Pakistani over-reaction to Indian Media as Veena Malik sues FHM for racy photos

The latest in the Veena Malik drama is that she has sued the magazine FHM, India saying that her images were doctored to make her look naked.  Her lawyer, Ayaz Bulawala, meanwhile has sent notice to FHM asking them to withdraw the copies from the stands.  Besides that, Veena is also asking for millions of dollars in damages.

As the earlier post suggested, Kabeer Sharma, the FHM editor had told Mahesh Bhatt categorically that those pictures were real and he had sent another one to Bhatt to prove his point.  Now Kabeer has gone a step ahead and said that the company actually had a video of the entire photoshoot to prove that the pictures were authentic.

Actually, this lady Veena Malik is caught between two personas.  One, she is a Pakistani, and in her country, there is a backlash due to many factors (her lewd behavior and worst it was done in India and thus made Pakistanis look bad).  Second, her ambitions as an entertainer.  She wants to make it big in the fast growing and becoming-global Bollywood.  The prize that awaits any one who does well in Bollywood is very lucrative.

So, to walk the fine line of managing the Pakistanis and making inroads into Bollywood, Veena Malik is literally playing with fire.  While in Pakistan, she aggressively (and admirably) defends herself against all criticism – whether from the Mullahs or from the industry actors and directors.  When in India, she tries to outdo the Indian bimbos to make a splash in the media.

As much as she infuriates her critics, one has to admire her chutzpah and courage.  Whether you agree with the methods and goals or not, but you cannot deny her the confidence with which she goes about doing her job.

I have watched many a debate on Youtube about her and Bollywood in general.  For some reason, the Bollywood and Indian TV inroads into Pakistan is a very hot topic.  For the news anchors and “nationalist” Pakistanis, Indian TV or films in Pakistani is a National Security issue.  It is not as if the programs being watched are news programs.  The truth is that the majority of TV that is watched in Pakistan – from the Indian channels – is of the Saas-Bahu variety!  Now, I have not been able to understand how can Saas-Bahu antics be such threat to any society.  I can understand that such shows are a threat to one’s insanity.. and it would be no surprise if the mental asylums are doing a roaring business because of Indian TV in Pakistan, but national cultural and security threat??!

Everything that we do or any exchange that happens need not be a “War’ – as this news channel makes it out to be “Indian Media War Against Pakistan”.  When Ekta Kapoor makes her Saas-Bahu stuff, the last person she is thinking of is a Pakistani!  Specifically because she ain’t going to get much revenue from there anyways.  Why would anyone make something for Pakistan in Indian TV?  That isn’t a revenue market.  The fact is that the largest revenues for these soaps are probably coming from NRIs in US, UK and Australia and from Indians in India.  Pakistanis, to use the War lingo, are just “collateral damage”.

Why suffer the Saas-Bahu mess alone?  Let’s share the pain with our neighbors as well.

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