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Is someone gunning for Govinda?
Why else is Govinda being singled out?
"Aap bhi ban sakte hain ankar," said the hoarding of Janmat (You too can be an anchor!) , Adhikari Brothers’ TV channel. The hoardings showed women with chapatti rollers and men with dandas (of gilli-danda), symbolizing the non-professionals and promising them a career as anchors for the TV channel.
As expected one of their crude anchors approached film star-turned-MP Govinda for an interview and provoked him with rude questions asked crudely, till Govinda lost his cool, snatched her microphone and fell into the trap of the channel, which registered a police complaint against him.
This set me thinking…
Govinda becoming violent was as difficult to imagine as Salman quitting alcohol / violence / brash behaviour or Sanjay Dutt severing his connections with the underworld…
Right from the day Govinda entered the film industry with Pehlaj Nihalani’s Aag, he was known to be a non-controversial, harmless kind of guy; someone who wouldn’t hurt a fly. His policy has always been panga nahin lene ka. He has never antagonized the media; not even the smaller fry from smaller rags. He has no enemies in the film industry.
It is true that producers cursed and abused him for always being late for shooting …
It is true, that at least one producer forced him to shoot at the point of the gun…
But Govinda remained as non-violent as Mahatma Gandhi. He knew that he could survive on relationships and he did.
But from the day he entered politics and won an election on the Congress ticket, Govinda has become Target Number One for the TV channels. TV channels usually have a policy of no permanent friends and no permanent enemies. But why have two channels – Rajat Sharma’s India TV and now Adhikaris’ Janmat gone all out to finish Govinda?
Is there some agenda?
After all, we have Sanjay Dutt. an accused in the bomb blasts case, who has refused to sever his connections with his friends in the underworld, as his taped conversations with Chhota Shakeel have proved. The TV channels handled Priya Dutt with kid gloves even when the bomb blasts case returned to the front page, thanks to Abu Salem, and were satisfied when she said, “I believe my brother is innocent.”
Then there is Salman Khan and his rowdy behaviour, killing sacred black bucks, his underworld connections, runing over people sleeping on the footpath while driving under the influence of liquor, and threatening and assaulting his women and the media.
When Rajat Sharma targeted Govinda the questions that came to my mind were:
Why is the clip of Govinda hobnobbing with Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Rajan, Chhota Shakeel Anees Ibrahim and others being shown like a major exposure when (1) All this happened before the bomb blasts (2) Anil Kapoor, Chunky Pandey, Johnny Lever, Jackie Shroff and dozens of others from the industry were hobnobbing with the underworld?
Why not grill Dilip Kumar about his connections with Haji Mastaan and Karim Lala?
Why not question Raj Babbar about his shaking hands with Karim Lala and Haji Mastaan?
Why not question Jaya Bachchan for participating in a puja in the house of underworld don Vardharajan Mudaliar?
More important, why the surprise and indignation at Govinda’s visit to a party of the underworld dons? It is clear that the channel was misinforming a generation that is not aware of what used to happen in the 70s, 80s and early 90s.
Like a professional, I believe that allth is was being done to raise the TRP ratings of the channel.
Unfair to Govinda, okay! But everything is fair in the war over TRP ratings. India TV and Rajat Sharma – who aborted his sting operations (casting couch) on the request of Balasaheb Thackeray, have to do something to attract eyeballs.
But Janmat too follows the same route for TRP ratings.
I suspect that there is more to it than meets the eye.
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