Opinion Malaika: Facebooking on duty

Right?

Wrong. She Facebooks with her friends. At least while she’s off camera. So the next time she looks down into her lap,don’t think she is thoughtfully evaluating a performance and wondering what to say or how to mark a contestant. She’s actually composing her next Facebook message,the one she wants to send the moment she gets a chance. Maybe she’s making plans for the day: “Hey,where’s the party tonite?” Or,maybe she’s disappointed with what she has just seen; “And these losers think they can dance?” Whatever.

She has 1,983 friends (last count on her Facebook account) to message or interact with while poor old Renuka Shahane is shedding kilos,Shekhar Suman sweat and Krushna tears,trying to impress her with their moves. Judges have all the luck.

How do I know this? Well,a little PR bird dropped this off in my message box – no,not on Facebook. To quote: “Facebook is everyone’s delight but who from tinsel town is always seen on FB chatting away to glory and updating her status on her Facebook account? It’s none other than akka Munni girl ‘Malaika Arora Khan’. Sources on sets reveal that Malaika is so hooked onto Facebook that she can’t let go of it even while shooting for the dance reality show ‘Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa’”. Every time Malaika is off camera she picks up her phone and starts surfing her Facebook account. Not only this,Malaika also chats with her friends during the shoot!!!’

Why would I want to know this? Search me. I am not remotely interested in what Malaika Arora Khan is doing during the shooting of Jhalak . All of us who watch TV,only want to know what she says and does on screen; in particularly her dancing which being a good sport,she agrees to do even without being asked to. She could be scratching her nose or visiting the facilities for all we care about the rest of the time.

But the PR agency seems to think her Facebook habits are a matter of interest and need to be shared with me,someone who writes on television,no doubt in the hope that I will pass it on to you,the readers. I have dutifully done that,and I hope you’ve got more out of it than I did.

What I did learn from this is that TV channels are employing extreme and desperate measures such as this to propel their shows into the limelight and to steal it from another show or another channel. Two,they know we love gossip and so they’re plying us with it until we’re on a high. People like me (PLM) get lots of useful mail about TV shows – new shows,the latest leap forward in a serial,what Rani said to Vidya on Koffee with Karan which was friendly – and a great deal of perfectly useless gossip – what did Dolly Bindra do to the Great Khali when she met him in the outside world,beyond the Bigg Boss house,etc. But this item about the number 1 item girl goes beyond anything I have received before.

Okay,now I’m off to Facebook with my friends and to send Malaika Arora Khan a message,that here’s hoping,she will reply to during her next shoot of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa .