A new approach to spin

Given their demographics, we don't know whether readers of pink papers are familiar with the Alia Bhatt YouTube clip 'Genius of the Year' that went viral recently. In it, the young actress, with the help of a killer script, excellent direction and her family and film industry peers, managed to achieve the virtually impossible: she confronted her negative image straight on its head, turned it into a positive one and did it with humour, style and panache.

For the uninitiated, here's the story: ever since Bhatt had appeared on an episode of Koffee with Karan and blotted her general knowledge copybook by wrongly answering a question in the rapid fire round, she had become the butt of cyber jokes. The question she had messed up was an innocuous one: when asked who the president of India was, she offered "Prithviraj Chavan", a small error for a 21-year-old, but a monumental gaffe in the universe of Twitter trolls and cyber bullies who wasted no time making her the object of ridicule.

Every 'dumb blonde' joke in history suddenly was appended by 'Guess what Alia Bhatt did …' and so rampant was the ridicule that even her mother, Soni Razdan, a wizened-through-experience industry insider, admits she began to despair.

Then, Bhatt did the unthinkable: she agreed to act in a short film addressing her alleged low IQ. She did this by playing the role six inches off the ground, spoofing her anguish, her humiliation and her eventual turnaround after attending a course at the 'Dumb Belle' institute, which promised to transform her from 'a Gabbana to Shabana' in a few easy lessons.

That an actress could laugh at herself, take on her negative image with such panache and use humour so intelligently has made the clip an Internet phenomenon. In one fell swoop, Bhatt managed to counter all her critics and, in fact, endear herself to them.

Could the same lessons be applied to other famous people with negative images? Would Rahul Gandhi's chances of winning the last election have been more successful if he too had adopted the strategy that Bhatt had used? Would voters have warmed to him if he had laughed at himself and those qualities in himself that were seen as disadvantages - elitism, unpreparedness and entitlement?

Of course, no one is suggesting a similar outing in a YouTube clip but perhaps Gandhi's spin doctors ought to have considered addressing people's bias against him in their campaign.

Could this approach of taking on one's negative image work in the case of business leaders? So many of the top industrialists of the country are weighed down by accusations of corruption, apathy, greed and conspicuous consumption. Could humour and honesty work in countering their public personas too? Of course, once again we are not suggesting reproducing the identical formula that Bhatt employed, but perhaps there are some lessons to be learnt from this recent example.

Surely the same old strategies of fawning PR, high-minded CSR and philanthropic endeavours and associations with the great and the good need a rethink.

In the age of social media, the power of honest, often creative and unconventional communication is called for. The immediacy and intimacy of this new media platform offers hitherto unexplored paths to communicate a message.

That an actress who was weighed down by an image of being seriously 'dumb' is now being lauded as one who had the intelligence to take it on and turn it around successfully ought to give those who are involved in such exercises a whole new approach.

From dumb to super smart - that's one of the fastest media turnarounds in recent times!

Malavika Sangghvi is a Mumbai-based writer malavikasmumbai@gmail.com