Confessions of a Lady Blogger

Note from the future: I honestly don’t remember what led to this but it’s a frustration I continue to feel to this day. I don’t mind disagreement and debate but if you really hate me that much just close the browser window and move on.

Dear Friends,

I've received some very hateful comments recently and because I would prefer not to receive hateful comments, please allow me to take a minute and explain a little about who I am and what I do.

If you haven't noticed already, there is absolutely no advertising on this blog—that means not only no ads but absolutely no paid content is posted. And, on top of that, I have never received payment of any sort for anything I've written for this blog or any other outlet. Ever.

Here is what I think everybody needs to understand: I have had offers of money and I've always turned them down. I'm not writing this blog to make money now and I'm certainly not writing to get popular and make money later. "Filmi Girl" is purely a labor of love; I have a regular job which treats me very well and I have no desire to leave it. I don't want to be an actress or a model or be on TV or spend my time writing 250 word synopses of press releases from D-list actresses. All I want to do with this blog is write about films and pop culture.

Odd as it may seem, I do enjoy getting up early and combing through the news; I enjoy catching new films and discussing them with folks. When I write my news posts, I'm not selecting stories based on any other criteria than what I find interesting or funny and what would make for a good discussion. When I write about a certain actor or actress or film that I dislike, it's not because I'm going out of my way to hate on them but that their press coverage is so overwhelming that I'll see the same quote or story cycled in dozens of press outlets.

Let me give you an example. If I read one article gushing about Priyanka Chopra at the Planes premiere with D-listers Ashlee Simpson and Dane Cook, it's easy to laugh at the PR in action and scroll past. But when I see 20 articles in a row, all either based on the gushing press release or talking about the "buzz" that's been manufactured by the very outlets cycling the gushing press release, the laughter turns to annoyance and I may post something sarcastic about it.

Frankly, I find it kind of insulting to be told to post more "positive" stuff. I've actually enjoyed quite a few films this year from Chashme Baddoor to Ranjhaana to Go Goa Gone and when given a good opportunity, I'm more than happy to go on and on about my love of Akshay Kumar.

What I'm going to say next could come out wrong so please understand that I say this with the greatest kindness and sincerity: I really do write only to put my opinions out there for discussion. I'm certainly not afraid of intellectual critique and over the years I've had plenty of interesting discussions with people who disagree with me on one point or another. (Hi, Moimeme!) I like a film that ends with a nice moral about how money is evil; other people like films that end in a celebration of romantic love. One is not objectively better than the other and if I say I dislike the latter, it's not a declaration of war against anybody who enjoys that kind of thing.

So, please don't waste your time hating me and my opinions, please just close the browser window and move on. They aren't going to affect box office returns and they aren't going to kill somebody's career. My opinions are just my opinions; some people enjoy discussing things with me and some people don't. That's okay. I don't expect everybody to like me or agree with me; there are plenty of people in real life who find me to be overly opinionated about things.

I happen to enjoy writing about sociology and meta-narrative subtext, semiotics, and the media. I love slapstick and loathe consumerist romantic-comedies. I will see any Akshay Kumar film in the theaters and liked Tees Maar Khan enough to go see it twice in one day. I dislike irony and humor that relies on camp readings of vintage Bollywood. I love hero introduction songs, good punch lines, socially aware morals, Mumaith Khan items, Amitabh Bachchan's 1970s films, and Santhanam's comedy. There are a lot of wonderful bloggers out there who write very positively about upcoming films and other wonderful bloggers who post pictures of actresses in pretty dresses and still more wonderful bloggers who love poking fun at Bollywood camp.

Lastly—if you'll indulge me for just a few more lines—I would like to share something I've learned over the last few years of following the daily entertainment press: Box office numbers mean nothing. There is a wonderful book called Proofiness that explains how advertising agencies and public relations firms and politicians can manipulate numbers to say anything that they want. Ask yourself what it really says when the press outlets start following the horse race of collections. Will Film A beat the collections total of Film B? Will either film beat 3 Idiots?! Those collections totals are affected by a lot of different things—number of screens, ticket prices, which outlet is reporting, etc.—and a clever journalist can make even a Tusshar Kapoor flop sound like a Soooooooper Hit. (You know like, "Tusshy's new film beat Don's first day collection totals in multiplexes in Singapore! Watch your back, King Khan!")

Even the industry can't agree on what film earned what. Depending on who you ask, Singham is either a 100 Crore Club film or not. If they can't even decide on that years later, how are we supposed to trust the numbers trickling out from Taran Adarsh mere hours after a film opens?

Just some food for thought.

(Originally posted August 10, 2013)