Exploitation of Slumdog Kids
March, 2009. 8 pm
Watching Headlines Today just now I couldn’t help cringing. The sight of those two hapless Slumdog kids Azharuddin and Rubeena being shepherded by a couple of media savvy designer aunties, out for mileage and photo ops smacks of the worst kind of self serving cynicism. Those two starry eyed kids are going to be prey to any and every media hound out for a quick story or pix. Witnessing the way the aunties preened and basked in their glory I couldn’t help but think that for these kids there’s no hope now- a debut on the ramp at Delhi fashion week, a photo op with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and then it’s the slippery slope to nowhere.
How long before they become Page three fixtures, take part in a reality show, become judges on Nach Baliye, or make guest appearances in the next Madhur Bhandarkar film playing themselves? And what happens once the novelty wears off and people are bored of their cute faces and quotes?
What is it we can offer them then? Is someone making sure they get at least their money’s worth of free publicity they afford whoever milks them for their moment of fame? And will the Congress make sure that they are given a decent roof over their heads and their parents’ jobs?
I can’t help but admire Lovleen Tandon for doing the dignified thing and abstaining from exploiting the kids. After all she if any one at all had the right to do so. But At the Oscars she took a step back and allowed them to shine, and at a public venue where I met her I noticed she winced when the Jai Ho tune started up. In that slight crinkling of her delicate nose was the ‘there’s more to me than Slumdog-and we’ve all got to move on’.
But not too many people have that dignity. And so we‘re going to be treated to many such spectacles manufactured by canny adults involving the Slumdog kids.
Kudos to my old colleague from Bombay Times Rawinder Bawa for trying to get the kids to distance themselves from exploitative political endorsements. In her coverage on HT she made it a point to ask “The congress is saying that they are responsible for your success and for you reaching where you have “is it true?
It’s mostly the women on TV who are asking the right questions!