Last week, we saw Hindi television news channels go gaga over their ‘discovery’ of a new-old temple in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh.
This week, it’s the turn of English TV news channels to beat their chests over what they describe as a ‘war’ between Telangana chief minister Anumula Revanth Reddy and superstar Allu Arjun. For TV news, this was a clash of the titans of Telangana politics and Tollywood—and they were not going to miss out on any of the action.
“This is not some media story,” Arjun said at a press conference on 21 December. However, on TV news, it has been playing out as the biggest story in town. Why? A fascination for celebrity—especially film superstars? Nothing better to report after the tamasha in Parliament ended? Or because Reddy and Arjun are telling very different versions of the same story?
Fact is, three weeks after a stampede at the 4 December premiere of Arjun’s film Pushpa 2: The Rule, attended by the film star, left one woman dead and her son in the hospital, English news channels have declared ‘all-out war’ in ‘Allu vs Revanth’ (Republic TV).
English newspapers in Delhi are giving it page 1 coverage: The Times of India, on 25 December, felt it was important to tell us that ‘Allu Arjun faces 20 queries in 3hrs at police station’.
Hindi news channels have waded into the battle, too: India TV’s Rajat Sharma even wrote about it.
Arjun was arrested and released on bail for his alleged involvement in the crowd rush outside Sandhya Theatre. Reddy blamed Arjun for the stampede and Arjun stoutly denied it. TV news channels such as India Today sniffed a good controversy: ‘Did Allu Arjun fuel crowd frenzy?’ it asked.
English daily newspapers and TV news channels got into the story in a big way this week when Hyderabad police released CCTV footage showing a frenzied crowd and police efforts to revive the victim. The police claimed it also showed that Arjun remained in the theatre well after the crush, despite police requests for him to leave.
Quickly, this became a ‘Telengana cop vs superstar’ story on TV (NDTV 24×7).
However, on Monday, it wasn’t the CCTV that we saw on TV news but the premises of Arjun’s home being “attacked” by “vandals” who “breached his privacy”. (CNN News 18)
We were treated to video footage of an assortment of men pelting stones, rushing into the compound, and generally behaving in an unruly way… Some news channels were shocked: ‘Nafrat ke patthar (stones of hatred)’, said Republic Bharat.
Channels were concerned about the actor’s family too: “This is extremely worrying,” stated a CNN News 18 reporter. “He has a family… They are extremely rattled… His wife and two children were taken away…”
Discovering links
What really excited the news channels was the “sensational new disclosure” via ‘photo proof’ of the ruling Congress party’s ‘link to the vandals’.
“Telengana’s photo war,” NDTV 24×7 called it.
Images of the alleged vandal leader Reddy Srinivas with CM Reddy were pasted across channels. News channels borrowed a line from the BJP for their headline: ‘State sponsored attack?’ asked Republic TV.
They identified Srinivas as the ‘youth wing President’ of Congress in Kodangal—CM Reddy’s assembly constituency. “Congress link to Allu house ‘state sponsored’ attack,” announced CNN News 18. “Clearly a direct link,” said the Republic TV reporter.
As politics found its way into the story, we watched BJP, BRS, and Congress representatives fight it out in TV interviews. BRS accused Congress of its links to the ‘vandal’, Congress ‘discovered’ BRS links to him.
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Conspiracies galore
“Why is an actor being targeted like this?” asked the Times Now anchor.
India TV anchor Rajat Sharma wondered the same thing but came up with his own answer: “There was planning behind a conspiracy to target Allu Arjun. The intent was to convey the message to the superstar that being a super hero on screen is one thing, but in real life, the same hero can be reduced to a zero.”
That was one viewpoint.
Other channels were looking for deeper conspiracies. CNN News 18, for example, suggested that Arjun was arrested because he had refused to campaign for Congress during elections.
Revanth Reddy begged to differ: in an interview with anchor Rahul Kanwal on Aaj Tak Agenda, he said the law is the same for everyone—it cannot be different for celebrities.
“Allu Arjun didn’t simply watch the film and leave. He came out from the car’s sunroof, cheering and greeting fans… This caused the situation to get out of control,” he said.
And so it continues—in all this, the victim and her family are ignored. It’s not about them but about RR vs AA.
If you want a good example of how television news gets its teeth into a story and never lets it go, here it is. No wonder so many viewers have turned to YouTube channels for alternative news sources. What else can explain the superstardom of someone like Dhruv Rathee, who has over 26 million subscribers?
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)