Obsessive Privacy Disorder
Are celebrities justified in keeping fans out of the private, yet poignant, moments of their lives, wonders MAITHILI CHAKRAVARTHY
Privacy is a thing to be micro-managed for famous celebrities – especially at close-knit affairs like marriages and the series of functions that encapsulate the grand Indian wedding – even if they are far away on islands, Tuscan villas or Mount Everest. Because the paparazzi, world or Indian, have the knack of popping up anywhere. What is the fine line between their private and public lives and is there one? Do celebrities have a right to their private lives? Are they allowed to be secretive about stuff, about important happenings in their lives? Celebrities holding secrets feels ironical. In the 21st century, it feels like the lives of the people we love on screen have become more public. There’s more publicity to publicity. We await their Twitter status updates; we voraciously scour cheesy news sites for anything new about them, and memes are all over social media dedicated to offer devotion to your favourite movie star’s upcoming venture, something that promises to be a funny expose. All said and done, this is the age where the quiet times have been replaced by loud, voluminous banter – one which allows celebrities to be wholly visible outside of their movies. The past year has been witness to many weddings in Btown. Fans have watched and waited with massive enthusiasm, often surprised when the TV news flashes ceremony pictures of Bollywood’s famous couples. The internet is now home to many a surprise. Some of the first pictures of the Ranveer Singh-Deepika Padukone wedding were the ones photographers got when the couple landed in Mumbai last Sunday from Italy. Those and a couple of other pictures of the shaadi were the only pictures the media got hold of initially… immediately lapped up by eagerly waiting fans. Privacy is a fundamental right, but for hot-shot celeb couples, is it really? Don’t they owe legions of their fans more? By contrast, several videos of the Sonam KapoorAnand Ahuja wedding are available on YouTube and Instagram giving fans a peek into the nuances of her wedding, sangeet and cocktails. Who did what, who danced with whom – it was a feast for fans hungry for more – and this was a bash where guests routinely shared pictures with the couple.
Neha Dhupia, model, actress, and now makeover and chat show host got married to actor-model Angad Bedi, around the same time as Kapoor and Ahuja did and their private ceremony pictures was another out-of-the-blue announcement to the press. Colour coordinated, peachy and resplendent, the couple came up in the news bulletins making us believe once again that love is the thing you just can’t escape when it’s ‘meant to be’. Is it meant to be – time will tell – but in the meanwhile fans and celebs alike are basking in moments that highlight the culmination of something.
Headlines titled ‘Homecoming King and Queen’ and ‘What Twitter users did as they waited for photos of the Deepika-Ranveer wedding of the year aptly represented and fuelled the fervour that gripped social media in anticipation of the first pictures – ones that would satisfy the voyeuristic curiosity about what the two wore and who the select few were who were invited to the much-awaited get-together of the year. Attendees were specifically instructed not to share photographs of the wedding on social media and the couple’s wedding planners made sure their wedding stayed private. In a sense, the twosome wanted to do away with all that which describes their lives every day – constant media attention, airport pictures, workout pictures and party photos. Even the Justin Bieber-Hailey Baldwin wedding a couple of months ago (it wasn’t even in the news with people only speculating about it) felt like an anti-climax because they went to extreme lengths to keep affairs hidden, revealing the fact only slowly and stealthily, in a way that contrasts Bieber’s past romances. In the end, it doesn’t matter how closely we follow people through Snapchat and Twitter – there will always be the element of unpredictability about the trajectories of our favourite stars off screen.
Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma tied the knot (once again in Italy) last December. Rumours and gossip often find their ways to tabloids much before actual events, and the paparazzi is known to use a lot of tricks to get snapshots of the main events taking place, but celebrity wedding planners are now known to have mastered the art of keeping them at bay. Lisa Vorce, celebrity wedding planner told the BBC in an interview last year that at one of her celebrity weddings she countered attempts by paparazzi boats at sea to get shots of the wedding with their own boats which were sent out “to create choppy waves while flashing lights at the paparazzi cameras. They made it nearly impossible for the paparazzi to get a focused image.” Similarly at Deepika and Ranveer’s wedding there were boats patrolling the seas and the security was tight and detailed, making it impossible for prying eyes to find a way in. It was only last week that one got a closer look into a wedding that seemed like a visual representation of the days of yore with Italy as the backdrop. A whole lot of Europe and a whole lot of India merged at the Lake Como wedding – like a real life Bajirao and Mastani coming together in a wedding where the clothes, the jewellery and every moment photographed gives us great insight into the real lives of Bollywood’s leading lead pair. While some of their movies may have ended tragically, this real life movie has ended with a bang, ushering in a new beginning for the actoractress couple.