Actor Jaya Bachchan’s hot and cold relationship with the paparazzi has been the subject of major chatter online. And on Monday, things heated up with her latest remarks.
Talking to journalist Barkha Dutt at an event, she was asked about her equation with paps, and she replied she has ‘zero relationship’ with them, “I am the product of a media. Who are these people? Are they trained to be representing the people of this country? You call them media? I come from media. My father was a journalist. I have immense respect, tremendous respect for such people.”
What she added next kickstarted a controversy, “Magar yeh jo bahar drainpipe tight, gande gande pant pehen ke, haath mein mobile leke… they think that because they have a mobile, they can take your picture and say what they want. And the kind of comments they pass — what kind of people are these people? Kahan se aate hain? Kis tarah ka education hai? Kya background hai?”
HT City reaches out to the paparazzos, and they are naturally angry.
Pallav Paliwal says, “It’s unfortunate, what she said. Her grandson Agastya’s film Ikkis is going to release, what if the paps don’t come to cover the promotions. Amitabh ji comes outside his house every Sunday, no leading media covers it, it’s us paps. Judging someone on the basis of their appearance, people who work tirelessly day and night… she might be of the opinion that we aren’t ‘media’, but we are social media. Print and electronic se zyaada fast dekhe jaane wala medium hai. If Jaya ji can promote Agastya’s film without paps, on her own, by posting on her social media pages, then okay. Aap itni badi hasti hain, aisa nahi bolna chahiye tha.”
Manav Manglani, who has been in the business for long, says, “I respect Jaya ji a lot. But she has not yet evolved with the digital era. The transformation from print to digital is hard for her to grasp, maybe her kids and grandkids could make her understand. At the same time, the sudden influx of some YouTubers and individual content creators with good followers has created some chaos in the field, these guys go to any extent to get some kind of response from celebs which would make their video viral, which is not ethical at all and needs to be stopped immediately.
Varinder Chawla says, “I have been in the business for so many years, and respected whenever the celebs said something. Ranbir Kapoor said to not pap Raha, same for Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone’s Dua. In 2023, in fact, I had got a video of Amitabh ji from Delhi. Ek fan selfie ke liye aage badhi, unhone bure tareeke se dhakka de diya, chillaye. Seeing his age and image, I sent it to his PR, who requested me so much to not post it, so I didn’t. Humne unki izzat rakhi. I am not saying all the boys on field are right, I have told them to mind their language earlier too. But she should know- the paps which she is targeting, are they all paps, or YouTubers and fans in the mix too? Kisi ko aise bura mat boliye. I told my colleagues apni self respect rakhte hain, aur inko boycott karte hain.”
For Mamta Kulkarni’s spiritual career, the controversy represents a test of credibility. Her attempt to disentangle herself from film-industry and political associations, and to reaffirm her devotion to spirituality, may come across as genuine religious commitment—or as damage control in the face of media backlash.
