Quatrain LXIX -- AMANGAL

For Aamir, media is an unrelenting slut
A lapdog, unethical, money-hungry smut
In that dark alley, he’s groped her enough in heat
Only, once home he wants her tethered in the street

* The ‘reclusive’ Khan in a rare conversation with Tehelka’s voluptuously cerebral interviewer Shoma Chaudhury blasted the media for all that it actually is. At least a large section of the media is a lapdog, unethical, unethical, trivial, with a ‘media baron-short term approach-destroying society’ and the like. Only, perhaps someone like Aamir Khan should think before he makes such a charge. The slut, that she is, guys like Aamir and others have also not been averse to using the media to suit their purposes and ends. Aamir Khan who now accuses the media of indulging in the trivial, should go back a few years at the time ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ was launched. Remember the deluge. Aamir Khan’s new hairstyle, that small perky goatee splashed all over print and television. Did he object to such abusive media coverage then? Was it not trivial too? So, what does one of the major protagonists of media’s degeneracy in India, Dilip Cherian, have to say about DCH?

-- Spin rules. Speaking of how to create hype, Delhi-based PR honcho Dilip Cherian, whose Buzz is the first company in the organised space for film PR, has much to say: "For Dil Chahta Hai, we generated 82 media articles on the hairstyles, the fuzz on Aamir's chin and the stylists. This kind of space was simply unavailable earlier." He
adds, "PR agencies are here to get louder, creating a surround-sound environment. Soon, you will see the colour orange and think not of the BJP but of a phone company." --

Generating media articles? Engineering news? Whipping up hype? And Aamir Khan complains about sensationalism and trivial? Oh! Not to forget, the Mangal Pandey moustache blitzkrieg!!!