By Surendra Bhatia
Producers Should Be Happy Subsidising Star’s Entourage Expenses
Stars twinkle and that’s all that ordinary people ever see. Except for the domain experts or insiders, most humans have no idea of the life stars endure. It’s so insecure. They burn out easily; their blaze may just not be fierce enough to sustain; black holes are a constant threat and can swallow them at will; stars, because of their hot and fast trajectory, may become suicidal, imploding into nothingness or explode into extinction, disappearing from the firmament; then, there is also the fear of going unnoticed because another star in the neighbourhood shines far brighter… life is not easy for anybody.
Not many understand stars, neither the ones in the sky nor the ones down here in Bollywood. While the astral are too far to be bothered, the celestial beings in Bollywood, living each moment of their life under the gaze of the paparazzi and public, have to endure untold traumas to just hang on to what they have achieved, and are in a constant struggle to get ahead. Stars may have accumulated large fortunes but mentally, they are probably more troubled souls than the beggar who stands at signals for his daily bread; he can make do with what he has or gets but stars, however, aspire, and that’s a killer. They have to be on the ball 24×7 to, like Alice, stay in the same place.
But who understands this? Except another star, perhaps, no one…
Producers, in this respect, are the worst culprits. They kowtow to stars and cater to their every demand but they don’t like it. They hold their secret sorrows deep in their stomach while their film is under-production, and not even binge-drinking can loosen their tongue but their angst is visible to their friends.
Earlier, producers used to complain about stars’ drivers holding out palms for a few thousand rupees as petrol money, even if their bosses, the stars, charged crores and lived just a kilometre away from the shooting location. This was truly petty. As if a few thousand rupees as petrol money would make a difference to a star’s lifestyle. Producers just refused to understand that, for the star, it was never about the (petrol) money; it was about the producer showing them the respect they had earned through years of struggle to reach a stage where they could command, yes, command hefty, unwarranted conveyance money. Let’s say, a star shoots 100 days for one particular producer, which is usually not the case as the star is required for far lesser days. But even at 100 days of shooting, the producer would have to shell out only Rs. 2 lakh to the star as petrol money – which is nothing compared to Rs. 8-10 crore he is paying the star as remuneration. Couldn’t he just add a couple of lakhs to the remuneration and forget about it? But, as said above, producers are petty; they crib and crib, giving stardom a black name.
And this never stops. Producers pick on their stars like a virus eating away healthy body cells. And like the virus, producers do it anonymously so the blame can never be attributed to them specifically.
The latest complaint of producers is the large entourage that accompanies stars to outdoor shootings. It’s, again, nothing new. Obviously, a star can’t travel alone to outdoor shootings. Who will answer his phone? Who will open his hotel room door when someone comes visiting? Is he supposed to personally call housekeeping if toilet rolls run out? Does it look nice if he has to call room service for an extra plate of garlic bread? But producers, who have to do no more than just pay for lodging and boarding of the entourage, are dim: they are penny-wise and pound-foolish. They should know that if the star’s entourage is not with him, he would become helpless and may not even be able to shoot, having to spend all his time answering phone calls and opening his own hotel room door. And if the star can’t shoot, producer’s losses would be over Rs. 10-20 lakh a day… or even more than that! So, the entourage actually helps the producer complete his shooting faster, but does he realise this? No. His grouses against the star’s entourage don’t end even though the angst gives him constipation.
Now, producers have a new complaint about additions to the star’s usual entourage of secretary/manager, make-up man, hairdresser, spot boy, physical trainer, yoga teacher, driver, maalishwala, best friend, girlfriend and/or girlfriend’s mom. Stars have started carting with them their social media expert and personal photographer. These two are recent embellishments, keeping in view how important Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have become in sustaining and enhancing stardom. In these modern times of municipal workers sweeping streets with one hand while the other is holding up a smart phone to the ear, stars can ignore social media only at the cost of their stardom. Fans are connected to many stars through these social media accounts. If a particular star is not responsive to them and does not demonstrate frequently that he too is happy to be connected to them, fans will simply gravitate to another star who is more receptive to them. Stars, today, are made and unmade by their social media accounts – at least to an extent. All the paraphernalia surrounding social media engagements with fans have become as important as or more important than shooting films.
Producers, of course, look only at the escalating cost of hosting the larger entourage and get more constipated. They are so blinded with tears at the extra expense that they don’t realise, the star’s current obsession with social media engagements is the prop his film needs at the time of release. Social media accounts help stars actively build up their fan base, engage with them in real time and ensure that they come on the opening Friday to push up ticket sales.
It is true that the social media accounts have become pillars on which the stardom rests comfortably but who is the direct beneficiary of this exercise? The producer, of course. Take for instance, Alia Bhatt. She rarely delivers a flop. She is, in fact, the star with the golden touch, converting even serious movies like Raazi into hits. How? Her acting skills may be excellent and the films may be entertaining but the secret of her success lies actually in her handling of her social media accounts. How? Her Facebook and Instagram pages were flooded with irresistible sexy pictures that fetched her large male fan following at the time of her launch. Then, she effectively used her Twitter and Instagram handles to acquire the image of a ditzy young girl, a scatterbrain who just couldn’t help making silly mistakes, which endeared her to the not-too-intelligent fans, who, by the way, easily outnumber intelligent fans. These vacuous followers found in her a soul mate. She splashed her bikini look on Instagram for the boys, and her demure sari look for the older lot and, due to her many images, she has been adored by fans as being even cuter than she is, and cuteness is the ultimate yardstick for stardom for a young heroine.
Alia Bhatt is what her social media accounts have made her. Now, if her producers still complain about the money they have to spend on her entourage, it only exposes them to charges of stupidity, na?
Alia, obviously, knows what she is doing, and she has been rather successful at it; it’s only the producers who are distraught because of the few pennies more she makes them spend.
Stars do really know what they are doing even if the rest of the people around them label them as ignorant and manipulative. Stardom is a great teacher and the one thing stars surely learn is to be like dogs, peeing to mark their territory and willing to battle anyone who encroaches advertently or inadvertently. Sure, they often make other people, chiefly their producers, pick up the bills but what of it? The producers can afford to pay for the extras or they wouldn’t be producers, they would be boom men.
People who believe, stars are selfish, manipulative, exploitative, stingy, unscrupulous, ruthless in their narcissist ways are probably not wrong but these are not undesirable qualities in stars. In fact, for social media platforms currently popular, these are the very qualities that resonate with the large number of idiots who populate the world of social media. Producers need to learn to use and profit from these so-called ‘undesirable’ attributes of stars. After all, who but a star or star aspirant would do a photo-session on the beach and in the skimpiest costumes and broadcast it to the world? Imagine the physical torture the star must have gone through to get into shape for a near-nude beach picture. Would any producer be able to do that? Kareena, for instance, became a zero-figure just to fit into that lime-green bikini and still look good. The film may have flopped but no one can say, Bebo didn’t give her best.
In the coming months and years, not just the film industry but the entire world will realise how right the stars are in spending their producers’ money on their own social media team. Social media will prove to be the most effective arm of promotion, of stars and of films. Every other medium will pale into insignificance. It would be remembered forever that stars were the first to realise and harness its power. Stars know better than most what makes them tick, and they use social media platforms to get the message across to millions. That is and will remain the secret of stardom in the decades to come.
Busy Times…
These are busy times for India. General elections have entered the final phase with most Indians taking political sides and ranging up against each other; some stars are fighting it out in the dust and grime of their constituencies, acting in more realistic setting than they have ever done for a film; IPL is at the last but most crucial stage when the winner will be decided; and One-Day Cricket World Cup trial matches have started in England, and soon, the tournament will be underway; Ramzan has begun, and Lent and Easter are through.
How does any of this affect Bollywood? All of it possibly does and quite adversely too, going by past experiences; and yet, probably, none of this means anything to Bollywood. It really depends on the perspective. If a film released is weak, then everything goes against it, including the ideal release conditions. But if the film is fabulously entertaining, like Avengers: Endgame, then none matters at all. If a Hollywood film can score so heavily at the box-office despite IPL tournament and the fever of Indian general elections, then maybe, nothing can stand in the way of a great film. Maybe, the paranoia that Bollywood has nurtured since so many years against various factors – exams, Ramzan, pre-Diwali – is self-created and self-perpetuated, with no basis in reality. Who can tell? Beyond the fact that a bad film flops in spite of favourable conditions, and a great film goes down superbly with audiences despite so-called unfavourable release conditions, no logic makes sense.
In another week or so, the elections will be over and done with and soon after, monsoons will set in, giving the countryside a fresh green look. Monsoons spell regeneration and rebirth, and bring forth new hope. With Avengers displaying so eloquently the full potential of collections at the turnstiles, it is time, a Hindi film followed suit. Can we hope for a major blockbuster this year from Bollywood? Of course, we can…
