S N Narendran
Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai
Mumbai, Jun 26: Indian film industry's first family is expecting an heir, and as expected, the entire country is going ga-ga over the new yet-to-arrive Baby Bachchan.
Rumours of Aishwarya's preganancy had been reported in the media now and then, right from the first year of their marriage, but it is only now that the news has been confirmed, by none other than the grandfather-to-be himself.
Ever since Big B tweeted about his daughter-in-law's 'good news' almost a week ago, almost every section of the media, including business and sports have carried the 'Aishwarya Pregnant' news prominently. Some print media carried it on front page, some TV channels as breaking news, and some carried somewhere in the corner.
Now the question, should such a news be glorified?
Well, there is equal response from both ends of the debate. Some say "yes," and why not? Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is the pride of India. News regarding her is keenly watched and reviewed. After all, she is former Miss World, one of the popular bollywood actors and indeed the daughter-in-law of superstar Amitabh Bachchan. People have every right to know about her, and the media has to feed it to them. As glamour sells most, media adds more masala to sensationalise, glorify and feed it to the readers. After all this is a competitive world, and the media has to survive by feeding the news which the readers want and not which the media has!
But not everyone buys this idea. People who do not like too much publicity to 'pregnant Aishwarya' issue say that one should leave her alone. We live in a civilised society, and there is a need for privacy, whether it is a film actor, cricketer, or politician, or anybody for that matter. Why should one poke one's nose in other's personal matter? Let's agree that, for a moment, 'Aishwarya Pregnant' is a news, but why do you need so much debate on her pregnancy? Look at the millions of women who get pregnant every day, why are you not talking about them?
"Giving prime time to this news looks really silly and foolish," a female college student in Chennai comments while talking about this issue. "Look at our daily papers, some of them carried it as front page news, when you have several important issues around the nation which require attention. They are glorifying Aishwarya's pregnancy news, this is disguisting.." she says.
At the same time, a BPO male employee who is in his mid-20s, says media must keep giving us this kind of masala news. "We are interested in such news, who wants boring 'corruption' news on the TV and papers. We are fed up with that. Cricket and bollywood sell most in India, so media should concentrate more on this."
But what do our readers have to say about this?