because of the fact that he hasn’t had a release for four long years. Film lovers want to see the guy because he has successfully tested their patience by remaining in hibernation for far too long.
So, at a time when Aamir mania has gripped the nation, comes another Stardust story saying that the son of Jessica – the hologram in her belly once – is two years old now. Jessica who had kept mum about the dad’s identity earlier, suggesting that a Pentium 2.6 could be the culprit, now says that Aamir who is alleged to be the dad of the child named Jaan actually asked to abort the child.
A couple of questions. Why did Jessica talk about Aamir’s fatherhood so late in the day when she had attributed the child’s origin to a computer once? Why did we get to know that a love child named Jaan existed exactly when The Rising was released? These questions cannot be answered very easily but, somehow, Aamir for once reminds of Salman Khan. And, Stardust seems rather similar to The Hindustan Times of the day it was launched in Mumbai.
6 comments:
Disagree, Biswadeep. Stardust need not do what an HT did on Day 1. This is Stardust's ishtyle, boss.
The fact that the controversy surfaced coinciding with the Risin release did cross my mind, and from Stardust's pov I think it's fair to do it when the man's top of mind. I don't think Aamir could've pushed for the story in the mag, as many other stars are supposed to do in filmland....
- PM
Completely agree that Stardust and HT are as dissimilar as anything can be from anything else. What do they say? As different as chalk and cheese? But HT did become Stardust-like for a while when they started out -- I am strictly speaking about what turned out to be their USP in their initial days -- because a story was brought out of the grave after four years of no reporting at all. Similarly, if Jaan is Jaan Khan, why was he not written about when Aamir was nowhere in the scene? The kid has been around for two years just as the Salman-Ash tapes were around for four years. Both Stardust and HT kept timing at the back of their minds, and for once, the nature of the stories weren't different either. One spoke of Salman's underworld connections; the other of Aamir's illegitimate child. In the old days when HT was the HT one knew, both would have been carried in Stardust.
stardust is the most bakwas maga zine...its only full off gossips and scoops....the only magazine to be seen in barbar shops..
xyz
Though the salman-aish coversation was not the perfect launch pad, HT is surely a good newspaper. Probably this is what happens when you have such a media war, where evry newpaper is trying to attract the readers attention...
BTW Bishwadeep you rock man....you write really well.. I eagerly wait for you columns...
Aamir Khan is a maha chalu guy. Good to see Stardust expose the real him.
But I agree that the whole thing is very smartly timed. Gr8 pc. Carry on...
Great idea to write about. and excellent language. But why don't you update your site frequently?
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