The Charismatic Superstar

 

Photo courtesy Rene Asmussen on Pexels.

“Get out of the police station”. These were the words of policemen who were refusing to lodge a complaint from Yash. They were trying to make it difficult for Yash to register a case by asking irrelevant questions. An exasperated Yash remarked, “Don’t worry, truth always has a way of revealing itself.” Saying this he stormed out of the police station.

Yash was a hardworking college-going student in the final year of graduation. Being very good in his studies, he had always been a ranked student till now.

There was only one weakness that he possessed and that was his adoration for Bollywood superstar, Sanatkumar. It was his passion to watch each and every film of his idol on the first day of release; if possible the first show itself.

Such was his adoration that he had joined the fan club of the superstar. On the day of the movie release, he used to tag along 10–12 of his friends and spend on their tickets too. After the movie was over, they used to have lunch together.

During interaction with his friends, he always used to come up with dialogues of Sanatkumar from one of his movies. Often he used to gush in amazement, “Look how Sanatkumar excels throughout the film; be it romance, comedy, emotions or the dance scenes. No wonder he is the reigning superstar.”

Once a friend of his did not agree with his views as he was a fan of another hero, “Sanatkumar is not fit to be even called an actor. He overacts in all the scenes of the movie.”

This did not go down well with Yash and an argument ensued between the two, resulting in their coming to blows. Some of their common friends had to intervene and separate them.

His parents were exasperated with his adulation of Sanatkumar. They used to remark, “Son! these stars just look good in the movies, doing all the good work as actors. In real life, they have very big bloated egos.”

This never made any difference to his hero worship. People used to be amazed at his collection of posters of Sanatkumar. Often the T-shirts that he used to wear, used to have photos of Sanatkumar in different poses.

One day he read an article in a magazine that Sanatkumar was about to launch a new movie, and his greatest fan would be able to meet and interview him. Yash lost no time in filling the form for meeting Sanatkumar. But there was a condition that before meeting Sanatkumar they had to participate and win a contest.

Yash was all dressed up for the contest. Hundreds of contestants had turned up for the competition. The judges were interviewing and eliminating contestants, as only a hundred contestants were to be allowed for the next round.

The events were generating a lot of publicity for the just-launched movie of Sanatkumar. Yash easily cleared the first round and was among the hundred contestants waiting for the second round. On the scheduled day they were made to go through the dialogues and clips from some of the movies of Sanatkumar. Ten of the die-hard fans were able to identify these clips and went for the final round.

The final job left for the organizers was to select one among these persons to meet and interview Sanatkumar. The whole proceedings were being telecast live on entertainment channels and sponsored by a big company.

A big rotating circular dartboard moving around its own axis with the name of all the contestants displayed was brought to the room. One of the organizers was to throw a dart blindfolded, and on whichever name the dart landed would be able to meet Sanatkumar.

All the contestants were standing with bated breath. Yash closed his eyes and remembered god, praying for his piece of luck.

An organizer got his eyes blindfolded with a black cloth and threw a dart towards the rotating circular dartboard. It was visible from the face of the contestants that they were under great tension. The dart missed the circular board by a few inches. Again the organizer took the dart and threw it towards the board.

This time it hit the board and onto one of the names. There was deafening applause all around. The announcer spoke; breaking the thunderous applause ”Let’s have a look; who the lucky person is! It is Yash.”

Yash raised his fists in jubilation. His dreams of meeting his idol had come true. There were tears in his eyes.

On reaching home he informed his friends of his win. They were all in awe of him. Each of them was suggesting a question to be put to the superstar. Yash was in great tension and could not sleep. At last, he was able to get some sleep past midnight.

The next day a car came to pick him up from his house and he reached the studio in half an hour. He was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and waiting for the superstar. In fifteen minutes he was informed that Sanatkumar had arrived.

Yash was informed to proceed towards the stage where Sanatkumar was waiting for him. As he was walking towards the stage he could see Sanatkumar seated on a sofa. Reaching near to him he shook hands. Soon he was dumbstruck and did not know what to talk about and just kept on repeating, “I am your greatest fan.” All the preparations that he had done had come to naught and his face appeared blank.

Sensing the situation Sanatkumar tried to put him at ease. After Yash had regained his composure he began asking questions “Sir, please tell us about your life, before coming to the movies.”

Sanatkumar began “I came from a very poor family and had two brothers and sisters. My mother used to do odd jobs, looking after the household after my father lost his job. In the evening after college hours, I used to sell tea.”

“ One day as I was serving tea to a film producer, he was impressed by my looks and asked me to do a screen test as a henchman of the villain. I was successful in the screen test and was taken for the movie. Slowly I started getting roles as the main villain. After a few years it got monotonous; acting as a villain and when one of my friends launched his first movie, I immediately accepted his offer to work as a hero. This is how you see me now in front of you.”

Yash was at complete ease by now and started shooting questions“Do you have any regrets in life.”

“The only regret I have is that I was not able to complete my graduation. It is my thinking that every person should be well educated. Now that God has been kind to me I have opened some schools in the villages for poor students.”

“Sir, you have such a large female fan following. When do you propose to get married?”

Sanatkumar smiled and replied, “There is the right time for everything. Right now I am busy with my career, but once there is a woman in my life everyone will come to know.”

Yash kept on asking questions for half an hour and Sanatkumar was smilingly answering all the questions. In half an hour the question session was over. Now the other bonanza was that he would get to spend a week with the superstar watching him shoot for his latest movie.

The next day he reached the sets at 08.00 am and was waiting for Sanatkumar to arrive. Soon it was noon and everyone was tired of waiting for Sanatkumar. He arrived at noon and within half an hour ordered for lunch and Yash too joined him.

Suddenly he got angry and pushed the plate away, “This is not the type of food I enjoy. Next time I expect some better food or I would not be coming for shooting.”

After some time the shooting resumed again. One of the assistant directors suggested a change in his expressions which got him annoyed“ I am in this field for the last 12 years and need not learn from you.” Saying this he stormed off the sets. The director was almost in tears and tried to pacify him but to no avail.

The next day again Sanatkumar arrived at lunchtime and kept everyone waiting. After working for two hours he declared that he had some urgent work and would be leaving early. The director was shocked but kept quiet. As Sanatkumar was talking to Yash he came to know that he was staying along the route, so he offered to drop him.

Yash was very happy that he was now traveling with the one and only superstar of the country. All the way he was praising Sanatkumar who appeared to have a bloated ego and was enjoying the adulation from his greatest fan.

Suddenly the mobile of Sanatkumar was ringing continuously. He began talking to the person on the other side “Are you sure I would get the amount you have just mentioned?” Then pausing for a while he spoke again “Fine, you can bet $10 million from my side.”

They were discussing some teams playing cricket. After the call ended Yash looked at him questioningly, to which he replied smilingly, “See, you are my fan and a friend now, and I don’t want to hide anything from you. I am sure you would support me in whatever I do. I was betting on one of the teams playing the cricket match.”

Yash did not say anything and just smiled. Even he knew that betting for the matches was considered illegal in the country and a common person if caught could be jailed.”

The next two days again he saw Sanatkumar throwing starry tantrums on the sets and troubling everyone. This was in sharp contrast to the image that he always used to project to the media. The last two days were remaining and both of them had got quite friendly.

The same evening as Sanatkumar was about to leave, Yash requested him to again drop him on the way. At first, Sanatkumar was hesitant and replied “See, my friend I am going to a party being attended by the other stars. You will not be a good fit there.” But Yash was persistent “You have called me a friend and still you don’t want to take me along.”

Sanatkumar was hesitant but after much cajoling and persuasion took him in his car. On the way, they were talking about some of his about-to-be-released movies.

Both of them got down near a building. Yash was following Sanatkumar. They soon entered a large penthouse. This belonged to another movie star. The whole place was done up beautifully. A number of heroes and heroines had gathered there.

Sanatkumar was now in the room and was received by the host. In a few minutes, they were at the drinking table enjoying some of the finest wines. Yash too was offered alcoholic drinks, but since he was a teetotaler he preferred orange juice.

As the night progressed the stars began dancing to the music. Sanatkumar too got up and began dancing with one of the heroines clasping her tightly.

With the progression of time, the actors had become high due to continuous drinking. But something shook Yash from inside when he saw the actors sniffing at a substance that appeared to be drugs. Sanatkumar too was busy with the substance.

Yash wanted to run away from the party. But he kept his cool pretending that he was observing things that were quite normal. It was early morning and the party got over. Sanatkumar was barely able to stand. Yash helped him to the car and they left the place. After dropping him at his bungalow Yash took a cab and reached his house.

The whole day he was thinking of the incident. The person whom he had idolized through these years appeared to have feet of clay. Yash was heartbroken and vowed to never meet Sanatkumar again. The image that the actor projected was contrary to what he was in real life.

Yash was in a dilemma for the whole day. Soon he headed for the police station to lodge a complaint against Sanatkumar and the other stars. But since the stars had huge political clout and money power, the police refused to lodge a complaint and shunted him away.

Yash was very angry with the treatment meted to him. He felt cheated by the star and the system as a whole and decided he would not take things lying down. Soon he went to social media and began uploading the videos that he had taken at the party. It was his wish to get the system cleaned up for the good of the city. Soon the photos & the videos began trending on social media.

The next day as he opened the door and took the newspaper. The headlines screamed, “Superstar Sanatkumar summoned by the police.” Yash visited a few more sites on the net. All of them carried the same news.

In the future, he decided that he would not take things at their face value, but he was glad that he had done his bit for society. The brouhaha generated had sparked a debate in the society, turning things for the good.