Bollywood gets a bad name with Malaysian media

The Malaysian media is not too happy about the antics of some Bollywood stars like Salman Khan who arrived Kuala Lampur for the world premiere of the Hindi movie "Baabul" as part of the three-day event of the second Global Indian Film Awards function that started on 7th December.

More than 1,500 Malaysians, mostly women, stood patiently for more than three hours on the first night waiting for the stars at the TGV cineplex, adjoining the Petronas Twin Towers, one of the world's tallest buildings.

Almost all events have started more than an hour late. The media, a majority of them from all local newspapers, TV channels waited for more than two and a half hours for the stars to address a press conference on Thursday at the Palace of Golden Horses Hotel.

Event organisers Entertainment Popcorn misjudged their planning by arranging three events involving the stars on a single day (Thursday). These included the press conference with the stars, red carpet walk of the stars at the TGV cineplex and later the world premiere of Ravi Chopra's Baabul.

"Apparently in Indian time, two minutes meant 20 and at close to 6 pm the all important Mr Khan - accompanied by about 10 burly men in black- deemed it a suitable time for him to come down from his suite," the widely read New Straits times paper said.

Adding insult to injury, just as the first question was to be asked by a journalist, Ravi Chopra's mobile rang and he decided to take the call, really upsetting all the media personnel in the room.

Bollywood produces about 1,000 films a year, making it the world's most prolific film centre, and markets them to a growing band of non-Indians who have fallen for the genre as well as the vast Indian diaspora.

Indeed, Bollywood is exporting their unique brand of entertainment, music and dancing and that is good. They certainly can do without the negativity that comes along with callous indifference to feelings of other people.

Their event organisers will have to much better than how the Malaysian media has felt this time, if they are to be taken seriously by a worldwide audience.