25 April, 2007

Rakhi Sawant ain’t no wannabe starlet

The moment I heard of Jahnvi Kapoor, I realised with a sigh that this would surely lead to many half-baked “trend stories.” And indeed, DNA has a story on wannabe starlets losing the plot, which looks at other such young ladies such as Preeti Jain. However, I object to Rakhi Sawant being included in that list, and to the following excerpt:

But do these gimmicks really work? At least, it did in Rakhi Sawant’s case, who was seen on all TV channels and even made it to the front page of national dailies after Mika Singh allegedly forcefully kissed her. The item girl managed to bag the first season of ‘Bigg Boss’ too.

This is lazy journalism. Firstly, anyone who followed the Rakhi Sawant-Mika case should know that it was no gimmick manufactured by her, but a genuine incident that she felt aggrieved about. (My posts on the subject: 1, 2, 3, 4.) Secondly, she was certainly better known than Mika before the incident happened. Thirdly, she was a big enough celebrity, being the most popular item-girl in Bollywood, to participate in Bigg Boss on her own merit. (Was Deepak Parashar invited to take part because someone kissed him? Horrors!)

That DNA story wouldn’t have enough meat in it with only a couple of names, of course, so the writer conveniently dragged Rakhi Sawant in. In doing so, was she not using Rakhi in the same way she accuses Janhvi of using Abhishek Bachchan and Preeti of using Madhur Bhandarkar? Pah.

(More on Rakhi: 1, 2, 3, 4. And some posts on Bigg Boss: 1, 2, 3, 4.)