BRANGELINA IN INDIA...the final take!

A short while ago, If I could coherently recall, I was checking my mail and happened to read this on MSN Today, “Brangelina in Pune- shooting for Mighty Heart.” Wow! I thought, the world’s hottest couple just miles away. Moreover I happen to be a fan of Brad Pitt (Well that’s not something new, is it?). I felt happy about their visit to India and wished I was there to have a glimpse of them (read-glimpse of Brad!). It’s nice isn’t it? As something like this does not happen every now and then. I in fact thought that they would like India country as we are very welcoming and they appeared to be the down-to-earth kind of people- little did I know that the recent spurt of happenings would make me change these views to a large extent. It might be late but I still need to rethink my outlook towards such ‘stars’ shooting in India.
Day after day, I read many reports about their activities and saw pictures of them in the local dailies (quite predictably, it’s another story for them). Firstly, I thought that they might be glad to get such attention from the press and the people even in a new country. On the other hand, I knew that it must be exasperating for them to be hounded by the media and mobbed by autograph seekers each time they walk out of their hotel. Undoubtedly, it was getting a little annoying that we have got to make them feel so important amid us.
Strikingly, one morning, ‘Brangelina’ hit the headlines on the front page. I did not bother to look at it presuming that it would be the same ga ga about Angelina eating pani puri or something, but once I saw the picture of a herculean man strangling another man who looked…well, not Indian, I read through the article. It was about one of their bodyguards who had strangled a German reporter who was trying to capture a picture of the actors while they were shooting. It was something all journalists would have been doing. Agreed, it is not an easy task to manage a crowd especially in a country like India where celebrities are given a Demi-God status. But hello! That was the limits. The arrogance of the bodyguard stirred some chaos but was hushed off in no time. Surely, the German reporter did nothing wrong. Maybe the media could be blamed (but again not entirely) for the kind of importance they gave to someone, who at the end of the day is just another visitor.
Just a few days had passed by before they were in the news due to a controversy (again!). You must remember this one; it was the scuffle at a school where they were shooting. More than the behavior and the attitude of the bodyguard, this time it was his highly racist avowal that did the rounds. It was very immoral of him to abuse a parent by saying, “you bloody Indians! You bloody Muslims!” what could get worse? They had tested out patience.
That’s it! I thought. Firstly, the parents came to take their children home and nothing can be done by any bodyguard to stop them. Secondly, the shooting time was allotted by the school in such a manner that it would not hinder the working hours of the school, but they started shooting an hour late. Whose fault is it now?
The icing on the cake- Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had nothing to say about the whole thing!
“Get lost” I felt like yelling at them. It was a highly thin-skinned sentiment that they had messed with. It was completely wrong on their part to think that they could come to a foreign land, gush out a few nasty words and actually get away with it (feel like strangling him right away!).
Consequently, after a lot of public pressure, Brad Pitt on a talk show with Barkha Dutt denied all such stories and termed the whole incident as a ‘misunderstanding’ (now, why does that sound familiar?). All he said to rule out the whole controversy was, “Angelina and I have a multi-racial family and we do not discriminate races nor would we employ people who do.” Oh! And one more calm and easy reason, “it is antithetical to what the film is about and we would not encourage such behavior.” Well, Brad darling, we still are waiting for your evidence of the rebuff and a valid reason for your contradiction. Really, talking about your oh-so-plausible movie or your multi-racial family is no ground to rule out controversies.
On the other hand there are many people who believe that the finger must not be pointed at the couple but on the bodyguards alone as they were hired by the production team and were not their personal bodyguards. Well, let me tell you- the crux of the debate is certainly not that! It is whether they at all have to come to India and create such superfluous Misunderstandings? And what did they do to change things? Say sorry? They cannot expect every nation to be another America. They need to realize that there are countries like India were stars are worshipped and shooting in such countries is no piece of cake. Most importantly, if they cannot respect diversities, they must realize that they are just not welcome in India. To add to all the internal issues and problems, if there are a couple of supercilious men who come from some place else to add to the current tribulations- then they do not even have to come here!
Even if there was a conflict here, it was highly irresponsible of them to deny such happenings and support the guards. For heavens sake! There were hundreds of people who had seen this and clippings were shown on all television channels. Denunciation of any such issue is completely silly; all they should have done was apologized to parents who the bodyguard had abused.