NDTV plays PR flack for Salman Khan: Why the #SalmanForGeeta show was just plain wrong

So how does a convict become an ambassador for communal harmony and cross-border peace? If you are Salman Khan, all it takes is a blockbuster film and some special treatment from NDTV and its anchor Barkha Dutt. Let the whitewashing begin… Last night’s special episode of The Buck Stops Here starring Salman Khan (Not to be confused with that other Bhaijaan ‘special episode’ The Black Buck stops here) was headlined with the hashtag #SalmanForGeeta. Was it a show about Salman giving advice to Geeta Basra, the aspiring actress? That would make sense. If the superstar knows something about anything, it is how to make it in Bollywood. [caption id=“attachment_2391202” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Salman Khan and Barkhat Dutt.[/caption] But no, this Geeta is the deaf and mute girl who made headlines when it was discovered that her life story paralleled the plot of Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Having mistakenly crossed into Pakistan when she was 8 years old, she has been raised in Karachi by a Muslim family at the Edhi shelter trust home for the past 14 years. She was found at Lahore station by Pakistan Rangers who rescued her. Geeta now wants to return home to India and a search is on for her missing Indian family. If ever there was a genuine case of reality colliding with fiction, it is this. So what was Salman Khan doing on the show? Is he part of the Indian High Commission or ad hoc spokesman for the External Affairs Ministry? Sure he is the star of Bajrangi Bhaijaan, a movie about a Pakistani child getting lost in India, and in which Salman acted as a Hindu Hanuman-devotee who braves all odds to take her home. Star. Movie. Acted. As in ‘not real’. Get it? It’s bad enough that many people watching the film are likely to believe that Salman is a good Samaritan who saves children – as opposed to an actor who drives drunk over people sleeping on the pavement. But that’s the wonder of cinema. Fans of movie stars have a poor grasp on the difference between fiction and reality when it comes to their idols. NDTV, however, is not in the movie business. This is a news channel that reports on real events. So why in the world did they do a news show portraying him as as a real-life Bajrangi Bhaijaan? And a show with headlines on its ticker such as ‘Geeta Awaits Her Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ and #SalmanForGeeta being shown repeatedly. Barkha complimented Salman’s secular values and his film, even asked him to give advice to Geeta – because surely what the girl really needs is life advice from an actor who also happens to be a convicted criminal. Bollywood has shown us many times over that it couldn’t give a damn if a superstar is a murderer, alleged rapist, sexual harasser or molester. But all of us must balk when a news channel gets in on the act, making a hero of a criminal – one whose case saw many suspect twists and turns – featuring him in a show that dovetails with his PR push to use his on-screen persona to airbrush his off-screen antics . (Barkha herself sounded at times like a PR person when she kept referring to the film, asking Geeta how many times she’d watched it and so on.) If the argument is that Geeta wanted to meet her favourite star Salman Khan, why does NDTV during primetime with its most famous anchor at the helm, need to provide the platform – that too in the guise of a news show? Unless of course, The Buck Stops Here is now a part of the Make A Wish Foundation, and we didn’t get the memo. Even if the channel felt the need to make hay of the connection between Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Geeta’s life, it would have been less offensive if it had at least invited the director, Kabir Khan and Nawazuddin Sidique, alongside Salman. They instead chose not only to make the show all about Khan, but to paint him as a real life hero. It’s a strange choice for a channel that touts itself as India’s only non-Tabloid television channel to put together a news show that wilfully blurs line between fiction and reality. Did anyone – producer, anchor, owner of channel – stop and think about how offensive it is to the victims and their families that today Salman Khan is being touted as the saviour of lost children on primetime news? What is the lesson being sent out to people? That you can be found guilty of the gravest crimes and yet be portrayed as a hero on a primetime news channel? Who is next on the line-up? Sanjay Nanda and Vikas Yadav telling us how to care for the aged and infirm? And let’s not forget that Salman has been found guilty of killing two endangered animals in cold blood – a black buck and a chinkara. That’s a bit ironic given that NDTV has been touting its ‘Save the Tiger’ campaign. Just saying. I had written before that Bajrangi Bhaijaan was the Best PR Job Salman could have asked for following his conviction. Well, this episode of The Buck Stops Here may just be the contender for that title now.