In a
previous post “Media loves crimes, makes crime attractive” I had written
about how media glorifies star criminals. Sanjay Dutt ads still appear in the
media while he is now in jail. Salman
Khan, the other convict under appeal, has a series of ads. The advertising
industry has always loved bad boys and star criminals. Salman is also charged
with culpable homicide in a 2002 case where he ran over people sleeping on the
pavement and killed one while drunk-driving. He has been convicted and
sentenced to 5 years in a black-buck hunting case which he has appealed. “Dar ke aage jeet hai” says his ad
for a soft drink but it looks like in real life he’s a scared chicken.
Once the
star criminals are exposed they suddenly become do-gooders and people with
extraordinary compassion; even for dogs as this Outlook report tells us: “Salman
Khan loves dogs. He has two French mastiffs whom he calls My Son and My Jaan.
To pamper their palate, he has special food from abroad flown down for them. To
keep these thick-coated animals comfortable in Bombay's steamy heat, the ACs in
his house run constantly at carefully controlled temperatures. Even when a
stray dog in his neighbourhood died, Salman is said to have gone into deep
depression”. So you see, a man whose heart bleeds so much for even dogs
can hardly be a criminal. Right?
Dogs are not
all, Salman even discovered his deep love for humans after he ran into trouble
with the law. He started becoming more human and discovered the meaning of “Being Human” as his website will
tell you. Such guys fall in love with children all over again like those Miss
World winners who want to educate all the children in the world, eliminate
poverty, hunger and, of course, eliminate Aids too. Children as leverage!
You know, wearing Dixcy ‘Banian’ and ‘Underwear’ turns Salman into quite a
Superman. He knocks of goon-monks with his Kung Fu and arm-wrestles to find
compassion for a kid.
But Salman
Khan showed up for what he really is and what he really has been all along. Nothing but a mindless bully! He had
his Barkha Dutt moment and his ‘Streisand’ moment in one go recently.
People will remember how Barkha tried to suppress a blogger (Chaitanya Kunte)
but ended up making his blog famous. Bollywood juice blogger Soumyadipta Banerjee wrote about the
plight of Salman’s police bodyguard who was not only inside the car when the
drunken-driving episode killed a person but was also a key witness in the case.
Ravindra Patil died a miserable,
lonely death after being a witness in the case. Oh yes, SK did make a movie
called “Bodyguard” so he should know all about what happened to his own
bodyguard. Banerjee’s blog severely slammed both Salman and the Mumbai police
for the fate of Ravindra Patil. Readthe whole piece HERE.
After being
bullied by Salman, Banerjee pulled his post and expressed his frustration thus:
The
last two days have been really excruciating for me. I have received a
communication from Mr Salman Khan. There I have been instructed to remove two
blog posts that I have written about him. Those articles have been removed from
this blog. Here’s a public apology to Mr Salman Khan for writing two blog posts
that he didn’t consider appropriate. I am taking a break from writing on this
blog till I am in a proper frame of mind to write again.
I am
really sorry.
You make
your judgement on what was not so “appropriate” about Banerjee’s blog about the
fate of Ravindra Patil. What Salman Khan was foolish enough not to know is that
bullying someone to pull down an article on the net doesn’t wipe out the
footprint but also gets it even more attention than it normally would have.
This is what Barkha learnt a long time back after her 26/11 reporting. Her
threatening a blogger and getting his post pulled off caused her permanent damage.
Salman did the same foolish thing. He probably bullied the blogger and got the
post removed but it’s now all over the place. Firstpost ran a longer story on the episode than even
Banerjee’s blog did. Banerjee’s blog has a very appropriate image that
describes Bollywood and media; the big
fish eat the small fish.
But on the
internet it’s prudent not to mess with the small fish, especially if it’s
speaking the truth. Salman can wear all the Banians and Underwears he wants and
pretend and act as Superman but as this episode shows, he still remains a Dixcy
Chick.
