Everyone indulges in perception selling

The day after the world of films realized that CC2C was a dud at the box office there was an article in a tabloid that screamed the film had failed and actually did a full report on it. What saddened me was the glee with which the report was written. It said that Akshay Kumar's successful run had finally come to an end. There was a glee that he was mortal.
Of course he is. You sir, Mr. Newspaper Man, you made him an Icon because of your need to make news and when him being an Icon is not news anymore you wait for the time you can iconoclast and then you get the opportunity. Oh yes! Rubbing your hands together with sheer excitement you start designing his downfall.
Not going to happen my friend and read the poem, on killing a tree by Geive Patel, to know the reason why.
Let's, be completely honest here and see things as they are and we will know that Akshay Kumar never claimed to be the bringer of great and award-winning cinema. He has been spending his time and earning his money in making people laugh. Bhul Bhuliya or Garam Masala, Welcome or Heyy Baby, these were all entertainers and meant to tickle the funny bone. Nor the makers nor Akshay Kumar ever claimed that they were making path-breaking cinema. So CC2C was another attempt at that and it failed. So what? When you are in the business of making people laugh you might have a bad joke, so what? I think this is a media game and a game in which the media indulges in unknowingly and me being very much a part of this media as I write this column, am also indulging in it, albeit knowingly. The media needs news and there is not enough going around to fill up four pages of every newspaper everyday. So what do we do? We create celebrities and we create stars and when the making of that star stops being news we wait for the star to fail and then start pulling that star down and then we start all over again.
I have seen this happen with Hrithik Roshan, the media went ballistic after Kaho Na Pyaar Hain and made him a huge celebrity and then took great pains to bring him down when his films were not doing well, then when Koi Mil Gaya rocked they said that he worked well only with his father and finally Dhoom 2 and Jodha Akbar put a rest to that!
Constant perception selling is the business. The fact is that these perceptions do influence audiences but only to a point or else no flop actor would ever have a hit or the hit ones would never see a flop.
As we speak Hurman Baweja would be fighting the perception game with his second release and very soon Neil Mukesh will also. The poor boy has talent but the media has made him into a bigger star than he actually is and so when his film releases he will be up against more than he should actually be up against.