Unfortunately the newspapers dish out only what sells. And the content that gets published is the content that sells advertising.

After having lived 8 years in the US, I know that switching on the TV for news will only give me content that gets good ratings. And that means I will only get to watch trash on TV news.

However, I also know that if I read most newspapers, I will get real news and good editorials and good debates.

Unfortunately for India, the only real newspaper is The Hindu.

And TV newsmedia in India today puts even the US newsmedia to shame.

I've never watched KBC (being in the UK) but as usual you have prob' hit the nail on the head as regards a media frenzy whipped up to protect the a*rses of media execs terrified that viewing figures will plummet - god forbid because SRK is running the show ?...surely not...why, he's too big a star (But exactly HOW big ??)...and can he fill the Amitabh-shaped hole in the listings ??...

And anyway...is this a good career move for SRK or will he merely be viewed as a poor substitute to AB ??...Never....perhaps it might be better to admit that there 'aint anyone who can fill his shoes adequately and find a complete unknown for the job...or even better, can the show and let them carry on with the day job....they need the money, right ?

I agree Shekhar
who cares? about Amitabh or Shahrukh or how many more millions they are adding to their undeserved?? kitty...
But then why are you blogging about this?
& worse.. why am I responding to so mundane an unimportant an issue?
That surely is the power of the media

Dear Shekhar

Don't watch the stuff you see, don't see the hoardings in India, don't read the entertainment news in Indian newspapers or mags online for the most part. You're probably right that most of what you're hearing about is manufactured.

But on a deeper and more private level, I believe there is a personal rivalry between the two, maybe something similar to the challenge of an old, battle-scarred stallion by one who's younger and stronger. Yet there's also great love and respect in both men for each other, and a great deal of good humor, too. They are two very interesting and gifted characters. The media trivializes their personal realities. I'm glad I live in the US, and can just view them a little, from a distance. They're magnificent men. AB is an incredible actor, and if properly directed, SRK is, too. I would so love to see him in a film directed by you.

love, Heath

Dude...

Indian society is still a primitive society! Let’s face it. It is a violent society and its moral, ethical and cultural roots are shattered.

Who is Amitabh...the guy who killed Gabbar Singh. There are people who still believe that Amitabh killed Gabbar Singh in reality.

I live in a city called Pune which is supposed to be known for its intellectual habitat and progressive thinkers.

But in this same quiet and clam city of intellectuals, I know people who can produce an automatic gun with in an hour.
I am not a religious fanatic but I can show you places where fire crackers blast if Pakistan wins even against South Africa in cricket. I can show you places in Pune where people are selling magazines which are not only anti religious but which carry anti national sentiment. I can show you places in Pune where one is scared even to put a step inside if he is Hindu!!! ( Some thing like a setup of ANNA in AGNIPATH where Mr. Amitabh enters to rescue his sister!)

But superficially Pune is a clam and quiet city growing fast and providing a shabby infrastructure to Software companies.

There are newly developed areas where many buildings are occupied by Dawood gang members. CBI, local police and politicians know these facts...but no action is taken...because the city is calm and quite!!!
I have a friend who is a police officer. He was having tea with us at a roadside tapari (stall). Suddenly 3-4 police cars came roaring and took him away as if he is a criminal. Later from much senior officer, I came to know that there was a threat to his life from Dawood gang members and the gang members were some where around the tea stall to shoot him down that day and local police intelligence had this information.

So imagine what could be the condition in the interiors. I went with another friend of mine to his home town (west Maharastra- central state in India) and 60-70 year old people were bowing down and clearing road for us only because my friend belonged to Jamindar family(landlord family) and now a politically strong family. This was one year ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And then the political discussions which were going on while we were having dinner was an experience!!! All the brothers, uncles of the family were casually discussing black money and how to raise more funds to buy more votes and how to eliminate opponents right hand even if it means to kill the guy etc. etc. etc. And all these people who were discussing this were highly educated!!! They were discussing complex political theories and ideologies and also buying off vote banks and killing people to clear their way just to gain power to gain more power. And this they call PROGRESS!!!

In such a violent country it hardly matters whether it’s a war between Mr. Shakhrukh and Mr. Amitabh or Shah Rukh and Abhishek Bachhan. It’s a set up to sell their products.

Now days it’s more important that How you say something than What you say!!! So the pretentious world needs known faces to sell their products.

take care...lots of love...kedar

Shekhar,Yes indeed as you rightly said its high time the media stops sensationalising trivial things like these, & takes full responsibility for the ongoing rivalry (more a created one) between the two superstars. Being a media person myself, I know what goes on at the other side of the fence.

Seasons Greetings to You !!

Quite amusing. And what if people actually become averse to buying those products out of sheer allergy. It would all come full circle and be more amusing.

Some buddhist antidote for this material overdose.
http://www.jigmela.org/words/index.htm

Hi Shekhar,

I read your earlier blogs. They are amazing, but then I am not surprised. These come from a man who has created some of the gems.
Herein are my views of this present topic about endorsements of Amitabh and Shahrukh.
I mean personally it does not bother me about who endorses what, how much he earns and all that nonsense. With good control over remote I can avoid seeing them within a flash of second. I always have choice to look at something else other than their large advertisement boards.
But one thing does bother me.
The continous journey of thespian like Amitabh away from the rural mindset. I dont recollect seeing him recently anything other than designer suits, sherwanis. I mean, fine.. one must look good.
But as an actor, one must connect. However fantastic the storyline or acting maybe, it must relate somehow to the viewers.
The rural junta dont even have dreams, forget about realistic representation, abt what amitabh showcases these days.
However loud and pungent the scenes in film like "Mard" (mard ko dard nahi hota) or seemingly simplistic scene of sholay (shakin off the dust from back of his dirty pant and assuring veeru that he would talk with basanti's mausi..); those scenes were so highly appreciated those days.
I really miss seeing "real" film today. Films of vishal bharadwaj and nagesh kukonoor do provide me some relief. But I do miss films of gulzar, raj kumar santoshi and certain dude called Shekhar kapur.
As for shahrukh.. Well he is just followin what amitabh has fallen into.
I think shahrukh was his best in films like Kabhi haan kabhi naa, DDLj (though it has lot of hamming, but he was kind of cute) and much more likable in that short stint in serial fauji.

I hearby mourn the death of 2 biggest stars in bollywood.

-Satish Kale (SK)

hello mr. kapur

this is to inform you that 'enlighten society for films' is starting a film circle on a relatively big scale... we are approaching filmmakers to be a part of it... i want to send you more information about this... how must i get through you...help...

pranav ashar

Listen now don't get me wrong, SRK and AB, I love them both.

But is there NONE other in India ???

What about Amir ? What a dude he is.

Peace & love

Dayal

p.s. who here thinks Abhishekh Bachchan is talented ?? (and I ask this truthfully and impartially)

I think Abhishekh is now a good actor. When he started off, he was really bad. But thanks to the Dynasty Raj of Bollywood, he kept getting films even though they all kept bombing. Eventually he just learned acting on the job.

I have a theory about Movie Star children. There are two types of star-children-turned-actors.

The first type are those who start off without acting (who look like wooden furniture in every shot) eventually learn acting and have a chance at getting good movies. Abhishek Bachchan, Ajay Devgan and Saif Ali Khan are good examples, Tushar Kapoor is an OK example.

The second type are those who start off with a lot of overacting and hamming. They just stay the way they are movie after movie and people eventually become annoyed with them. Examples are Vivek Oberai and Kareena Kapoor.

i totally agree with u..media is hyping things around. This can be attributed to the fact that most of us enjoy listening to statistics which are quite trivial in nature. This actually does a whole lot of good both for the media or channel that covers it, as viewership increases n also for KBC(in this case) as its viewership will also increase n probably it will earn more viewership than the BIG b gathered.

Well.. Both of them are big brands now but Shahrukh Khan actually does seem to do whatever Amitabh Bachhan has done or is doing. First it was the advertisements then don and now KBC...

This is funny - Colbert takes sides in the Amitabh v/s Shahrukh celebrity fued:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7fEp0MaiWA&mode=related&search=

In the clip he first takes care of the trump-rosie fued, then the madonna-jolie one, and then he moves on to amitabh-shahrukh

$8 dollars i need my money baCK!
All i can say is SALAM E EEKS, to begin with the director of the film wrote this amazingly bad film meant for the Indian version of Razzies if any.As Priyanka chopra says in the film i am confused and so does anil kapoor at the end of the film, I almost shouted "Director is confused" As a wanna shine film maker ( I am studying film)i somtimes feel that gosh will i ever be able to tell great stories on the silver screen and sereiously speaking when i see Films made like Salam e ishq/jaaneman/Kabhi alvida...and blah blah blah.I feel boy i can make it better, but oops i forgot i dont have a Chopra/Johar/Ghai/Kapoor as my daddy dear.
Anyways this film was not at all edited (Hello 3.35 minutes, i was watching the late night show and missed my last train to down town),Picturization was so cheesy wassup with all the bomb explosions in Saiyan song and the c grade camera zoom in /zoom out of almost all the female actor's YOU KNOW WHAT....Lastly why did Mr Nikhil advani even cared to hire sohail khan/isha kopaikar all they did was make out at the drop of a pallu ehem i mean hat. Oh yah why do Indian film makers settle their personal issue with each other in their multi million budget movies, i mean if Nikhil had to diss Karan He could have made a Handy cam video ( like Akshay Khanna did in the film ) and given it to me i would have gladly given it to Karan atleast i wouldnt have wasted my $8.
To end i think Mani ratnam should start Film making 101 for Karan Johar ( I am sick of the whole High society , rich ppl flick)Nikhil advani(Hopeless case of using too much those irritating 6 frame in 1 frame narrative style)Madhur Bandharkar( Great stories , bad production value)..Oh if any one you need great ideas and Young blood to work for them pls mail me back.

Hello,
I came across your blog while checking my own website search terms for certain keywords.
When i read tat who cares which brand these actors androses or which tv series they host, the fact remains that there are die hard fans for both the actors. Why only them, People are always crazy about celebrities and want to have a view of internal lives of those celebs.
Media on the other hand provide news what people want to see. It doesnt matter to them if a limited hand full of people are not willing to see these same news again and again.
To Prove the fact:
I personally dont like Aishwarya and the whole abhishek - ash news are always on headlines or top stories of news channels.
There was a day when media published that ash-abhishek got married. they proved the news by interviewing the pundits and taking their kundli and stuff.
For experimenting I published the same news on my blog and whooooaaaaa...
I am still receiving tons of traffic from visitors searching for ash-abhishek wedding or engagement. I am ranking top on all search engines for these words!!!
And the fact is the post is of just 3 -4 sentences.
That proves how crazy fans are for celebs.
If they werent these crazy how would the movies just run which dont have any stories but have these superstars acting!!!!

hai,
this is dharini here . how u doin? I am a lover of ur style.Everyday its my dream to meet u & talk with u for a certain moments.I loved the way u conduct the new kbc2.I thout of meeting u atleast in the kbc studio but unfortunately i m not so aged .I hop this letter will some how reach to the one reffered.

Hop to meet SRK & SHEKAR soon @ least within a decade.
your fan since birth,
DHARINI

srk referrs to style & action. its beauty the way u conducted kbc

hello shekhar,
why you stopped endorseing brands, you look cool as a print model better than AB , and what went wrong with movie Dil Se as a producer ?

Hi Shekhar Sir,
I am a great fan of you, perhaps biggest fan out there.
Why you are not making movies now.... I request you to please make a movie with Shahrukh on some sensible issues may be a period movie....
Plz do consider my request and atleast direct a movie.

I feel the Ads are not rated or beleived based on who endorses the brand but on how intresting the ad is actually made(Concepts-thats how my friends & myself discuss)But i also agree there is an extra attraction on the stars who features on the ads.

I agree with Sehkhar on this.All are due to political nexus they have.AB has with SP leader Mulayam and Amar Singh whereas SRK has with Congress.
Well, I have gone through a lot of articles,media about who is better among AB vrs SRK.
First of all,how can you compare ahievement of AB (65 years) vrs achivement of SRK(43 yrs)?
We have to have a reference point.
Then we have to compare what AB was at 43 years to what SRK now is.Then obviosuly SRK doesnot have much to show as acting.
Let us compare both by some parameter.
That is how I always see things.
Actors Comedy Romance Action
------ ------ ------- ------
AB Hits Hits Hits
SRK Flops Hits Flops

This is based on the %basis.
SRK is not good at comedies and also worst at action type films.
Now it is for you to decide.