Paparazzi Culture, Privacy & Stardom

Imagine you plan to chill in your balcony or are simply roaming around in your living room in your PJ’s and somebody clicks a picture of yours and posts it on social media. Well that’s the sad reality of booming pap culture in today’s world and our favoruite celebrities are the ones who bear the consequences of it.
“This is a gross invasion of someone’s privacy,” wrote actor Alia Bhatt in her recent Instagram story to call out a news publication for invasion of
The news portal shared a picture of the actor sitting in her living room and captioned it as “Alia Bhatt was spotted at her home”.

Taking the post to her Instagram stories the actor wrote, “Are you kidding me? I was at my house, having a perfectly normal afternoon, sitting in my living room when I felt something watching over me. I looked up and saw two men on the terrace of the neighboring building with a camera right at me. In what world is this okay and is this allowed? This is a gross invasion of someone’s privacy. There’s a line that you must not cross, and it is safe to say that all lines were crossed today.”
This isn’t the first time that a celebrity has spoken about paparazzi culture and has expressed concern about breach of privacy.
Before this, ace cricketer Virat Kohli called out a fan who shared the video of his hotel room, where they had even gone through his belongings.

Actor Anushka Sharma who came out in support of Alia also called out the same publication back in 2021 for sharing a photo of her and her husband Virat Kohli lounging in their balcony despite being requested repeatedly not to do so.
Expressing her anger, Anushka Sharma wrote, “Despite requesting the said photographer and the publication, they still continue to invade our privacy. Guys! Stop this right now!”

Wheather these celebrities are stepping out for dinner, going to the gym or are walking out for a shoot, these lenses are always pointing towards them, tracking all their whereabouts and hence we can say that the paparazzi culture in India is a real money-making business which feeds on the audience’s curiosity.
Celebrities aside, but these paps and publications make sure to ‘churn out content’ even from star kids and Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan’s son Taimur is the biggest example.
Not just him but his cousin sister, Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Kemmu’s daughter Inaaya had also been in the same spot.
In an interview, while raising concerns on paps clicking his daughter’s pictures, Kunal Kemmu said he is trying to understand pap culture and said, It didn’t exist before 2005 and even then it was more promotional. It’s only since 2017 or so that wherever you go, the paps greet you.”

He added, “I don’t want to scare my kid of anything out there. Right now it’s in a place where it does not bother me. If it does bother me, I will talk to them and tell them and I am sure they will understand.”
One needs to understand that these actors are as normal as any other human being and their children too deserve to have a ‘normal’ childhood.
As Rakul Preet Singh said, “People need to know the difference between being a public figure and public property.
Seems like famous paparazzi Manav Manglani, who has been an ace photographer in Bollywood for over two decades had a different viewpoint on the same. According to him, the pap culture is a PR machinery for celebrities. While talking to Outlook in a 2022 interview he said,” It is a two-way street. We need them for the pictures, and they need us for promotional activities considering the amount of followers now paparazzi accounts have. They also get a reach, so they end up telling where they are. But that’s only 20 percent of the time. 80 percent is all about doing the research and finding out what is happening around the city, which celeb is shooting where and if a film is coming up, track birthdays, and if some celeb has an outdoor schedule planned, so we might spot them at the airport and so on.”

Privacy or no privacy, while we all can feel awkward when a wedding photographer captures us while we are busy stuffing our mouth with scrumptious food, lets take a moment to think about what celebrities have to go through everyday when they are literally stalked, even when they are minding their own business at home.

Let’s just say it’s time to make some clear boundaries.