th th Topic of the week for discussion: 20 to 26 June 2013 Topic: LIGHTS CAMERA ACTION ...... ....SUICIDE ! The alleged suicide of Bollywood actor Jiah Khan yet again highlights the pressure, frustration and despair that come as a part and parcel of the glamour life. What starts with starry-eyed glitz ends up to hopelessness which several celebrities have succumbed to? Bollywood actor Jiah Khan, who worked in films like Nishabd, Ghajini and Houseful, allegedly, committed suicide by hanging herself at her residence. Jiah was brought up in England and had shifted to Mumbai with her mother Rabiya. In 2004, Paveen Babi, one of the most beautiful and popular film stars in Indian history, was found dead in her Mumbai flat. She had apparently starved herself to death and had not eaten during the last three days of her life. In 1993, Divya Bharti, only 19, reportedly committed suicide after an argument with her husband by jumping out of her fifth-story apartment in Mumbai. (However, the circumstances surrounding her demise remain mysterious and unresolved. Popular fashion model Viveka Babajee, who shot to fame with the Kamasutra condom advertisement in the 1990s, committed suicide in her Bandra flat on the night of June 25, 2010. Her body was found hanging from the ceiling fan in the hall. Apparently different reasons are being cited for her suicide from breakdown in professional career, failed love Topic relationship to financial losses. Introduction Kuljeet Randhawa’s friend and costar from the tele-series CATS, Nafisa Joseph hanged herself in her Mumbai apartment a couple of years earlier. Nafisa who was also a VJ was to marry businessman Gautam Khanduja but it was called off after she learnt that he was already married. He had told her that he had been divorced for two years. South sex-symbol Silk Smitha was found dead on the morning of September 23 in her home in Saligramam near Chennai, hanging by a rope from the ceiling fan in her bedroom. In a suicide note that she had written in Telugu, she claimed that continual failure in life had led to frustration and made her take this drastic step. Vidya Balan’s The Dirty Picture was loosely based on the life of Silk Smitha. Celebrating one’s work sounds amazing and extraordinary to on-lookers and sometimes even to the celebrated person. There is this prima facie wonderfulness ascribed to all celebrity figures which do not only influence youngsters to fly up and down aiming at becoming a celebrity, but also challenges many to limit their interest and career to movies, music, soccer and others where it is deemed that celebrity status can easily be fetched. However, the life of a celebrity is not as flamboyant as most of us envisage. The glamour and attention seems very intriguing and this can easily be envied, swaying people away from their long loving careers in pursue of what seems to be a colorful celebrity lifestyle. Do not be swindled, not all that glitters is gold. Celebrities have a hell of rough and “roboted” life. As much as the ordinary “us” have all the freedoms under the sun including but not limited to the freedom to make mistakes, celebrities dare claim to have such freedoms and the sky will fall fast on them. Apart from the fact celebrities are unfairly engaged in disproportionate fights with their hands tied to their backs and mouth thickly plastered, they also have no privacy at all. Imagine being harassed and chased around by some bunch of photographers nicknamed Paparazzis to the extent that; you have to hide from their strong camera flashes even if you have to do number two. The nauseate notion of celebrities having forfeited their privacy for fame rules and you dare try to argue otherwise. The most difficult but fascinating aspect of celebrities’ lifestyle is changing almost everything that you stand for and everything natural about you when stardom sets in. After years of freely talking and walking without ever sued for slander or falling, you will be suddenly asked to change the way you talk, walk, eat, drink and even if you are not lucky and your name happens be called Akosua Mansa, that will be changed to Pascaline Nelson for you. The above coupled with celebrities being unfoundedly detested by persons whom they have never met and maybe will never meet makes me wonder if being a celebrity is indeed such a luxurious and amazing adventure. Most celebrities cannot even find lovers, authentic friends and cannot sleep without their sleeping pills. What is life if one cannot be him or herself and always have to act from morning to evening? A sad life right? This is the life of a celebrity, the life that many young men and women are ready to trade all they represent, have and believe in to chase. The life of a celebrity may glitter, but it is never the gold you think it is when you are in a close proximity. Be happy and enjoy your non-celebrity life, for that is the gold which does not glitter. How many of us can say we have never been in a one-sided relationship? A relationship in which one person gives his or her all, while the other is cold and uncaring? Or, a loving relationship that has soured over time? A relationship in which one person cheats? If we, or our partners, were to commit suicide, should the survivor be held responsible? Jiah reportedly committed suicide in her Juhu apartment on June 3. Sooraj, who was arrested on June 10 for allegedly abetting the suicide, has been remanded in judicial custody till June 27, and his bail application has been rejected. If a woman were to commit suicide because of unrequited love, should the man who didn’t return her love be held responsible? On the day Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai got married, a starlet claiming to be his lover slashed her wrists outside the venue. If she hadn’t survived, would the groom have been arrested? Should he have been arrested? Read further: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Tabloid/Aditya-Pancholi-threatens-legal-action-if- Jiah-Khan-suicide-letter-proved-forged/Article1-1077656.aspx http://www.ghanacelebrities.com/2010/07/05/the-life-of-a-celebrity-not-all-that-glitters-is-gold http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/top-lists/Top-10-celebrities-who-committed- suicide/videols/20425475.cms .