Panchvi fail and other Bollywood blog tales

It's no longer about cold wars. The starry world of Bollywood is busy with caustic combats instead. So Aamir Khan writes a cheeky blog entry describing his smelly dog named Shahrukh while Amitabh Bachchan rates Shah Rukh Khan's new reality show as "Panchvi Fail". Bachchan goes on to compare Panchvi Pass's ratings with his own high-ranking KBC show. Salman Khan is brattish as usual, checking on Akshay Kumar's fee before naming his price. The gloves are off in Bollywood. While yesteryear stars Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor and other antagonists kept their mutual dislike private, today the bitching is out in the open. The change has perhaps to do with Bollywood's changing dynamics. Bachchan has reportedly been paid over Rs 100 crore for his blog, so dishing out controversy is part of the domain, quips an industry watcher. Aamir probably felt that Bachchan was stealing the limelight, so he posted a mischievous comment. Two months ago, Aamir had demoted SRK, calling him the Number 2 star of the industry. "Suddenly it's no longer a politically correct, diplomatic Bollywood," says a media observer. "Bachchan, who over the years has been the epitome of modesty and political correctness, has thrown caution to the winds, especially in his blog. The others seem to be following suit. One doesn't know whether this is for the better or worse."
Salman Khan, not given to something as literary as a blog, makes his views clear in more prosaic ways. He has been openly attacking actors like John Abraham and Vivek Oberoi and refuses to acknowledge their presence at public events. Khan's latest bete noire is Akshay Kumar, not because his girlfriend Katrina is more comfortable with Akshay than him but because Akshay charges more. Says an insider, "A corporate approached Salman with a project and quoted Akshay's price to him. The actor told the reps that he would charge at least Rs 5 crore more than that.” The media has a definite role to play in flaring up star wars-take, for instance, the recent reports of friction between Rajnikanth and Shah Rukh Khan over a film. "The media tried to rake up another controversy between Shah Rukh and Hrithik over the Krazzy 4 song-reports said that Rakesh Roshan was not promoting Shah Rukh's song and only focusing on Hrithik's number," says an observer, who adds that stars are certainly more aggressive these days. "It stems from a variety of factors," he says. "It's like a chain reaction-one unsavoury reference engenders a series of retorts and rejoinders. The combination of factors-a highly active media with a growing penchant for tabloidish reporting, an increasingly competitive stance, and high stakes-is probably responsible for this kind of situation. But it could just be a temporary phase." "There's been rivalry in the film industry from the days of Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor,” says an industry insider. "But all they did was not cross each other's path. They would not work together, and each one forbade his ‘regular' heroine from working with his rival." Bharathi Pradhan, a senior film journalist, says that even if stars of yesteryear spoke out, the media was not such a tremendous presence and there were no blogs. "What Aamir Khan has done is in bad taste,” she says. "He does not a sense of humour and should not have attempted it." Raj Grover, former production head of Sunil Dutt's company, agrees. "Though rivalry has always existed, I have never seen actors calling other names so openly. What Aamir has done is certainly in poor taste."