A few months ago, a paparazzo climbed a building next to actress Alia Bhatt’s apartment and photographed her walking inside her home. The reaction was loud and, in many ways, understandable. But Dale Bhagwagar, who has spent nearly three decades in Bollywood PR, believes the incident says less about one photographer than about where the industry is heading.
Bhagwagar is often called the Father of Bollywood PR because he founded Dale Bhagwagar Media Group in Mumbai in the nineties, the country’s first structured entertainment PR agency. Over the years, he has handled the media for stars such as Hrithik Roshan, Shilpa Shetty, Priyanka Chopra and for superhit films like the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Don and Farhan Akhtar-starrer Rock On!!
Two countries, two problems
Bhagwagar points out that the situation differs from country to country and changes with time. In the UK, he says, paparazzi intrusion is routine, but there is a strong backlash against paid news. In India, the reverse holds.
“In India, paparazzi invasion is not yet so ruthless, but paid news is common, as there are few data protection laws against it,” he says.
He stresses the words “not yet”. “I say ‘not yet’ deliberately,” Bhagwagar says. “Indian celebrities should not assume it will stay that way.”
Actors are public figures
The Bollywood PR expert acknowledges that this is uncomfortable for stars to hear. Actors are public figures, he argues, and paparazzi will always look for new ways to photograph them in unguarded moments.
“You cannot stop every pap,” he says. “Blaming photographers after the event may feel satisfying, but it does not protect anyone the next time.”
Celebrities have to raise their own standards
In his view, Indian celebrities will need to guard their privacy more actively instead of simply blaming the paparazzi. As the Indian entertainment industry evolves, he says, stars have to raise their own levels of protection.
That means thinking about windows, terraces, balconies and rooftops, the places where an unguarded moment can be captured from a distance. It also means reviewing who knows a star’s routine and where they are going. And it means a publicist helping a client decide where visibility is welcome and where it is not.
Privacy is also a PR decision
Bhagwagar sees privacy and publicity as two sides of the same strategy. There are moments when a celebrity needs privacy, he notes… when a family situation is sensitive, when an appearance could create the wrong interpretation, or when the star is already receiving excessive attention.
“Strategic PR involves knowing when not to appear,” says the Bollywood PR guru. “A star who is selective about visibility is not hiding. They are managing a resource.”
Publicity, he adds, should be spent deliberately. A private life that stays private makes every public appearance more valuable.
We are all children of our times
Bhagwagar believes the industry cannot keep complaining that things were different in the past. Times change constantly, he says, and PRs, celebrities, paparazzi and everyone else in the business must evolve their methods in line with the laws of the country.
He includes himself in that. The old ways of managing the media no longer fully work when a photographer can shoot, edit, caption, publish and distribute a clip within minutes. “The ways of protecting privacy have to evolve at the same speed,” he says.
What he tells every client
Bhagwagar’s advice to Bollywood PR clients is simple. Assume you can be photographed in any unguarded moment and plan accordingly. Decide in advance where you want visibility and where you do not. Do not rely on blaming photographers when something goes wrong.
“The protection of your private life is, increasingly, your own responsibility,” he says. The law will matter too. As long as data protection remains thin in India, Bhagwagar expects paid news to remain a feature of the media landscape, and each celebrity will have to decide how closely to be associated with it. “The entertainment industry is changing, and so must we,” he says.