Our responsibility as fans/public

Ever since I read about Sushant being upset due to blind items about him and those blinds being one of reasons that pushed him towards depression, I felt guilty for reading such blind items in first place or participating in threads guessing blind items.

Last month when I saw Arnab refer to 'who was caught at Berlin airport', I recalled blinds and gossip threads about alleged use of cocaine, drugs by star wives few years ago and filmi sites reporting about star wives caught at airport abroad.

And felt maybe media and people online are being used to target stars and their families in real life or link them to some international mafia etc.?

I feel we can discuss merits and demerits of stars' work or films but we are all some way guilty of unwarranted personal attacks, body shaming stars or trending abusive or vulgar hashtags against stars or their fans (as it happens on Twitter). The allegations and gossip or often unsubstantiated claims or hearsay may some day do more harm than good to stars themselves.

I am not surprised Aamir deleted his social media accounts.

The mental health shaming of stars discussing their mental health struggles is also wrong. It felt sad to see people mock depression and ones suffering from depression just because trolls love to abuse Deepika for sharing her struggle with depression.

I wonder about fake concern for Sushant after his death...when people love to mock stars when they are alive or share their struggles.

Stars exist due to public but I think somewhere we may have forgotten our limits as public. Public has no business to meddle or comment on personal lives, choices of stars or what faith they follow or what they name their kids or who they marry or divorce. It is not right to share blind items and half baked information.

I wonder why public feels so entitled or assumes stars exist for us or due to us when most of us do NOT even buy original albums, DVDs, CDs etc and buy tickets in black or shamelessly download movies online or buy 5 in 1 pirated CDs of films or wait for film/web series/songs to be uploaded online or even do not buy film magazines but expect to see scans for free uploaded by someone else.

We are not doing anyone favour if we watch their ads, songs or films. Nor do stars do a favour by working in films.

Politicans, media persons, businessmen probably have worse, sleazy lives and liaisons but no one says a word about them.

I do not sympathize with stars because they are having enough resources at their disposal anyway. But I do feel guilty for all avoidable things we sometimes did - guessing blind items, liking posts on gossip about who slept with who or who took drugs or who was caught where.

I think somewhere we should also behave with more responsibility as viewers and fans and regularly check if we are not overstepping boundaries when we share or post content . Defending abusive or criminal behavior which is obvious or proven is wrong and sharing unsubstantiated blind item claims is also not right or fair.

If blind items or gossip hurt someone in real life or harm their mental health then we should also stop consuming such content so that writers and publishers like Masand, Open, PV, Stardust etc do not give demand and supply excuse to justify why they publish what they do.

If Bollywood has been targetted unfairly since last one year then it is also partly because of certain elements in media, Bollywood industry itself whose gossip, masala and so called tell all claims online are misused and weaponised to target stars and their families. Even if guilt is not proven the harassment and defamation are real and slander does harm stars, their mental health.

We've got some introspection to do.

And so do industry people who warm up to a party that targets them and their industry yet expects the same industry to promote their ideology and campaign unofficially for their govt. Are they allowing themselves to be used as both pawns and punching bags/scapegoats by politicians?

There was a time when this sort of thing had a seperate place in the media. Now everyone is a tabloid journalist. You can't really tell a bitchy column from Stardust and a 'news' bulletin apart anymore .

I would only speak for myself. When Sushant was alive, I didn't feel anything about him. When he died, I didn't feel anything either except shock, but still I didn't get emotionally invested.

I got irked when I saw people bashing and mocking him and his death from the second day of the incident itself. I know it was a reaction for people bashing and blaming Bollywood for his death.

But Bollywood was never going to get affected by it. They've survived far worse controversies. But Sushant is dead. He's not going to come back. You need to be really twisted and insensitive to mock a recently dead man. And a lot of people on social media showed that's exactly what they are.

Now alot of time has passed since his death, and bashing and mocking sessions still continue. Obviously people aren't always going to praise a person just because he's dead, I don't expect that. But Sushant's death wasn't respected even when it was recent.

And that wasn't only done by SSR bots or conspiracy theorists, but also by people who made it their life's mission to defend Bollywood along with those who take everything as a joke. That made me emotionally invested, and you can call it "fake concern", but I think it's called respecting the dead, which many people didn't do.

I accept I didn't care about Sushant when he was alive, because I can't care about everyone in this world. I don't know why he was in depression and committed suicide, it could be because of his struggle in Bollywood, or because of the blinds, or because of mocking and bashing on social media.

Bottom line is we don't know, so we shouldn't have judged him or his death. Now about judging or discussing celebs who are very well alive, yeah I don't shy away from giving my POV. Even though I don't have much interest in gossip of the personal lives of these stars.

But when I come across any particular gossip, I don't hesitate in giving my opinion, even though most of the time I don't give an opinion at all. I'm just not interested because yeah, it's their life their choice, who cares what they do. I don't judge them.

Should we be careful while discussing the personal lives of celebs? I think yes but I guess I'm not the right person to answer, because I'm not interested in their personal life anyway. And where should we draw the line? Even if we don't gossip about them, these celebs are extremely popular and their personal lives are not actually personal.

Even if I'm not interested in knowing about Deepika's depression or Aamir's extra-marital affairs, I still know it and can't help forming an opinion, and sometime somewhere I would put that opinion on social media as well.

And even if these celebs get alot of hate and bashing, they also get love and adulation from fans, so in the end it all get balanced out so I don't see it as a big deal.

Sushant was caught up w the wrong crowd clearly

Sushant was murdered n proofs were destroyed .this exposed bolly under belly totally .

We should be kind and avoid hurting people simply because it is the right thing to do.

Bullying is only one aspect of complex mental health issues. Bullying has also been tied to gun violence. Family, peer support systems, socio-economic environment, and so many other factors play in overall mental well-being and how people react to situations.

Originally posted by: Nonpareil

Sushant was murdered n proofs were destroyed .this exposed bolly under belly totally .

What really happened ??

I see it as a big deal considering how articles on star wives and drugs were clearly used against a star kid last month to target them or cook conspiracy theories to link a star to international drug mafia. And also because blinds and reported #metoo allegations are said to have upset Sushant a lot which affected his mental health.

While affairs are not illegal, the stuff which can have legal repercussions later or is connected to illegal activities and crimes such as molestation, sexual harassment, domestic violence, rape, drugs, bribe, tax evasion, trafficking, murder, criminal intimidation, abetment to suicide, posession and consumption of drugs and banned substances etc should not be gossiped about IMHO unless there is evidence or witness account of the same or an actual case or complaint. It is used later to target celebs even if case has no real basis or evidence or target their families who are not even in show biz or part of public life.

Especially if people claim to be fans of Bollywood or film media/journalists.

The so called insiders and sources who supposedly give out such masala should be ready to take responsibility or approach police or be ready to testify in court of law if they claim to know it all.

What media tried to do to stars in last 2 years was nothing but harassment, presumptions, assumptions based on gossip or twisted meanings of few parts of leaked chats or using previous articles and blind items to paint stars as criminals.

All I said that in these harassment and slander, somewhere film media and fans also had an irresponsible role to play.

Finally I think media or social media or so called tell all books are not the right route. If someone indeed committed crime or had grievances and wishes to go public about it then file case in court or complain to police, approach relevant authorities, rather than going public in media but doing nothing to do pursue the issue legally. Otherwise it may look like a publicity stunt or raise doubts and credibility of the claims may be in question.

Gossip is one thing, targeting someone resulting in real life framing in bogus cases is different.

For eg there may be talk of a star being 'high' or having some other secret of energy but unless there is proof, it is unfair to make posts about him or articles, blinds, blogs, gossip which may later be misused by politically motivated mischievous elements to trap him in false cases to frame him as part of international mafia or a drug peddler, smuggler etc. The media and agencies using such articles or claims or gossip to justify jailing or summoning someone by authorities or cops or court are wrong and laughable. But why should film fans, media, film industry insiders and self proclaimed sources provide the material for forming flimsy ground for fake cases?