Media reports about cinema. Well, that is fine. But, reporting about cinema is sometimes misconstrued as reporting about film personalities, especially stars. That too is fine when a certain level of decorum is maintained in the way reports are rolled out. But, there are times when reporting about film personalities gets a bit too personal for anybody’s comfort. Gossip is what this form of reporting is called. But, things can sometimes get a bit more serious than gossip, which is perhaps too mild a term to describe things that are sometimes said. You might have guessed at least one of the two incidents which are being referred here.

The first was that of a supposed marriage that took place between a leading actress and an actor turned director. The second was even more serious which accused some of the very familiar names in the industry of being involved in certain illegal activities. The rather unsavory nature of this report prevents any further details from being discussed. But, chances are that you might have read or heard about this scandal from one source or the other.

Now there is no need to discuss the genuineness of these reports. We know for sure that both of them involved a more than acceptable use of imagination and improvisation than is permissible for a news item that could carry very serious implication, which could involve character assassination. So, it is understandable that the film fraternity was up in arms against the media in a flash. Their reaction was completely understandable, keeping in mind the seriousness of the reports.

But, it has to be said that a few reactions could have been more measured, keeping in mind the nature of the relationship between cinema and media. The thing to be noted here is that, in both the above mentioned reports, it was only one particular publication or source that was supposed to be at fault. But, media on the whole is much bigger than just a singular source. Many of the reactions that came in from the film fraternity regarding the reports that were carried were sweeping and scathing statements about the entire media. Ironically, even these reactions had to be reported only by the media, which was the antagonist of the incidents in question.

The idea is to keep the unwritten rule in mind. To remember not to cross the line so that the cinema-media relationship can remain cordial and complementary. Both need each other. Cinema cannot afford to go back to the 80s era of posters and word of mouth publicity when budgets are touching unheard figures, neither can media go back to the black and white era which contained very little entertainment news.