Opinion: Who is an entertainment journalist?

Prithwish

I was going through the morning newspapers today and I got a little confused! The suppliments catering to entertainment/lifestyle news made me question myself what does covering entertainment/lifestyle mean? Is it just providing information about stupid page 3 parties or who's dating whom, which covers most of the space and then the rest is taken up by adverts or is it something more than mere titillation or yellow journalism?

It's been a while that I have been covering entertainment/lifestyle, say around 3 years (radio & print) but when i started off it was more meaningful than what it is today. we had to dig out stories, journalists were well read and some that i have met truly understood cinema and had the passion for the subject and that was the reason which made them so good. That was the reason why they chose to be entertainment reporters but now I hardly meet people knowing anything beyond who's dating whom.

I guess that sells but does it give pleasure to people covering such frivolous news bits? This again makes me think -- are they covering entertainment/lifestyle because they chose to or was it because they had to?

I guess the second one holds true for many people involved in the profession of high-life, paarties and star-studded extravaganzas but we all have to draw a line as to till what level should we lower the bar.

Entertainment/lifestyle reporting should not be about dimples and pimples and who wore what and who's abusing whom.

It is much more meaningful than these petty stories running through the day.

Reporting for cinema, fashion or music needs knowledge about the subject but I'm sure most of us can count only a handful names whose reviews you like reading or seeing. Most reviews are heavily opinionated without giving reasons for it. A film review dissects a movie, compares it with others and discusses the style, narration, script and screenplay. How many reviews today have that?

Even stories on fashion -- forget writing about experiments with cuts and silhouettes, just write about what models wore and what colours were used. For heaven's sake -- we all can see that in the pictures!

In music, the scenario is better -- thank god!! Some of the writers are really good but again reporting for entertainment has a benchmark and its reporting does not end with just saying what the event was all about, how people went ga-ga over it and how many songs the album has! It needs in-depth analysis which only a few does -- but they do it well!

Yesterday I was seeing stories on the death of "Tulsi" famed Smriti Irani from the cult television serial -- Kyunki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi -- and in the stories nowhere did anyone use a tv critics comment on how the character became so successful and i still remember this character has catapulted Star's rating to number 1. An analysts quote on all this would have been a good angle but anyways I guess people these days are happy with vox-pop journalism.

No matter what, it's a cause for concern for all those doing entertainment/lifestyle reporting. Are we doing what we want to or are we just filling up pages of newspapers and doing tv stories just to see our names on them! If that's the case -- can't we work a bit more. Entertainment reporting is one of the oldest professions and it started with the success of newspapers in India. We can do a little more to dish out good in-depth stories can't we? We must remember that a country so engaged in entertainment would lap up anything that we give them but that should not make us relax. We can only be respected as an entertainment journalist when we do good stories and that involves us becoming well read and we should probe and analyse stories rather than just pushing them out.

It's understandable that the pressure is immense to produce more and more such stories but can't we do one big in-depth entertainment/lifestyle story a week? Think over it!

Photo courtesies:

http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/data/504/3331Bollywood_Sign.jpg

http://www.indiadaily.org/images/r_bollywood_goes_for_digital_cinema.jpg

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/152/PP003~Bollywood-Mother-India-Posters.jpg

Chasing Bollywood stars in Amsterdam

Toe Knee

Gauri Khan looks askance at me. She is dressed in white and clutches a shopping bag in either hand. As I move towards her on a busy street in Amsterdam, she takes a step back and frowns. I don't take the hint. As I start to mumble something, the wife of Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan hurries past me and disappears into an alley.

No, I wasn't trying to assault her.

The IIFA Awards were being held in Amsterdam in 2005 and I was a cub reporter let loose in the city of canals. Celebrities from the Indian film industry had been spotted in The Netherlands and I had been pacing the sunny sidewalks hoping to catch a glimpse.

I had better luck a few minutes later. Chunky Pandey was rummaging through a stack of colourful T-shirts at a shop around the corner. We exchanged pleasantries but I didn't harass him further, sensing that he wanted to be left alone.

Bollywood stars - hounded by fans at home and abroad. I could understand their predicament. Their need to feel free. The need to walk unmolested through crowds who didn't care who they were. And why stars viewed reporters with suspicion.

I walk past alfresco cafes and Gothic churches, stopping only for a glass of hot chocolate (they call it Chocomel here). As I pause to admire miniature windmills for sale at a roadside stall, cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin walks past with wife Sangeeta Bijlani. I leave them at peace and walk back to the hotel where the stars are cloistered.

There I find Boman Irani at his entertaining best, waving to a clutch of NRI girls waiting outside. Aftab Shivdasani is in the lobby too, looking dapper in a black suit. Ayesha Takia is wearing a brown ensemble, which seems to add inches to her waist. Bad designer or Amsterdam chocolates?

In contrast, Amitabh Bachchan is looking haggard and unshaven. The Big B has received news that his mother is unwell back home. He assures us things will be better on the morrow.

Actors - legends and one-film wonders - troop in for dozens of press conferences held over three days. Salman Khan is late (as usual?) and keeps co-stars and reporters waiting at the No Entry presser. The stars reel off their lines with practised ease, flash their botoxed smiles and leave as swiftly as they came.

At the Marigold presser (the film is yet to be released), starlet Ali Larter lingers a tad longer for one-on-one interviews. She drapes an arm over my shoulder and giggles when she's flummoxed by a question. Good strategy.

The IIFA schedule is chock-a-block. Aishwarya Rai waltzes in to have a tulip named after her. Saif Ali Khan and Vidya Balan brighten up the centuries-old Pathe Tuschinski theatre at the premiere of Pradeep Sarkar's Parineeta. Hrithik's team beats Shahrukh's bunch hollow when it comes to celebrity cricket.

And at the grand finale, Papa Bachchan, Abhishek and now Bachchan bahu Aishwarya enthral the crowds with 'Kajra Re' redux.

[Why am I being nostalgic about the 2005 awards now? Well, IIFA goes to Yorkshire in a few days and unfortunately, I am not going. A friend is covering the event and I can't help going green with envy. Grrrr!]