Post X3

Being in the (now cliched for me) 'spotlight' I am expected to have an opinion about everything. Well everyone has an opinion about a lot of things. But I am expected to express it on demand. Even on things I don't really or need to have an opinion about. But now, thanks to the credibility which my mother and now I, have built through the past decade, journalists understand where I come from when I say perhaps that I don't feel like talking about it or that I don't have an opinion about it. 

Also now, thanks to Twitter, I am expected to wish people I know in the industry, on Twitter, which to me is absurd. I can pick up the phone and wish them. Or send them an SMS. Why profess all the Happy Birthdays on Twitter or Facebook? That can be for someone who has no connect with the star. And also initially I was expected to have an opinion on the films I watched. On the stars I like. Or don't like. Once I realized that, I stopped tweeting about films I have watched. If I don't talk about it no one will ask. However, if I do attend a preview and the photos come about as proof, I am asked nonetheless and I exercise my fundamental right to silence at these instances. I have also faced enough cyber bullying from groups of fans at varying points in time that I positively MUST say that I am fan of a certain star. Fact remains that I get to see, meet and work with most of the actors that others get to see on screen. I can tell them in person about ideas or opinions if any. And I still think so. And more than anything else there are a lot of exchange of ideas and discussions that I have been privy to at studios while recording and dubbing.

However there is another reason to this post. And the reason happens to be Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. All my short life I have only liked actors who are special for something else other than their achievement in a certain field. It could be acting. Or it could be Miss World. I needed to admire them for an additional quality. One of the actors I first loved was Revathi. Fact was she is my mom's favorite and the first 2 films I have watched she played the lead. Pudhiya Mugam and Anjali. The third was Bombay. 

Now, the entire world loved Aishwarya Rai Bachchan from the time I was in 5th standard. I guess that's when she became Miss World. And just because of that, eventhough I thought she is extremely beautiful I wouldn't follow the pack. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan would be majorly credited in inspiring thousands of girls wanting to take up modeling /walk the ramp. Most girls I knew wanted to be like her. 

Now especially after reading how amazingly opinionated a size zero-loving humungous group of nobodies are with regard to how she absolutely MUST become 'thin' like right away, and how mainstream media is also popularizing these opinions and giving article after article is well, blech.

I admire the way she says she is not going on a diet for anybody. I admire the way she refuses to bow down to national/international pressure on how she must look. And I admire the way she cares a rat's posterior for all the myriad opinions and lives her life according to her terms. If you feel that you are under pressure, please compare your life to ARB's and I am sure you'll feel better after that. Now I would sincerely tell a girl to have ARB's attitude. I give it to her for her spunk and confidence. And today, in my opinion, she is more Miss World than she was in 1996.