India like most western civilisation is exposed to the celebrity cult. A culture where if you are a Bollywood Star, Singer or someone seen a lot on T.V; you are a celebrity and your opinion, rants, style matter more 
then that of others. Celebrities have the power to influence the common folks and are seen as pinnacles of success. They dress better, look better, talk better then the rest of us. They perhaps also think they are more intelligent then us, have better sex lives and get into trouble more often than the rest us. They are supposed to live a charmed life , the glamorous life . A life all of us should aspire for , fuelled by a hungry content guzzling Media circus slapstick that the celebrity bandwagon rolls on. Whether it be talk show’s , dial in radio show’s , new’s debates or new’s paper articles their opinion matters the most . The page three culture is where celebrities are paraded like trophies .
They are out there selling product’s on T.V and endorsing brand’s all happy faces asking us to be like them. But what is the reality behind this cult? Let’s look at Bollywood star’s most of who are celebrity descendants; star son’s and star daughters or some one related to the other. There are a few like ShahRukh , Priyanka , Deepika have made it on their on stream with the traditional back up of family. But for the rest it is a free pass and every kid on the street wants to be like them, wants to earn as much money as they do and enjoy everything else that these trappings come with.
Armed with image consultant’s and P.R professional’s this glamorous money making racket moves on. Whether it be award’s ceremony or other fan fare they keep telling us that it is they who stand for success in our society today. Be like us they say , dress like us , be seen like us , let your hair down like us . But in this dog eat dog world of name and fame many drown and loose themselves. Young get corrupted and very soon fall off the bandwagon. Young women from smaller town’s fall prey to the casting couch. But after a point sleeping around just don’t get you the roles that matter or the “break” everyone seeks and many end up finding success or a modicum thereof, in the vernacular film industry. In the clutches of co-ordinator’s , director’s and producer’s most new comer’s who come to a city like Mumbai feel trapped and are disappointed when the progress is slow and their contact’s add to nothing at all.
Let’s look at the celebrities that we have and I mean people like Rahul Mahajan, Veena Malik, Bobby Darling these are people with and they give opinion’s right from the state of the economy to the political crises in the middle east. We get to hear about their opinion on just about everything , being a celebrity gives them that right , although they might lack a lot more right up in their grey cell’s . With a plethora of New’s Channels hungry for content their opinion’s are the most sort after , even if a lot of them are the most ill equipped to talk on the subject at hand . Spreading mis information and unnecessary rhetoric with their warped opinion’s they further create dissonance in the mind of the youth. They fuel a desire in all to be like them . But if you see the shallow culture they propagate it will be mind boggling bereft of substance and devoid of thought . Celebrities should be seen as plastic doll’s not flag bearers of intellectual thoughts , to be toyed with and not to be taken to seriously.
