Explore how Bollywood and Hollywood stars of yesteryear maintained mystique in stark contrast to today’s overexposed celebrity culture driven by relentless tabloid scrutiny. Has charisma and mystery been hijacked by social media in Bollywood, asks Monojit Lahiri.

In a nostalgic look at celebrity culture, this article contrasts the enchanting mystique of 1950s-60s Bollywood and Hollywood stars with today’s hyper-visible, social media-driven fame. Once shielded by studio systems and societal reverence, stars like Dilip Kumar and Greta Garbo thrived in carefully curated silence that amplified their allure. Today’s celebrities, however, navigate a voyeuristic digital world where privacy is sacrificed for constant relevance. With insights from Mahesh Bhatt, Adil Hussain, and other industry voices, the piece delves into how the magic of mystery has faded in the age of viral content, reality TV, and fan-driven digital platforms.

As someone who grew up in Mumbai’s Pali Hill (in the ’50s & ’60s)—the city’s Beverly Hills—with neighbours like Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari, Pran, Sunil Dutt, Nargis, et al., movie stars were a reality, but with a difference. They were invisible! You saw them on the silver screen, read and dreamt about them, discussed their roles, movies, looks, clothes, and romances at length with friends, and waited breathlessly for their next release. They hardly ever ventured out in public or mingled with the junta and remained pretty much in purdah!

The Power of Distance and Mystery

This conscious and premeditated isolation, privacy, and distancing from fans and the public—learnt from the Hollywood studio-managed star system of the forties and fifties—paid rich dividends. It bestowed upon them a unique aura, a seductive mystique, a romantic elusiveness, which rumour and gossip ignited into the realms of popular imagination, big time. Excitement and awe blended for the celeb-struck lesser mortals in maniacal proportions and, if perchance, any of these sublime creatures came into public view or—omigod—personal contact, it was rapture, bliss, and ecstasy into a zillion! 

Can this amazing cloak of anonymity be possible in today’s times? Can the tantalizing enigma of romance and mystery even begin to take shape in today’s media- and paparazzi-driven era? Could the legendary queen of silence, Greta Garbo, ever dream of uttering her deathless line “I want to be alone”—and be taken seriously? Never! Why? Because the gorgeous and iconic Garbo was the product of an ancient and powerful Hollywood system that forced its stars into a code of silence. It made great business sense. 

In contrast, today’s free-wheeling democracy of technology buries alive any semblance of silence, invisibility, or distance. There is neither awe, fascination, admiration, nor tolerance for celebs who aren’t willing to come out and play, let it all hang out, do the full monty! We live in a digitalized world where Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, personal websites, with open-door chat rooms and 24x7 reality shows, are everybody’s everyday public platforms.

Bhatt's Take on Stardom's Decline

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt laments this insane intrusion and erosion of mystique and aura and puts it in brilliant perspective. “Mystery and enigma are two of the most powerful and magical components that constitute stardom; elements that fire, colour, and dominate the imagination of their fans. Stars are supposed to create magic. Fans are supposed to be in awe of them. Mingling with the common man will destroy this magic and strip them of their charisma. Familiarity breeds contempt.” 

Today, that halo—in most cases—is missing, thanks to the ‘tabloidization’ of the media getting bolder and entering the crevices of the celebs’ personal space. Consumerism and social media across the board are the new Frankenstein. “Nothing is sacrosanct anymore,” adds Bhatt.

Adil Hussain: Mystery is History

Ace actor Adil Hussain, however, begs to differ. He believes that the age of enigma and mystery relating to celebs is a thing of the past and can never swing with today’s times. He reckons mystery is history…and also bad news. “It translates to not doing any work and is fit to be forgotten!” He is of the opinion that today’s Gen X wants to get up close and personal and know what’s with you, your work, your life. He believes that social media—especially Twitter—is the definitive forum to interact with your audience.” Not everyone agrees.

Says a veteran director, “I find this whole business of social media overheated and childish! Intrusive, because it deals with sharing the minutest—dumb, boring, irrelevant—details of your life. Childish, because it assumes the whole world will curl up and die if you don’t reveal to them the name of your favourite brand of cookies … or whatever! How corny and insecure can you get?”

A Culture Obsessed

Actually, the simple and irreversible fact is, we live in a voyeuristic and exploitative society. Unlike the earlier era of respecting privacy and finding intrusion politically offensive and incorrect, today’s lot love to eavesdrop and peep into other people’s lives—and where there is voyeurism, can exhibitionism be far behind? Every day, tons of people are perfectly willing to sell their bodies, souls, families, and kids for that fleeting 15 minutes of fame. From the hottest celebs to Mr. Nobody, everybody is dying to be noticed. Insult, humiliation, embarrassment, shock, disgust, pain—The Moment of Truth, Sach ka Samna, Big Boss, Emotional Atyachar—are flamboyantly marketed on television to a gigantic captive audience, enthralled and entertained all the way!

As consumers, we are the guilty party because we feed this frenzy by constantly demonstrating our insatiable hunger to sample the life of celebs—old and new—in quirky, weird ways, the sicker the better! Nothing is shocking, outrageous, or exploitative; everything is entertainment. We seem to play out our lives in a strange world where tragedy can reap generous rewards, and deep, personal problems can be marketed and sold.

And to think that once upon a time, there truly was thrill and romance in the unspoken, and mystery and the unknown weren’t something that you googled or ogled on idiot-box shows for the right answers.

Ah well, waqt waqt ki baat hai …