Struck stars

It may be difficult to confirm whether the bodyguards of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie did push, shove or abuse Indians during their film’s shooting in Mumbai recently, but that the Mumbai police arrested them is baffling.

It may be difficult to confirm whether the bodyguards of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie did push, shove or abuse Indians during their film’s shooting in Mumbai recently, but that the Mumbai police arrested them is baffling. Efforts were often made to portray and malign the film’s cast and crew as overtly racist but had there been any substance in the case, the court could not have acted equally swiftly in releasing them on bail. The fact is that bodyguards often have to resort to pushing and shoving and I have seen bodyguards of several Indian film stars wrestling off fans at many occasions though they never end up being arrested.

But this latest incident demonstrates how touchy we get when it comes to dealing with celebrities. Brad and Angelina are international celebrities and know how to deal with their fans worldwide, and yet they find themselves in this unwarranted controversy despite the repeated admission of their love and respect for India. Even Indian celebrities are not spared. In Varanasi, a mock funeral for Rani Mukherjee was recently held when her bodyguards prevented her local fans from disrupting the shooting. Years ago, the city of Varanasi was up in arms against shooting of an international film just because the film had a sensitive subject. There is a long history of disruptions in film exhibition, Aamir Khan’s Fanaa being a recent, prime example.

I am glad that actor Irrfan Khan had openly come to defence of Brad, Angelina and the foreign team. But the issue remains: we seem to throw so many obstacles in the normal working of the entertainment industry in India that I wonder how the industry will grow. Imagine what would happen if our film actors were put through the same scrutiny when they went abroad for shooting, or their bodyguards or team members were to be put in jail for smallest offence. If we want to promote India as a favoured place to shoot for international films, we have to grant them the basic privacy and non-obtrusive working environment.

Unreal estate

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The sudden and shocking rise in property prices across India is causing concern at all levels. Prices have rocketed so high that it is said that one can sell his flat in Delhi or Mumbai and buy a bungalow in London, New York or Los Angeles. The RBI governor is right in his desire to act tough on the real estate boom. He has advised banks to steer clear of excessive lending to the real estate sector. Apart from a few big and credible real estate developers in the country, the current boom has seen the rise of a large number of small, shady builders, who fund their building operations by collecting huge amounts in advance from the property buyers. The huge growth in number of property builders has grown into a real estate racket where speculation is encouraged, and as a result buying a home in many cities in India has steadily gone out of reach of most Indians.

The government needs to do more than just tighten the supply of easy money into the real estate market. Given the size and significance of the industry, its working has to be monitored more closely. Steps should be taken to protect ordinary people from becoming victims of a speculative boom in houses and other property.

Booking charge

Finance Minister P Chidambaram is the unwitting target of a malicious campaign to link his name with Sterlite Group. A book — alleging Chidambaram to have favoured the organisation while being in government — has been used to repeatedly raise the issue in Parliament. I don’t hold any brief for Chidambaram, but it’s baffling how a book can be held as evidence. Ironically, those who waved the book in the House would themselves be subjects of innumerable such books on crony capitalism.

There is no acknowledgement of Chidambaram’s statement that as a lawyer he had Sterlite as a client, which led to the association. There is any number of lawyer-politicians who take briefs from private companies in their professional capacity but that can be no ground to discredit them. The allegations are indeed unfortunate at a time when Chidambaram is being universally hailed as one of the best performing ministers in the government today.

The writer is a Congress MP in Rajya Sabha