Ramu's real verdict on Indian Media

Even as critics are saying Ram Gopal Varma is getting back at Indian media with his movie Rann, he tells his honest views on it

We asked Ram Gopal Varma to tell us the five positives and five negatives of Indian media…

Ramu enthusiastically answered us. He chose to answer the positives at first and got stumped after the fourth positive about Indian media. After thinking for a long time he said, "Hey, I can't think of any fifth positive point. Let's keep it to four positives and four negatives. Shall we?"

We gracefully obliged!

Four positives of Indian Media (according to Ram Gopal Varma):
1) Entertaining
2) Informative
3) Digs up the dirt
4) Changes world view

Four negatives of Indian Media (according to Ram Gopal Varma):

1) Too entertaining! In the sense that news is supposed to be presented in an entertaining manner. But nowadays packaging has become so important, that news has taken a backseat and it's more and more of entertainment.

2) Lots of false information is given in the form of 'source quotes' as well as 'biased editing'.

3) It digs up the dirt and throws it at the viewers face (splat!). Meaning there's a lot of manipulation done to sensationalize the news in a vulgar manner.
Take for example the ND Tiwari case. The news just said, this elderly politician has been 'caught in the act'. Later, I got to read in a Vir Sanghvi column that the female who sent the girls over wanted a mining contract to get through. It didn't happen so she let the tape out. Which means ND Tiwari wasn't misusing his office. The girls who had gone to him had consented and so did he. A bunch of adults were having consensual sex but the general media gave a skewed first impression of it.

4) It changes world view beyond anybody's wildest imagination! Why I'm saying this is because media is so unbelievably powerful. Some silly ideas that we otherwise rubbish, is made extremely believable thanks to the media's storytelling capacity.
During Abhishek Bachchan's wedding, someone mailed Amitabh Bachchan, asking him to stop the wedding because Aishwarya was supposedly inauspicious for the family. The minute she steps into the Bachchan house tragedies would befall the Bachchan family and that number one on the list was Abhishek's death. So a news channel did a story showing Aishwarya's laughing face with haunting background music. And I know Aishwarya personally, but I have to accept she did look scary on the screen at that time! So you see, it's amazing, media can make you change your perception with a snap. Just like that!

Reporter and Author: Susan Jose

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Abhishek Bachchan Thumbnail

Abhishek Bachchan

Amitabh Bachchan Thumbnail

Amitabh Bachchan

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Thumbnail

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Ram Gopal Varma Thumbnail

Ram Gopal Varma

Rann poster

Rann

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