Cut Saif some slack. He's not that stupid

So we all know that things didn’t go down quite as planned for either Saif Ali Khan and his dinner companions, or for South African businessman, Iqbal Sharma. Accusations and fists have flown in each and every direction, and as usual we’ve been privy to it thanks to the real-time coverage provided to us by the TV channels especially. Just in case you weren’t near the telly, you didn’t need to worry because before the news hit the airwaves, Twitter had provided us with all the details as usual. News editors, journalists and just random fans and haters of Saif had all posted many a statement about what had occurred. Much as if most of them had been sitting at the table with Saif or Iqbal Sharma himself, tucking into some sushi when all hell broke loose. The coverage of the incident though isn’t what struck me as odd. Because it was quite obvious that after the SRK-SK slapgate saga, we really are starved for news and if those two could make the headlines, why should Saif be deprived. He’s far prettier than either of them and way more eloquent and charming and makes for far superior sound-bytes and frames. It’s the insinuations and claims that this is all a publicity stunt that have caught my attention. Twitter is suddenly abuzz with conspiracy theories of how it’s all a publicity stunt and isn’t it suspicious that it was all timed perfectly to appear on primetime news and so on. [caption id=“attachment_223237” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“To give the devil his due, whatever we can blame Saif for, you can’t blame him for being such an idiot. AFP”]  [/caption] To give the devil his due, whatever we can blame Saif for, you can’t blame him for being such an idiot. If this is a publicity stunt, we really should give Saif and his PR team a standing ovation because not only did they manage to line up a bunch of fairly convincing actors to help play out this drama – like Iqbal Sharma, they also managed to convince all the news channels from NDTV to Times Now to Headlines Today to CNN-IBN to carry the news at primetime, and even made Arnab Goswami ask the nation why Saif would behave in such an uncouth manner at Wasabi. Hire these people, instantly. So why don’t I believe that it’s a PR stunt? One, this is not the first time that Saif has acted out of character. He’s been involved in a number of shenanigans ever since he entered Bollywood, from helping hunt a Blackbuck and slit its throat with fellow gentleman, Salman Khan, to checking in his bags at the airport and driving over to Ashok Row Kavi’s place and slapping him for mocking Sharmila Tagore’s accent and saying her bouffant wig had more lice in it than there were Bengalis in Calcutta, or some such tripe on the uber-classy Niki Tonight show, and then promptly returning to the airport and flying out of the country to roughing up a journalist with his erstwhile wife, Amrita Singh. If anyone thought that his Blackbuck incident helped pull in audiences for the Rajshri Productions Hum Saath Saath Hain – which prided itself on being a ‘family’ film – you’re sorely mistaken. It was also one of the worst-faring films of Rajshri Productions. Two, Saif has spent the last decade trying to move away from the gauche and blasé image which he had entered the film industry with. He acts in fewer films, he doesn’t endorse anything and everything – leave aside the Amul Macho ad of course – and he seems to be trying to nurture an image of being a thinking man, a good father, ex-husband and prospective husband and of course very propah and genteel. His fabulous show of gentlemanly behaviour at Wasabi just pulls him down to the ranks of a Raja Chaudhary at best. After all, he didn’t bash up another star. He pulled punches with one of us, a non-celebrity who happened to be dining at the same place as him. All tends to be forgotten when it’s a star versus star fight, because people feel it is par for the course. Here, he comes across as more of a bully and someone who picks on easy targets like elderly men. Not the best image to portray. Especially in relation to Agent Vinod where he’s this confident chivalrous sort, or even as the brand ambassador for the World Hockey Association and Bhopal Badshahs, which one would assume is all about promoting sports and sportsmanship. Third, Agent Vinod is not releasing for another month. 23 March to be precise. We all know that public memory is very short. Everyone will have forgotten about this incident in a week, tops. If this was indeed a publicity stunt, it’s most ill-timed. He’ll have to go back to Wasabi on the 20 March again and wallop yet another innocent diner for it to have any effect on the future of his film. Fourth, the only announcement which Saif’s recent peccadillo could hold any benefit for was today’s announcement of his association with World Series Hockey. I think we can lay a fair bet, that the one thing a sports event does not want to be associated with is unsportsmanlike behaviour. And no one in their right mind in public relations would suggest that they should use a brawl  which the brand ambassador’s been involved in as a means of attracting media to the event. Most counter-productive, to say the least. What’s happened today, if you watched either the hockey press conference or the news coverage following it, is that all the news starts with the announcement and denigrates to discussing the brawl. You could hear the tremor and ill-disguised angst in the voice of the PR person who was fielding the questions for Saif, when he had to keep reprimanding journalists for not asking questions on hockey. Saif has pretty much placed himself in a position where no brand might want to touch him with a bargepole, or hockey stick, for a while. If Saif wanted to pull off a publicity coup, he should have ideally been surprisingly caught on camera saving a child from being kidnapped, or running to the rescue of a woman being molested by thugs on Colaba Causeway. Now that would make for good publicity. Not this. This is a PR nightmare of immense proportions. So let’s at least cut him some slack and take him to task for assault and battery, but not for being so stupid as to pull the worst publicity stunt in recent history.