The ‘exclusive’ tears of Deepika Kumari

Tears make compulsive viewing. You tune in… you wonder what made the person cry; you wonder who made them cry and you wonder what it’s all about. It’s even more compelling when a famous person is shedding the tears. You tune in… you stay tuned in. It’s a formula that certainly works for saas-bahu serials. Unfortunately, some sections of the Indian media seem to think it will work on news channels as well.

On Tuesday, the cameras continued to roll on even as one of India’s best sportspersons, Deepika Kumari, broke down in tears. They showed no mercy, no compassion and all they wanted was an exclusive, if it was to be the tears of the athlete that make up the exclusive, so be it.

Deepika, the star of the Indian women’s recurve archery team that won the gold at the Wroclaw World Cup in Poland, along with Rimil Buruily and L. Bombayla Devi, was much in demand during a media interaction at the residence of Archery Association of India (AAI) president V.K. Malhotra.

And as it usually happens, everyone wanted an exclusive with the star of the show, Deepika, who at 18 is a World Cup champion and is now ranked No. 2 in the world in her sport. The news channels demanded one-on-one interviews after the media interaction.

One cameraman followed every move of the archers, forcing Deepika to request him to move away and let her eat breakfast with the team coach.

Instead of acceding to the request, the cameraman taunted the 18-year-old, saying Deepika should actually be grateful for such media coverage.

Deepika along with the remaining members of her team, Buruily and Bombayla, tried to do as many interview requests as possible. But then with time running out and the team scheduled to fly out to Aurangabad in the afternoon, they requested the remaining TV crews to conduct combined interviews instead.

That’s when things went downhill. A couple of reporters insisted on ‘exclusive’ sound bytes. Then a reporter accused Deepika of being arrogant by refusing to talk individually to everyone. That’s when the 18-year-old broke down.

But it might make sense to perhaps ask: what does it take to make an athlete cry? In most cases, one would say it would be injury, defeat or triumph.

Wiping her tears, Deepika said she had not slept for more than 24 hours, had a headache because she had not eaten since morning and was rushing to catch a flight.

The AAI officials tried to calm tempers and even attempted to get Deepika to continue with the interactions, but she was in no state to talk coherently. Instead, they should have sent the media scampering.

Shouldn’t India be grateful to its athletes? At what point, did they start believing that the media makes the athletes? Maybe Deepika and the rest of India’s athletes should follow Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s lead and not give any exclusive interviews to anyone.

Some might argue that Dhoni and cricket can make do without the media. But other sports need the media to help highlight the triumphs and the needs of these sports. However, giving in to such pressure cannot be the answer.

The demand for one-on-one interviews isn’t new. Though the point of it is rather lost – the questions usually are the same that were asked in the press conference. And most of them don’t even know the sport well enough – they are not beat reporters.

Of course, it reduces the workloads of the reporters and the editorial pressure as well. Editing becomes easier, you don’t have to give a voice overs, you get a ready package – it really is over and out stuff. But is that reason enough to badger anyone into tears?

Who knows… at the end of the day, the editors might have been happy with the TRP ratings the tears got them too. But was it worth it?

The journalists constantly invaded her personal space and when she objected, they argued their case – not with logic but with threats. How can that ever be right? How can that be anything but a shame?

Indeed, some channels need to stop worrying about exclusives and show a little decency instead.