Are Indians obsessed with poverty glorification? - Page 2

Originally posted by: atominis

Why do most Indian stars make up stories of struggle even if they belong to rich, elite and privileged backgrounds and make stories like 'I slept on seat at park or railway station' or 'I was so poor that I could not go to Disneyland'?

Why they shame others for being rich, well off or from being good educational or professional background or an elite family or elite school etc?

Why they make up stories of poverty even if they were NOT that poor?

I had read a story of Amitabh sleeping on bench at a park in initial days when he came to Mumbai. Huh? Bakwas. He belonged to an extremely rich, well connected, powerful family. He was not some hand to mouth type guy who could not afford a PG or pay rent and spent nights on roadside or railway platform benches before he made it big.

I also remember in 2007, during Guru promotions, Ash was struggling to speak to a Hindi channel and trying to keep up with Hindi, avoiding smattering of English or accent and said ghar mein dal chawal banta hai bas, when interviewer asked about fav meals or food.

Huh? Why pretend you just take dal chawal and hesitate to name your fav dishes?

Like why do celebs go extra lengths to prove they are like any other average person or hide their elite background or high tastes?

Ranveer's interview was a joke and so was Ananya's whining about dad not being invited to KWK.

I nowadays see Sara going to extra lengths to post videos and reels of herself eating at roadside dhabas or visiting mandirs and she has reduced talking about her interests in reading, discussing world affairs and history with dad at dinner table or her time at Columbia.

Why? Why are Indians obsessed with appearing poor or aam aadmi and feel self conscious to talk or own up own stature?

Don't know about them but being a girl junior employee from my own experience I sometimes get preference over other colleagues and in good terms with my boss/senior officer ...... they respect my work and talks to me other than work related stuffs but if I share this things they will gossip and create rumours and will be jealous of me and create problems

On the other hand if I told them when boss scolded me or how I am like other employees for him and it's just work so they will talk to me in friendly manner.

Same case with people if I tell them how blessed I am they taunt me or won't take me into their inner circle until i tell how problematic my job is

People are protective about me as they don't know I am in good terms with senior officer if I boast then I will be hated

P.s. not generalising, I work in small institute with 60 coworkers in head office and only around 10 female coworker

Originally posted by: YourCat

They identify with it and want to make it their identity.. Like transgender.. Whats wrong with it?

I also identify with royal family.. What should my pronouns be

I also identify myself as a Royal. I also need a title.

It's a catch-22, right?

If they try to be humble and like everyone else, they will get criticized for pretending and trying too hard.

If they behave aligned with their wealth and status, then they get trashed for being privileged brats.

I mean Sonam Kapoor behaves exactly like the spoiled princess daughter she is and everyone hates her for it.

Because they wat to connect with normal people 😆

Relatability = Likability

As humans, we tend to gravitate toward people who are just like us. The more we find in common with someone, the more we like them. A celebrity's entire career is usually built around likability. The more likable they are, the more product endorsements they get, the more tickets they sell, and the more followers they have.

Most people do not like people who talk about living a luxurious lifestyle. Even matter-of-fact statements about having partied at an exclusive club in a foreign locale are scorned. So celebrities fake relatability. They say dal chawal instead of olive wagyu. Or they embellish their hardships or events some to be more relatable to people who have struggled to succeed.

I think your general question is answered. But where does Sara really pretend to be poor though? All her Instagram content outside movie promotion and brand endorsements seems to be pictures of her vacationing with her other rich friends and brother. She does try to be 'Desi' and 'Saadharan' to stand out from the rest of the star kids, but I don't think she pretends to be poor.

I also don't think Sara (or her father for that matter) should be sharing their opinions on world politics or affairs. She isn't exactly the brightest.

Abhishek admitted when he started out, AB snr thought his education in Boston and mindset wouldn't work in BW and he'd need to take it down several notches.

That's why he talks in that paan chewing Bhojpuri accent at every opportunity on KBC.

Background refers to making sure the person hasn’t been convicted of doing crimes. Or genuinely comes from a family that is known to have respectable morals and ethics. I am not sure who confuses background to be rich or poor ?

well I guess rags to riches stories have always sold and made people relatable. That is the entire concept of the American dream or more like American myth.

Because everyone has their struggle depending upon what position they r standing n who they r comparing with.

Like ranveer as child must be comparing himself with his more rich friends n that's why he felt he couldn't get what he wanted at that point of time. And childhood memories r haunting.

Ananya or shanaya must be comparing with suhana whose dad was super successful n that's why they would be always having a feeling of lower status than her. That's why her struggle was her father not getting invited in KWK as she would be embarassed in front of her friend for same reason n many other things which her best friend was getting.

Sara same way had to ask Rohit Shetty to take her n she compared her with others where their father talk for them or spends money to launch them.

But ppl compared these rich ppl with themselves n hence they get trolled.

Ppl compare themselves with ppl who have more n not less hence everyone in this world has some sadness.Like middle class ppl compare themselves with rich ones n not with labour class.

But yes for connecting with common man these ppl make fake stories of struggle after getting negative backlash of their real struggles which public can't connect with.

Like Sonam in an interview said she was dark and her relatives would be taunting her for who would marry her. It sounded completely fake. She is quite fair n looked good in her teenager pics too and her dad is a big name n with her dad's name only she would have gotten good proposals. Why would her relatives taunt her on marriage.

Very fair assessment.

But I was referring more to stuff that sounds totally exaggerated. Like excessively exaggerated and repeated story of Amitabh sleeping on a bench at a park or railway station (whatever) once or Dharam being from a pind when he was a fairly rich and well settled, landed, moneyed Jat and even if he failed in films he still had his land, farms to go back to. He would not be hand to mouth or begging nor was he a poor village bumpkin from a jhopdi. Or Kangana pretending to be so poor that she did not even know English. She is not even middle class. She belongs to family of civil servants, highly respected Rajput family with lands at prime locations in HP. Their lands are worth crores in today's times.

PC is also from a wealthy or elite background. And lived in USA.