advertisement
Conversations surrounding privacy for stars keep getting rehashed in mainstream media or online. This time around, Alia Bhatt called out a publication for publishing a picture of hers that was clicked while she was inside her house.
Further, she also criticised the people who clicked the picture that is a clear invasion of privacy. Several celebrities including Anushka Sharma, Arjun Kapoor, Janhvi Kapoor, and Mini Mathur spoke out in the actor’s support.
Since paparazzi are such an integral part of celebrity culture and content, The Quint reached out to them to understand if this phenomenon is rooted in revenue and how they navigate privacy.
Manav Manglani had earlier told The Quint, “If it's an exclusive, we get paid a lot more because there's a story that nobody else has. The channels run behind exclusive pictures a lot where there is a story."
Of the incident involving Alia Bhatt, Manglani tells us, “No media publication asks for pictures that invade someone’s privacy inside their home. That is unwarranted and shouldn’t have happened. If a look is being revealed or we take a picture during shoots, that is the normal way paparazzi work.”
“There is no revenue angle to this. There is competition but there are paparazzi like me who are doing their jobs daily and getting exclusive pictures almost everyday. But not something like this,” he adds.
Another paparazzo, who has been in the business for years, reveals, “To my knowledge, foreign magazines in India had decided that they wouldn’t buy photos or video rights for any wedding. The same way, nobody ever comes to us and asks us to click a particular picture for extra revenue. Personally, I think, why would we do wrong to the stars we want to have a relationship with for years?”
Talking about the demand for celebrity pictures in general, he adds, “The other thing is, sometimes some people click pictures where you can’t even see the artist or its blurry. Even then people ask, ‘Do you have this picture? Do you have that picture?’ They see that the quality of the picture isn’t clear – you can’t even see the star or even enlarge it – then why ask for it? At the end of the day, demand and supply run hand-in-hand.”
With respect to privacy and consent, he adds that if an artist clearly says no to being clicked, then a photographer shouldn’t click their pictures, adding, “We’re going to be in this field for years and even the artists will be, so one day or the other, we will get a picture of them.”
He further tells us, “Any picture should have something going on – maybe the star is wearing a great outfit or something is happening. There is such high visibility of stars now so there’s no such appeal in the audience that, ‘I want to see this star going to the gym or this particular star’. I think people might be clicking anything to complete their duty or their day…which is not necessary.”
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)
Published: undefined