What Not To Do When A Celebrity Dies

What happens when a celebrity who lived a dream life dies? An entire flock of self-righteous pundits gather in to point out went wrong. Why? It's a validation of your ordinary middle class lifestyle being the best way to live a life. It's a dismissal of the glamorous world of the rich and the famous, taking the moral high ground of living a simple but 'healthy' life. It's the same smug nod of the head our grandparents make when they read about the growing divorce rates in the West or in the industry – “Aaj ki generation!” they say indulgently looking at their daughter-in-law peeling matar and son fixing the bathroom tap. The way the internet has reacted tells us one thing about popular opinion – no matter how much you love a celebrity, you will adopt a holier-than-thou smugness when something goes wrong in their lives. It's an assurance of the safety our middle-class life ensures. The demise of India's first female superstar, Sridevi, has been a huge loss for the industry, and with it, we've also lost our collective sense of basic courtesy. Everyone who has access to internet jumped to conclusions about the circumstances surrounding Sridevi's death, with television reporters going as far as jumping into bathtubs; we have failed her by not allowing her dignity in death. She was a huge star and one thing film stars are not afforded is privacy. Yes, there will be gossip about their life and death, but to do it on national television and make a tamasha out of the whole affair is just adding to the trauma of the grieving family. © Twitter_Siddharth3 From suggesting foul play to blaming her lifestyle and cosmetic surgeries as reasons behind her death, the page 3 of the internet has gone all out in dissecting the tragic incident. With nothing new to report, media channels decided to dwell on the cause of death mentioned in the autopsy report –'accidental drowning' – and turn Sherlock trying to crack a case. With terms like 'maut ka bathtub' being thrown around casually like in a 'Crime Patrol' episode, the common sense quotient of Indian media touched a new low. © Twitter_Sridevifanclub The self-appointed internet pundits did no better. From blaming the 'pressure of looking good' and her 'crash diets', to questioning her alcohol habits (it wasn't Mr Manohar Parrikar this time though), people took it up as an opportunity to target a celebrity whose family was at its most vulnerable. No matter how well you mean, this wasn't an opportunity to point out 10 reasons why a keto diet could give you cholesterol. Ram Gopal Varma, for all his 'love' for the star, went all out in pointing out how Boney Kapoor had reduced the superstar to an ordinary being, and all the times Sridevi had suffered in her marital life. At a time when the husband and daughters of the star are said to be inconsolable, these kind of nasty allegations will just work to deepen the wound. When Piyali Ganguly cited the use of botox as the possible cause of Sridevi's demise, she was not talking from the point of an expert investigating the case, she was talking from the vantage point of an onlooker exercising the right to comment without evidence or logic, but purely on prejudice. © Twitter_TOI It did not stop there. Arjun Kapoor's relationship with his step-mother was scrutinised and she was branded a home-breaker. There were some who announced the tragedy as karma, not pausing to think about theirs in spitting venom for someone who just died. In making a tamasha out of a celebrity death, the internet stooped to a new low and gave us a lesson in what not to do when a celebrity dies. Not that the lesson will strike home and bring a change, but maybe our media channels will be more responsible in resisting the temptation to sensationalise.