PicShik Blog

Gossips, publicity stunts, media glaring are part and parcel of a celebrity’s life. Media keeps a 24/7 watch on their personal and professional life and tries to create news out of nothing. Any wrong happening in a celebrity’s life is a right opportunity for the media to knit news. The perfect example is Arbaaz Khan and his wife Malaika Arora who recently went to publicize a product but ended up sending a wrong message and as a result their 10 years happily married life became a matter of front-page interest. Arbaaz is a family man and the entire incidence upsets him a lot who is very possessive about wife Malaika.Arbaaz said he won’t tolerate any event that affects his wife’s image. It has hurt him intensely when media spread false news of their splitting up and his re-marriage and at the same time dragging their small child into the matter. He busted his anger to the media for spreading a wrong and misleading story and making juicy news out of his happily married life. Arbaaz’s parents were also disheartened about this false story and astonished to see how the matter turned into an ugly picture.

In the aftermath of their endorsement publicity-driven ‘break-up’, Malaika Arora and Arbaaz Khan agree that they goofed up. But the couple add that there were no clarifications given by the strategists at Ponds, which they were endorsing. Arbaaz takes a stand. Read on…

Why did you decide to be part of such a strategy?
Ponds is a big brand. When they wanted to re-launch, they approached Malaika and me. They were looking for people with a strong image who represented love and togetherness. There was a clear concept, strategy and script in place where they spoke about Malaika renewing our marriage vows at the end of the event. The stuff about the ‘other woman’ in my life and Malaika leaving me was concocted.

Both of you have been projected as publicity hounds.
Malaika and I don’t need to resort to such cheap publicity. I had my reservations about the concept right from the beginning but Ponds said they had it all covered — they’d protect and back us. They were supposed to do damage control on the same day as the break-up rumours but somehow that didn’t happen.

A lot of people feel it was because of the big money (Rs 1.5 crore) offered to you both that made you say yes to such a stunt…
That’s not true. Why would Ponds take people with strong images to tarnish them in the media? Nobody is blaming the marketing strategists that came out with the concept. It’s like in bad films, people blame the stars but not the director. Malaika and I did goof up and we are very sorry about it. We accept that it was our fault but it will never happen again.

Did Malaika and her family know that the break-up story was just a marketing strategy?
No. Our families are very upset and hurt. We didn’t keep them in the loop but we never thought that our images would be destroyed and we would be affected so badly. We regret that we did it. We apologise to our families for hurting them. It was just a strategy, which we thought was cute but we never thought it would get so ugly. In the process, we became the scapegoats. It’s an eye-opener for all celebrities today so that they too don’t get taken in by a publicity strategy of a big company. We fell prey to them — but that will never happen again.

Arbaaz and Malaika Arora’s 10-year-old marriage is to end, we can reveal. The news around Bollywood is that Arbaaz has found a new love with whom he is living secretly at a Bandra property. The actor separated from Malaika, his wife since 1997 and mother to five-year old Arhaan, two weeks ago. A friend of Malaika has told the media, “Malaika and Arbaaz have stopped communicating with each other completely. She is not even aware where Arbaaz is.” Arbaaz, on the split and a rumoured second marriage, says, “I don’t want to comment on my personal life or on Malaika. Why is the press so impatient? They will know whether I’m remarrying or not in due time. I will probably talk about it soon. At this moment I don’t want to say anything further.”