Did You Know – How Pakistani Media Reacted To Alia Bhatt-Ranbir Kapoor Controversy
Here's how Pakistani media reacted to the ongoing Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor controversy.
The magazine sections of Pakistani media are never tired of peeping into what Bollywood is doing and saying -- good, bad or ugly. Thanks to the rise of social media and easy access through the Internet, it is easy to pick holes in Bollywood -- zanier the better. This is despite the fact that at the political and diplomatic levels, the relations are in a deep freeze.
Did you know why? One: it makes good gossip. Two: it makes its own stars, of Lollywood, look better or as good, even if they make films that do not sell even within the country. And Three: it makes them feel patriotic. Incidentally, there is hardly a mention of Lollywood in Indian media.
Undoubtedly, you do come across positive comments about Bollywood from those who have visited it in better times. Like Fawad Khan, Sanam Saeed and Mahirra Khan. But trolls have shut them up. Now, Priyanka Chopra is attacked for her dressing, for behaving as if she 'owns' Hollywood, having delivered a few hits there.
But this one takes the cake -- no, a lip full of lipstick -- and the diktat comes from the feminists who dominate the Pak media's entertainment web desks. Of course, the criticism is reserved for Bollywood stars, not Hollywood or Lollywood, even if the star wife surrenders her ego while being interviewed and praises her star husband.
There is no sympathy or support for the Pakistani star wives when ill-treated. But Alia Bhatt is an easy, invisible target, even though her film-maker father Mahesh Bhatt has attended the Karachi Film Festival in the past.
The writer(s) of the Images section of Dawn newspaper (August 16, 2023) have attacked Alia Bhatt for talking about how she applies lipstick and how, having applied the way she does (moving her lips, not lipstick), she wipes it off because her star husband Ranbir Kapoor does not like it. In short, they want Alia not just to take off the lipstick, but even her smile.
The Lollywood-watching ladies are harsh on Bollywood, both women and men. They think it is 'ick' that Alia should be talking about it the way she does in a short clip during an interview. Then, they find fault with Ranbir for insisting that Alia remove the lipstick ("because he likes the natural colour of my lips").
"People are allowed to have preferences but then again, women are allowed to also feel creeped out by a man who has made many remarks about his wife — jokingly or otherwise — and who truly has all the markers of a red flag."
"Ranbir Kapoor is a repeat offender and, quite frankly, a red flag. He’s made fun of his wife’s weight while she was pregnant and even made ‘jokes’ about wanting their daughter to get Bhatt’s looks but not her personality. He might be ‘joking’ but there’s something so decidedly gross about men who make jokes at the expense of their wives. This isn’t limited to Kapoor — there are scores of desi uncles who think the epitome of humour is publicly ridiculing their wives."
Did you know that Pakistan has many more 'desi uncles' who -- forget the temerity of "publicly ridiculing their wives"-- simply divorce their wives and at the whiff of a protest from the latter, malign them and humiliate them.
But the final declaration is issued: "It may seem trivial, but it’s a way of exerting control and it’s toxic. Everyone should be free to wear and do what they want." Period.
