Here’s why Ranbir Kapoor and Rekha were the real stars of the IIFA 2018 night…
Bangkok turned into a Bollywood hub last weekend when The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) put on a dazzling show that celebrated the year’s achievers in Indian cinema in the heart of its cosmopolitan city. While the ceremony started on a shaky note with IIFA Rocks, thanks to the under-prepared hosts Ayushman Khurrana and Kartik Aaryan, whose sense of humour seemed not to be working, it was the main IIFA night that got the ball rolling as Karan Johar and Ritesh Deshmukh took the stage in their own inimitable way.
The Bachchans, Khans and Kapoors gave IIFA a miss so the organizers had to rely on the star power of relatively younger names like Varun Dhawan, Arjun Kapoor, Kriti Sanon and Shraddha Kapoor, who enjoyed the major share of the limelight. The hotel lobby was buzzing with cheers from the fans who were waiting tirelessly for the sight of their favourite stars. Ambitious fans had booked their rooms in the same hotel so they could get a glimpse of the stars while they made a swift entry and exit from the lobby. The crowd got so excited and uncontrollable at times that the two biggest stars that arrived the day before the main event, Ranbir Kapoor and Rekha, were asked to use the fire emergency exits for their normal commute.
Statistically speaking, Ranbir and Rekha (despite being social media shy) create much more social media hype and fanfare than an Arjun Kapoor or a Varun Dhawan, who undoubtedly are big stars and have chosen to remain in the public eye round the clock through their social media profiles. Their over enthusiastic PR teams keep feeding fans with every movement of their lives. Apart from the usual selfies and nostalgic sepia-toned pictures from their childhood, these insta-stars flood their profiles with their stylish looks from airports to parties which clearly isn’t the case with Rekha and Ranbir as they don’t have any official social media accounts. Also interestingly, both Rekha and Ranbir are more ‘spoken about’ than ‘spoken to’.
Their aura of inaccessibility leads to their mystique, which leads to hyped fanfare. So it was understandable why hysteria reached the next level when Rekha and Ranbir Kapoor were spotted, because that is clearly not a usual sight for the fans.
It is basic economics which these two stars understand too well. The less you give away (supply) the more demand it creates. Case in point is Madhuri Dixit, who is unarguably the best dancer Bollywood has witnessed yet none of her dance performances on stage have created hysteria like Rekha’s performance did. After all, while you get to see Madhuri Dixit dancing on a daily basis in any reality TV show or perhaps every other award show (most recently she has performed at the Miss India Pageant) Rekha returned to the stage after two decades. Not that she was not in the public eye for all these years; she is a regular at annual award shows and is known to give away the awards in the main categories only. There was already a lot of anticipation when Rekha came on board with IIFA because it happens only once in a few decades that a Rekha performs.
This also leads to the question, how much is too much? I believe that there is no formula to it and what is right for one star may not work at all for the other. One might become the victim of the adage ‘out of sight, out of mind’ by being too choosy or may become too accessible by being all out there. It indeed is a choice a star has to carefully make depending on their own assessment of the impact their absence or presence makes. It is also hard to get hold of Rekha even when she is few feet away from you at the red carpet or backstage. She rarely comes closer to the mic and acknowledges the media presence with a gentle namaste by joining her hands and then shyly walks away.
Coming back to their performances, Ranbir Kapoor chose the mix from his films which included songs from Rockstar, ADHM and Jagga Jasoos. However, it was Rekha who stole the show that night. It was a befitting closure to the long night when she performed on iconic songs like ‘Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya’ and ‘Salam-e-Ishq Meri Jaan’. She also effortlessly swayed on both ‘Dil Cheez Kya Hai’ and ‘In Aankhon Ki Masti’ from her landmark film, Umrao Jaan. Known for her elegance, wit, and razor sharp intelligence, she thanked the entire film fraternity with a short speech and a humble bowing of her head.
And then she quietly left the venue from the back door and possibly went behind the same walls of enigma that she has built around herself over all these years, leaving every eye behind wanting more and with a performance to be relished for a lifetime.
– Sadiq Saleem is a Dubai based entertainment journalist who was present at the IIFA 2018 ceremony. He is also an Instep & Something Haute correspondent and can be contacted on his page fb/sidsaidso.
