Any publicity is good publicity, what say?

Hollywood had and continues to have its own share. So how can its cousin Bollywood be left behind? The place where stars are born and actors die a slow death. Anything for five minutes of fame. Slanging matches, oops! slapping matches are scripting better stories these days.    

Queen of melodrama Rakhee Sawant slapped long-time boyfriend Abhishek Awasthi on Valentine’s Day, the sound effects of which echoed on channels across the country. Sawant turned gibberish into some real action.

Cricket buffs would agree this was the `most thrilling’ of all matches. At the end of the day Rakhee went back home, drama et al and the viewer had an action-packed day.

‘Hit’ man Salman Khan does not lag behind when it comes to hits. Earlier, he hit Aishwarya and now it’s
Katrina Kaif for reasons not known. Stunts for some attention?   

Kannada actress Ramya begs to differ saying it’s the media which hypes up the stunts by giving it undue publicity. While she agrees that it is the media which also creates celebrities. These things should be ignored, she says.

Most stunts happen just before the release of a movie. And sometimes on the sets. The director of a Tamil movie slapped South-Indian actress Padmapriya to get the scene right. That she walked out of the sets and filed a case and the director had his last cut was the end of the story.

Actor Avinash, however, feels that the onus is not on the media. On ‘Rakhee’s dose of stunts, he says. “It’s ridiculous and bordering on vulgarity.’’ Will he ever resort to such gimmicks? “These kind of things are  Bollywood stuff. Publicity stunts are absolutely no no for me. I’d rather stay away from the media.”

As Bollywood keeps churning potboilers for the NRI crowds, their stars manage to stay in the news one way or another. The latest to join the bandwagon is ‘slap and tell’. What’s next? Watch the space. The show will go on.