Why we are obsessed with the love lives of our Bollywood stars

At the launch of the trailer of Udta Punjab, Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor appeared together in public for the first time since their much-publicised breakup. And while Kareena made attempts to include Shahid in her replies to questions posed by the myriad reporters present for the occasion, the newly-married Mr Kapoor maintained a measured nonchalance towards the matter of their once-relationship.

Also read: Bollywood is turning into a big, ugly Bigg Boss house

Privacy is a casually thrown about term when it comes to celebrity romances. Stars and their publicity machines would have us believe that any talk of love, even when it is conducted flagrantly before our eyes, is not kosher. So it is that the whole world knew about the romance between, say, Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor but if one had asked the couple about it when they were going around, all one would have got is a studied silence.

There was, as there remains, something ironical about these submissions to propriety. They were fine for an erstwhile India where a Dharmendra converted to Islam (momentarily) so that he may marry Hema Malini, or when an Amitabh Bachchan conducted a torrid affair with Rekha in such secrecy that it remains a matter of speculation to this day.

Also read: Why 2002 hit and run was the final nail in Salman-Aishwarya's relationship

But in this day and age, when stars flirt not just with one another but with social media in all its glaring indulgence, a plea for privacy sounds decidedly aged. Yet, we continue to be told that stars' private lives are their own, that fans' interest in them should stop at their work.

No one mentions the little matter of how these same stars portray our most cherished desires on the screen, and that in a society as repressed as ours, the most uncannily uplifting moments of this portrayal are reserved for the schmoozing intensity of romantic love. Little wonder that we lap up any news of the magic of the reel rubbing off on the real.

While Indians have always been interested in the lives of their stars, the relationship that arguably changed the nature of this interest from cool indifference to media-fuelled frenzy was the one between Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai.

From details of the assaults that Aishwarya suffered to the press conference that Vivek Oberoi called, the Salman-Aishwarya saga was the media event that finally signalled a shift in coverage from the movie magazines to mainstream news. The era of the voyeur had arrived in earnest.

Also read: What Hrithik-Kangana's break-up says about extramarital affairs in India

The changing nature of the media landscape fed into this fever. Some stars, on their part, were happy to share the details of their relationships, if only because they were yet to learn the ropes of the game.

Deepika Padukone was much less cautious about her relationship with Ranbir Kapoor than she is about her current status as Ranveer Singh’s (alleged) girlfriend. Even so, the fact that she was willing to go on Koffee With Karan and poke fun at Ranbir after her relationship with him had finished indicates a definitive, and some might say welcome, shift in the stars’ famed stiffness on such matters.

Moreover, Deepika and Ranbir have since buried the hatchet.

Also read: How Bollywood suffers Katrina Kaif's stardom

Not all cases end well. For the past few weeks, we have been witness to the spectacle of the abortive affair between Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut. We have learnt, among other things, that the two grew close during the shoot of a film and that the affair lasted for a few months until it was allegedly dismantled by Hrithik's wayward ways.

New details, including troves of emails, not all of which seem genuine, have regularly made their way to the media and lawyers on both sides claim they have solid evidence that their party was wronged by the other.

All this mudslinging makes one wonder why the stars in question bothered hiding their dalliance in the first place. Bollywood must be the only film industry on the planet whose top dogs are perfectly happy to make fools of themselves on the screen but the moment they are out in public, they desire vehemently all the appurtenances of celebrity, complete with privacy about their love lives.

That said, this state of affairs is restricted to when the going is good. When the affair is proceeding swimmingly, all involved parties are keen to keep matters under wraps. But when things break down there can be an equally sustained rush to start washing the stained linen in public.

Some details are so intimate as to make one wonder who but the stars themselves might have leaked them. After Katrina and Ranbir broke up, some websites reported that she had been removed from the Kapoor family's Whatsapp group. 

It is saddening, if also a little comforting, to know that the stars go through the same motions of ecstasy and tragedy that we ordinary mortals experience. For too long, it was speculated in the media that Shahid had been unceremoniously dropped by Kareena after Jab We Met on the insistence of her mother. That film had solidified their reputation as a bankable pair and Kareena's mother, not too keen on Shahid, wanted her daughter out of the relationship.

Whether or not this news was true, it painted Shahid as the poor victim of shenanigans he was ill-equipped to battle. The story got enmeshed, at least for this writer, with that of Jab We Met, a glorious film in which Shahid’s character rescues Kareena’s from an abusive relationship. No such luck for Shahid in real life, and if the stars - the ones in the sky - were watching, one hoped that his story would have a happier ending.

So it did. Answering a question during the Udta Punjab trailer launch, Shahid revealed that he will be a father soon. We will never truly know what transpired between him and Kareena, but if the initial story was a damp squib, its sequel has enough emotive power to warm our hearts.

Maybe it’s the nature of the moviemaking profession, or perhaps we as a people are sentimental fools, but we remain eager consumers of our stars’ love stories, all the better for them to end happily.