Former journalist Rajeev Masand, who now works at the Dharma Cornerstone Agency, recalled his past experiences with stars, and addressed the controversy that erupted after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput about his blind items. Some of these articles were supposedly about Sushant, who died by suicide in 2020. In an interview, Masand said that his blind items were ‘misrepresented’, and the stories he presented in them were already common knowledge in the film industry.
Appearing on the Shaardulogy podcast, he was asked about the controversy that erupted around him following Sushant’s death, and what he felt about it. It was alleged that blind items had a damaging effect to actor’s careers. He said, “First, it surprises you, and then you realise that it doesn’t matter. We live in times when people who don’t know you and don’t know your work are judging you. Do they matter? It takes a while to get to that place. First, it irritates you, but I actually can’t change your mind, so it doesn’t affect me…”
Also read – Ranveer Singh was acting like he was on ‘200 Red Bulls’, Irrfan Khan was annoyed, Akshaye Khanna ‘clammed up’: Rajeev Masand recalls roundtable stories
He continued, “I used to write a column which had multiple items, and one was a blind item. But were they damaging? Were they hurtful to people? I don’t think so. The idea was that it was supposed to be a puzzle that people were supposed to solve. In fact, it was information that everybody in the industry already knew. It was misrepresented, but what is not in your control, what can you do?”
Masand also recalled when actors such as Shahid Kapoor and Rekha asked him to can entire interviews because they weren’t pleased with how they came across in them. He obliged, but said that he generally avoided cutting portions of his interviews unless it was necessary. He said, “Once, during a roundtable, one actress snapped at another actress very badly. And not fairly. I think it was an unfair way of snapping. And I got a call from another actress saying, ‘Can you please cut this out?’ It was unfair, it was rude, so we did cut it out.”
Masand said that luckily, the people he interviews mostly understand that he isn’t looking for controversy. “Journalists know what to expect from their interview. People want free-flowing, candid chats. Even if they say something wrong, you correct it in the interview. You don’t need to cut it out. An interview is an opportunity to get to know who you are. We’re all imperfect, we’ve all got our flaws, we all sometimes say the wrong things. Sometimes our pronunciation is wrong, sometimes our accent is wrong. And there is a beauty in that. Anyone who understands that doesn’t ask for cuts,” he said.
Click for more updates and latest Bollywood news along with Entertainment updates. Also get latest news and top headlines from India and around the world at The Indian Express.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
