The ghost in the machine

From a conversation few years back with one fanatic movie star –

“Do you know how much money they need to maintain their life style? It is not cheap being a superstar leave alone being his immediate relation. If you are normally dressed, media/people comment that you are way too simple and might even trigger controversies that you may be on bad times and debts. If you are lavish and stylish they would criticize you for not being modest and may question the legality of your source of income. If you remain under the radar, you cannot survive in the industry, where everyday at least 100 new people make their cut and could potentially lay claim to your throne shortly. If you are over exposed, that requires lot of patience and maturity, where even a single slip up could break your entire career and make you a laughing stock. You need to have an opinion for everything under the sun. You have to keep abreast of current affairs and any slip of tongue could ruin your carefully maintained image. If you decided to skip these then the media spotlight will never reach you and you would eventually fade away into oblivion. They need to be aloof and available at the same time. They need to be aspirational enough to be interesting but not ambitious to run the risk of being seen as a threat. It is very difficult to be in public spotlight and survive for long. In fact, this would apply not just for movie folks, but for any public personality. Be it sports, media, politics, movie any industry you may be from, unless you know the knack of handling the spotlight, it may brighten you or burn you.”

It is frightening to see the power of media and the effect it has on people. When Sam Anderson and “Power star” Srinivasan videos where in circulation, people shared them for fun, making fun of their dance moves and mocking them. The extent to which those videos were circulated, considering that it was not the boom time for data that we are witnessing now, despite that several thousands saw those videos just out of curiosity and eventually both of them got movie opportunities. Power star, to his credit, managed lot more movies and is still in the spotlight, where as nothing much is known of Anderson. Not that one is better than other, but somehow, Power star, despite all those allegations and court cases against him, managed to hold on to his own in tinsel town. Probably these were the first people who reaped the rewards of viral media. There have been some better examples as well. But the media and its ever growing power is going more in the direction of that James Bond movie, where the news mogul created headlines first and made them real. We are already witnessing quite a lot of such scenario even on present day and the world is making Ian Fleming looking more like a soothsayer than popular fiction writer, be it his gadgets or the machinations of his villains, everything is coming real.