Anything ‘Karega’ For Publicity!’

There was a time when film stars were big and everything that they did became big news! On the flip side, television actors were given no countenance. Today the latter seem to be all over. What's surprising is considering the fact that they are supposed to have long working hours, given the time constraints, where do they find the time to party! We list out some of their common strategies...

Today film stars plan their publicity campaigns and prefer doing interviews prior to their film releases. Besides they've also woken up to the fact that it's not such a great idea to be splashed across newspapers for anything besides their work. So the empty spaces probably forced the media to look at their counterparts on the small screen. Whichever way it is, it seems to have worked for the latter. Today even a new entrant on television becomes a celebrity overnight, never mind if he or she is just doing a miniscule role in a decent serial. The actors who are known to be publicity hungry include Chetan Hansraj, Manish Goyal (he is said to top the list followed by Chetan Hansraj), Pooja Ghai Rawal, Delnaz, Rajiv, and Rakesh Paul, Amarr Upadhyay, Tassnim Sheikh, Rohit Roy, Cezanne Khan, Kushal Punjabi, Gaurav Chopra, Amit Sadh, and Vikram Acharya. TV actors are known to go to any extent for publicity. They seem to have taken off where Vivek Oberoi left off!
It was indeed amusing to see Chetan Hansraj in print after his honeymoon. He sent his honeymoon pictures to an eveninger. A picture of his wife (not an actress, model, or celeb) in a skimpy bikini showed his desperation for publicity. That was going too far, most people felt. Recently the news of Hrithik Roshan's approaching fatherhood became big news. Soon Chetan Hansraj spread the word around about his wife's pregnancy. Manish Goyal who's been in the industry for long (and who's been in the news for all the wrong reason most times) is one notch above him. He bought a car last month on his birthday. He started telling the world about it. The interesting part is, on the day of purchase he re-confirmed with a few journalists to make sure that they came over to cover his very private (?) moment! When Dolly Sohi, his co-star in 'Bhabhi' accused him of indecency in a TV glossy, he used his contacts with the editor to clarify his status. No wonder he loves to refer to journalists as his friends!
At times this so called 'friendship' with journalists goes a step further. The actors love to bitch about their co-stars and create a press war? (Does this bring about a feeling of dj vu? Yeah, film stars did that in that past sometimes!) Aashka Goradia and Rucha Gujrati (Kumud and Kali of 'Kkusum') had a war in print for many days on how one aped the other's hair cut and style. Another publicity stunt is throwing a birthday party solely for the press and make sure it becomes a page 3 event. Madhur Bhandarkar really seems to have popularized Page 3 parties! One of the first ones we were invited to (but obviously declined) was Deepal Shaw's great birthday bash. Recently it was Vikram Acharya. We wonder when birthday parties became such a public affair. Another interesting case is a publicity hungry actress, Pooja Ghai Rawal. We would have probably never heard of her if she hadn't hired a PR person. But now after a bit of publicity and networking, she never mentions the PR's name but prefers to call up journalists personally on every occasion and requests them either directly or indirectly to feature her. No wonder she has become another known face today. SMSs to scribes to appraise them of happenings in their personal and professional lives, is very common. At times actors even refuse to part with their costars' numbers for fear of the other getting publicity.
Another popular way of getting mileage in a publication is to either announce or threaten to walk out of a serial. Mind you this decision is first conveyed to the media and then to the producers concerned! Ex-Sujal (Rajeev Khandelwal) announced that he had left 'Kahin To Hoga' but continued acting in it for a long time before actually leaving it. Thanks to the major controversy that it created, he became a household name. His earlier grouse that the few people who knew him, referred to him as Sujal, not Rajeev Khandelwal. Today after all his publicity attempts having failed, he has announced that he's off the press! Actually we think he's out of work with 'Time Bomb' having flopped in a big way. Ronit Roy had announced from every possible rooftop about his decision to quit 'Kyunki Saans ...' and 'Kassauti' for 'Sarrkar'. But the truth is he never stopped shooting for both of them. Leaving them was a very distant thing. Narayani Shastri did a similar thing for 'Kkusum' and 'Piya Ka Ghar'.
Bitching about co-stars and creating a scene in a party is another publicity stunt. People still remember the brawl between Dolly Bindra and Shweta Tiwari's husband, Raja, at Anuj Saxena's party some time back. No one knows what the truth really is but at the end of it, Dolly Bindra became a known name. Aakashdeep Sehgal (Ansh of 'Kyunki Saas .......) is known for his attitude throwing ways. Despite fixing up meetings with scribes for an interview, he refuses them at the last moment. Probably he feels that behaving filmi will keep him in news. Some time back Ronit and Rohit Roy went to Siddhi Vinayak temple and the minute details were covered by a tabloid. It is obvious that the information didn't reach the publication on its own. It's ironical that the media is invited even on such private and sacred occasions! Juhi Parmar had been claiming her fondness for Anuj Saxena in various publications. It gave most people the impression that Anuj would propose to her soon. But one actor really takes the cake, baker and the bakery for his publicity stunts. He started by spreading rumours about his love affairs with various costars. We had almost started believing in his 'macho male' image until we heard otherwise from a reliable source. He had made a physical pass at one of his male costars a few months back. When a scribe called up for his version of the story, he lost his cool. Soon he called up higher authorities in the publication and pleaded for the story to be dropped as it would ruin his career. It's a different story that he approached one of his 'journalist friends' from another publication and narrated his sorry plight. Call it pity or friendship but the scribe did a whitewashing job by carrying his declaration about his love affair with a new female costar, a newcomer and wannabe who could only gain from any kind of linkup or write-up. But we find something very fishy about this whole story and most people in the media firmly believe that the 'macho male' image being flaunted is just a bid to hide his gay/bisexual status. Yeah, we forgot. Another publication soon took up the story of his making a pass at his male costar. But again he used whatever friendship he shared with those concerned with that publication to have the story dropped again. We are not saying anything more!
At the end of it all, it makes us wonder We wonder why this desperation for publicity. Is it a case of making hay while the sun shines? Wouldn't these actors rather be talked about their work or do they really believe that their work is not really worth talking about!