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Shahid Kapoor, your muscles can wait. Let coronavirus pass before you hit the gym

Bollywood celebrities are living it up during the times of corona. While Shahid Kapoor and his wife Mira Kapoor went to a gym, Shah Rukh Khan went partying at Karan Johar’s place.

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The coronavirus pandemic may have been successful in keeping a large number of people indoors, but there is one lot in India that refuses to bow down — the B-town celebs. Bollywood stars are living it up even during the times of coronavirus. While Shahid Kapoor and his wife Mira Kapoor hit the gym, Shah Rukh Khan decided to meet his friend Karan Johar for a party at the latter’s place.

Sara Ali Khan went to Varanasi for Ganga Aarti and Tara Sutaria was spotted walking the ramp at a fashion show. The rest of them are just washing hands, and that gives us a peek into their plush bathrooms.

With the power to influence and urge people to stay at home, Bollywood celebrities have been tweeting and putting up Instagram posts about social distancing and self-isolation. But the reality is different.


Also read: Don’t look down on TikTok. The ‘timepass’ app now has COVID-19 experts and Bollywood celebs


Can’t miss the workout

The gym that Shahid and Mira Kapoor chose for their workout had already been shut for its regular members, but was reportedly opened specially for the couple. As photos and videos of the couple became public, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) came down heavily on the gym owner and sealed the place.

If there was ever an example of VIP treatment and stubbornness combined, it would be this. A large part of an actor’s job, especially in Bollywood, is to stay fit and look good, but one would also expect it to be every rational person’s responsibility to understand, and educate others, about the gravity of a pandemic.

Governments aren’t shutting down borders, issuing health advisories and closing restaurants and clubs for vogue. With markets crashing, the service industry taking a huge hit and even Kapoor’s own industry — the Producers Guild — creating a relief fund for daily wage workers, it might be helpful to explain to these actors what a shutdown is and why it is important.

Many reports suggest that the worst is yet to come. Flouting rules and keeping a gym open for yourself doesn’t really help the situation.


Also read: Even Neha Dhupia doesn’t get feminism. MTV Roadies proves it


We know how to wash our hands

Many Bollywood actors are worshipped by people, but even the God, whoever he or she may be, wouldn’t try teaching grown-ups how to wash their hands.

 

True, the World Health Organization (WHO) has appealed people to clean hands regularly and thoroughly with “an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water”, but to make full-fledged tutorials out of it and hashtag it as #SafeHandsChallenge is simply ridiculous.

This might come as a surprise to these Bollywood actors, but we know how to wash our hands, and have been doing it the WHO way a lot before the coronavirus outbreak.


Also read: Karan Johar’s Guilty on #MeToo will ring true if he stopped partying with Sajid Khan


Stay at home

Browse through celebrity photographer Manav Manglanis’ Instagram pages and you will know that many from the Hindi movie industry are oblivious to the threat of coronavirus. But hey, the mask looks fashionable.

Maybe it’s time for a role reversal, but here’s a small tutorial for these celebrities. Coronavirus is highly contagious. While you may be a healthy person and might not die if you get the virus, you are seriously putting in danger someone older and with a medical history. With three deaths and over 160 reported cases, the coronavirus pandemic is only increasing in India. India is also among the countries with lowest testing rates, which implies that there could be a lot more positive cases.

So, rather than going out and risking others, for Bollywood producers and directors, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to stay at home and pen scripts on coronavirus: Love in the Time of CoronaCorona Pyaar HaiCorona Corona Hota Hai, or Kal Corona Ho Na Ho.

It’s not that far-fetched an idea, considering many producers made a beeline to secure rights to make a movie on the abrogation of Article 370. Corona could be next.

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4 COMMENTS

  1. About the hand washing topic, these stars are trying to remind us ,the urban population, to give time to washing our hands. Otherwise the lifebuoy adds have just kicked out that habit from us. Just look into your family , the writer of the article ,you would instantly realise that adults need tuitions for handwashing with continuous revision and surprise tests.

  2. This is just such a rudderless article! You had me until Shahid, but the fact that you are dragging hand washing into it shows that its most probable the journo has some “celebrity amnesia”at best! People should steer clear of such people who maybe believe “criticizing” everything makes one a journalist. And yes, washing hands is important and the right way to do it must be shown. I have seen countless people washing only the palms with soap and leaving the backside unwashed. Maybe the journo here has never visited a dhaba or a popular eatery to see how oblivious people are to the technique of a proper and correct hand wash.

  3. @Revathi Krishnan I agree with you on Shahid kapoor’s case…. But overall, you @Revathi Krishanan are such an idiot and a frustrated “journalist” … The fact that you have problem with Anushka sharma showing how to wash hands is reflective of unknown prejudice towards celebrities…. That is why TRUST in media is all-time low……Instead of appreciating her, comes such NON-SENSICAL piece from you “journalist”…. I hope you have written some amazing articles on Anushka for what she stands for and for being the india’s YOUNGEST FEMALE PRODUCER at just age of 25…..But I guess that is too much to expect from ” journalists” like you and outlets like @theprint…. You guys only know negativity and do greatest DISSERVICE to humanity every day with your journalism…. The easiest thing is to do give cheap opinions and write pathetic articles…. One wonders how do people like yourself sleep at night with such prejudiced conscience…. And btw, Either Anushka /Deepika don’t owe “journalists” like you a damn…..Get a perspective and a life….. Atleast LEARN FROM the CLASS and GRACE with which Anushka has led her life in last 11 years…… And @theprint must hire journalists who have some sort of understanding of life and not ones who are born and bred in negativity and prejudice…..

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