Rakhi Sawant Fan Website

Be it Paul Di’Anno, Ram Jethmalani, Rakhi Sawant, Mika, Abhijeet or Bappi Lahiri - all of them have either made the media its favourite punching bag or at least, duped it to ensure that they or their projects remain in the news.

Some, later apologise for abusing the fourth estate. Others, simply recede to the background asking for time to’reconsider’ their position. Shillong is still reeling under a shock recently when Di’Anno at a concert had yelled at the media. “Up yours,” Di’Anno had yelled at a bewildered fourth estate, his menacing middle finger leaving nothing to imagination, during his recent concert in Shillong. The petition of Jethmalani, the lawyer for Jessica case accused Manu Sharma, seeking action against TOI for alleged contempt of court as well as for a different Bench to hear the sensational murder case was dismissed on Tuesday by Delhi High Court.

Rakhi Sawant and Mika abused each other on print and small screen till they had reached almost a saturation point of publicity mongering. Finally, on a recent television programme both Rakhi and Mika apologised, making it eminently evident that the two had taken the media for a ride. Mika said he would do whatever Rakhi’s mother asked him to while Rakhi demurely said that it was she and not her mother who had been insulted by the whole episode. But finally, both apologised to each other. But amidst all this, Mika made sure that he used the national television platform to sing his latest number too.

As for Abhijeet and Bappi Lahiri, the duo fought over contestants Diwakar and Abhrokanti, hurled invisible hate bombs at each other, only to finally kiss and make-up on the final day of the Li’l Champs show. Abhijeet announced that he will never fight with Bappida again.

Film-maker Ashoke Pandit says that a celebrity abuses the media only when he or she loses a battle. “Media only becomes a target when a celebrity is frustrated. The celebrity then has a fear of being exposed. I have always been saying that a Priyadarshini Mattoo case got justice only because of the awareness created by the media. An intelligent criminal lawyer like Ram Jethmalani wanted to make somebody a target. He wanted to use the media as a soft target to protect Manu Sharma. Come on, a judge can never get biased by media reports,” says Pandit. As for the Abhijeet-Bappi tiff on the recently concluded reality show, Pandit feels that the mud slinging was a pre-planned exercise. “The celebrity knows that the media needs spice to package articles and hence, they do everything in their capacity to spice up the whole exchange. For all you know, the directors of the reality shows might actually be instructing them to behave that way, Otherwise, why do you think grown-up adults cry on television if they are knocked out? Come on, they’ve not lost their sons in the Kargil war,” adds Pandit.

Some feel that celebs who abuse the media are perhaps still in a state of denial about their mutual need. For many of them, it gives an ego kick to sport a holierthan-thou attitude. But in reality, does that pay? Not, if one were to believe Madhur Bhandarkar’s statement. As this blue-eyed director of the media, confesses, “We need the media as much as the media needs celebrities. What’s the need to abuse the fourth estate? There is no need to take a higher moral ground.”