Imagine turning on your T.V., to a “well proclaimed reporter” lying in a bathtub and enacting veteran actress Sridevi Kapoor’s accidental drowning. The days where media houses and T.V., channels delivered authentic news are long gone. Today, one can count just on their hands the number of media houses working for a cause. Nowadays, most media houses and T.V., channels just work for Target Rating Point (TRP) and money.
Sridevi along with her husband Boney Kapoor and youngest daughter Khushi were in Dubai, UAE to attend nephew Mohit Marwah’s wedding. Boney returned to Mumbai in India after the wedding. Later, he decided to come back to Dubai and surprise her. Boney, on reaching the hotel room woke her up from slumber and after a small talk, she entered the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later, Boney knocked on the door and got no response. Boney forced open the door only to see her mortal remains in the bathtub.
The Dubai police revealed it was an accidental drowning and ruled out foul play. But media houses and T.V., channels started cooking up their own theories that lacked respect for the deceased. One of the media houses played their part with a reporter standing next to a bathtub with a portrait of Sridevi. Another T.V., channel morphed the image of Sridevi’s mortal remains in a bathtub with Boney standing next to the body.
One of the T.V., channels went to an extent where the reporter climbs in the bathtub trying to measure it. The reporter measures the bathtub and even lies in it to reason how one could not have drowned in a bathtub. He further raises a question, what if someone took her life? Any person with the slightest mental capacity would know the difference between a normal bathtub in India and the bathtub in an expensive 7 star suite in Dubai.
Sridevi stayed at the 7 star Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel, the world’s third tallest ‘all hotel’ building. Sridevi was a renowned actress, she would have taken the most expensive suite for their stay. The size of the bathroom would be bigger than just a normal living room. The media houses and T.V., channels, with less or no details, are cooking up stories about the deceased. Instead of filling up spaces for TRP, a thought about the condition of her family would have been better.
This is a cry for help from the ones who struggle to go on the path of great journalism. Spreading conspiracy theories to boost viewership proves what bad journalism is in India today.
