Who will tame B'Wood PRs on personal outings?

Pull out a broadsheet, flip a glossy, skim through internet feeds, Bollywood's glam squad: Katrina Kaif, Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Imran Khan will stare back at you alongside reams of 'news' about their professional and personal lives. And you think, 'Do they really have the time to talk about themselves every damned day?'

Of course, they don't!

It's their PR, personal newsmakers who make anything between Rs 10,000 to a lakh a month depending on the experience and the grade of star they represent. The average publicist makes Rs 25,000 per client. When the tag is that lucrative, much is put at stake. Whether hand-in-glove with or against their clients, their personal brand equity is all that matters.

The Katrina Kaif-Sonakshi Sinha spats are obvious PR plants and a classic case of ride the wave of success of a bigger star to boost their own brand. On lean days, they justify their existence by "merely making their star's visible on the overcrowded media space via silly snippets of them brushing their teeth at bedtime or how one star ignored the other at some party or a fabricated love affair to plug a film, which in their terms, is news," says an industry insider. "In India, PR's don't usually style a celebrity's profile or strategise content around them." And when the publicists get down to doing their own little media dance, stemming from pride and personal acrimonies, they do whatever it takes.

Meet the PRs who got mighty ugly.

The bruised and bitter PR
Of late, publicists seem to be making their own 'media outings' even at the cost of their clients. For instance: recent reports suggesting Imran Khan was feeding off Ranbir Kapoor's reject films and endorsements, caused much embarrassment to both actors. It started with 'source' accredited stories of Ranbir recommending Imran's name for films and endorsements he didn't want. As it turned out, this was the handiwork of a hired representative out on a freewheeling ego trip, for which Ranbir later apologised to Imran via text. Imran graciously accepted, till the second batch of muck hit the fan, when unflattering comparisons were drawn between his rockstar role in Delhi Belly and Ranbir's look in the film Rockstar. The two don't speak anymore.

That's a lesson for the stars who replace publicists for reasons varying from 'justified' to downright bizarre.

The well-meaning, misdirected PR
In another instance, a spunky actress' — let's call her X's — publicist media went ahead and told the world her client was making crores. Another publicist, who disliked this rep, planted her own fictitious story that her client — Y — was getting much more than X. In the war of egos, Y noticed a sudden decline in work assignments thanks to the reported hike in her price. On the bright side, she can be thankful she didn't have to deal with an Income Tax raid like Katrina Kaif and Priyanka Chopra due to the false numbers quotes to the press.

The paranoid PR
Recently, Kangna Ranaut threw a birthday party and Salman Khan stopped by her apartment to wish her in the wee hours as reported. But since there were no pictures to prove his attendance, a senior paparazzo, disgruntled at not getting the "money shot" said Salman's visit was a figments of the PR's imagination and a ploy to boost Kangna's A-list ranking. Other PR's too churned out long copies echoing the pap — why would Salman bother to attend such a "lame party". But he did.

Now if only Kangna, like her contemporaries, had tweeted the picture the moment Salman stepped into he apartment. "PR's just want to hang around a star and enjoy the perks of celebrity without having to work hard for it. The main obsession of a PR nowadays is to prove to the world how close he or she is to a star; the game is essentially about one-upmanship among contemporaries. Anyone in the PR circuit who seems like a threat becomes their enemy," says a brand consultant.This, she adds, affects them to such a degree that they start waging petty battles amongst themselves in a bid to outdo competition.

The PR in bad marriage
In yet another instance, when an A-list actress, a legendary narcissist fell in love with an equally self-obsessed actor, their publicists were horror-struck. This meant they would have to work in tandem now. That they despised each other, was hardly any help. They did, however, maintain some decorum in front of their clients while the love affair lasted. But once the couple split up, their reps worked overtime to bring each other down, with downright dirty inside stories circulated under the guise of 'sources' and 'close friend of…' More than the lovers, it was their trusted people who were hanging it all out to dry, making it even worse for the actors to deal with their breakup and business interactions.

Of course, the PRs feigned ignorance. At the same time, it is highly suspect that such false claims go without the actors getting the slightest hint. Even so, with the stars plotting and planning against each other most of the time, these publicists seem to have taken a cue right from under their pert noses. "I know of a publicist who went to a temple to offer thanks that her client had broken up with her millionaire boyfriend; she was overjoyed that she would never have to deal with the star boyfriend's PR personnel ever again. It was shocking since the actress had yet to get over her heartache and her trusted aide was celebrating her pain behind her back, not to mention the hideous stories that made headlines soon after," says a film publicist.

Too personal for comfort PR
And did you hear about the PR predator, known for falling in love with her male clients and getting dangerously Glenn Close-like in her interactions. Of course, a male star, used to female attention, ignores it at first only to be harrowed to get a call from her at 4am demanding to know where he was and with whom and why! The PR's client roster lists more females now.

https://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/who-will-tame-bwood-prs-on-personal-outings-16035.html