All news is good news

It is amazing how clichés can be fiddled with and made to fit the occasion…any occasion. Take my title for this piece, for instance. For the last week, I have been trying to get the brand new website that my team has been working on seen and talked about, using any and every means at my command – ruthlessly, with Machiavellian cunning and without being squeamish about it all.

I know it is a new concept for the environment it has been launched into and, while what we have to say with it is not anything so far unseen, the way we are saying it is, at least in this part of the world. I am admittedly rather chuffed, puffed and pleased about the whole thing, and though there may be glitches and goofs that I have not yet caught up with peppered through the site, I am proud of what we have created – me, my team and all those who have helped us get to this point.

And, if my editor will allow me to say so, we are at www.bollywoodlife.com. It has been a good six months of a tough, arduous and often frustrating journey, but when we saw it live on the Internet, all the arguments, the long hours, the wait, the struggle and the chewed nails have been so worth it.

Now comes the more difficult part, I know. Since we are online, we now need to find an audience that will make the entire process pay off for all of us, in revenue, in page views, hits, accesses, whatever, but most of all in an audience. Now don't get me wrong. We – or I, since I am the one writing this…am not looking for appreciation without balance. I want to know what is wrong, not just what is right.

I want people to look at what we have done and be realistic, not just praise us for doing a good job more because I write well, or I look good or – yes, it has happened – I am who I am. I don't even care if people want to be nasty about the site. Following the cardinal rule of any media hound, follower or creator, any news is indeed good news, at the moment.

Having done my little bit of advertising for the product, I will get to the point which, as you will read, is relevant and related. Over the past few weeks, a number of scandals have hit the headlines, some of which have been read on this very website that you happen to be reading me. The most reported, perhaps, has been the 3G spectrum brouhaha, where licenses have been issued not as per worthiness, but according to who can pay the most to the people with the power to grant clearances.

After many weeks of to-ing and fro-ing with the government unable to find proof, identify perpetrators, nab them and bring them to justice, arrests have at last been made. Most recently Kanimozhi, the daughter of one of the most prominent political figures in South India, joined her partner in crime, A Raja, in jail, a place far less luxurious than the homes and comforts that they have been used to.

Joining them is Suresh Kalmadi, a familiar face and name on the subcontinent in the world of sports, indicted for his role in the multimillion dollar misappropriation of funds during the Commonwealth Games held at the end of last year in New Delhi. Sports has been dogged by more scandal than usual, or so it seems, with Shane Warne – as the most recent instance – getting into a fight with the authorities and having to pay an enormous fine to get out of it, the Sri Lankan cricketers refusing to obey the orders of their government to go home, ad infinitum.

But in all this, one aspect stands out: all these people, named or not, are or have just been in the relentlessly targeting spotlight that the media focuses on anything and anyone who creates a noise of any kind. Consider it from this point of view – if Kanimozhi gets off the sentence that will be pronounced, and comes out of jail, free, she will be considered a martyr, a woman who has suffered for her cause, never mind that she made her little fortune on it. Which makes all the publicity she is getting now not a reason to hide her head under her dupatta, but to hold it high and present the best angle for all the photographers to record for posterity.

A Raja has until now faced the media with a beaming smile on his face, assuring all who are interested in hearing it that he is innocent and will be exonerated. Once he gets out of jail, whether proven innocent or guilty, people will remember that smile and that self-assurance, giving him points for it rather than condemning his arrogance. Kalmadi may not recover easily from having an eggy face, but he made his millions, presented a sports spectacular and made his name known all over the Commonwealth. Shane Warne, a fading sports star known more for his sex life than his game these days, finds a fresh new look for the limelight and is obviously enjoying every moment, never mind that few reports are positive, laudatory or kind.

This is the story of so many others – movie stars on the red carpet in Cannes, be it the rather substantial but couture clad Aishwarya Rai Bachchan or the abysmally outfitted Mallika Sherawat or a multitude of international faces who have had fashion disasters; Lindsey Lohan and her addictions; Julien Assange and his troubles and, perhaps most recently, Dominique Strauss-Kahn who was caught in a rather awkward situation and has been put under house arrest, bailed out by his wife. They may all be rather red-faced when they are caught in the camera but then realise that it is indeed true – any news about them is, for them, indeed good news!

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Ramya Sarma is a Mumbai-based writer-editor.