Tasbah, I definitely agree that Ranbir is trying to fix his image and also connect with the audience. The video with his dogs being a prime example. Ranbir's immediate goal is the make sure Sunju becomes a hit and connecting with the audience is part of that marketing/PR strategy. His long term goal is to counter balance all the negative buzz that Brahmstra accumulated in the past four years since its announcement. A big way to do that is present the main leads as a real life true love couple. I think Brahmstra becoming a hit is a much bigger deal to him than whatever damage an inevitable break up with Alia might cause. If he's a hit actor his damaged image won't matter. But if he's a flop actor (as he is now) a damaged image is an added burden.
What you said about a break up with Alia would damage his image even more, valid point. But then that break up can happen even if they are real so why be this open? Unless they've already decided on marriage, and it will actually happen soon. In which case then I'll go back to my theory of a few weeks ago when I believed they were real, that this relationship started long before the Bulgria schedule, and while she was still supposedly with Sid. In that case both their images could potentially go down the crapper as a couple who started by cheating.
His interview with Masand is the main reason I changed my mind from believing that they are real to believing they are fake now. When Masand asked him how Alia has influenced him he took a long pause and his answers were all about her as an actress. When Masand asked how being in love feels like he started to answer but then said its all kinds of love, a woman's love, man's love, best friend's love, parent's love. So basically he doesn't know Alia beyond her being an actress, and he doesn't realize that romantic love is its own separate emotion outside of all other kinds of love. I don't know how else to explain it, but it was bizarre.
Speaking of Masand, there is a reason some people call him Ranbir's mouthpiece. Not always but for the most part he seems to have a soft spot for star kids. But even among star kids Ranbir is his favorite. He's the one that started the rumor that Ranbir was the first choice for PK and Aamir stole the part from him, after PK broke all records. In reality Hirani had discussed PK with Aamir on the set of 3Idiots, but I digress. Also his long paragraph about Aloobir romance read like an absolute PR piece. I'm not saying he's part of the big PR plan, but he's not above publishing pieces because someone's PR asks him too. So Masand writing a paragraph on Aloobir doesn't give them any extra legitimacy at all.
This turned out a lot longer than I thought 😆. Sorry, I'm a talker 😆
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