Actress and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai lashed out at a section of media speculating on her possible marriage with actor Salman Khan, seeking to halt an industry gossip which she says has assumed communal overtones.
"Media and the film industry has a symbiotic relationship and you ought to see that you don't cross certain parameters and character assasinate... Whereby they can make things look even communal," she told Karan Tappar in BBC World's Face To Face programme, to be aired on Wednesday.
"If you recognise the sensitivities of communities, of our country, then I think the media has a responsibility not to cross barriers... And they have done it," Ash says. "You misquote people, put words in their mouth and the issue becomes very, very grave and sensitive. This is where I reach out and request the media to be responsible."
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"I genuinely feel someone else is being victimised... Our families are being roped in... My family, his family... People are unnecessarily being ripped through," Ash says, about the romance gossip doing rounds in the media. "You have very little to do about it... When magazines are so convinced that you are going to marry Salman... People have their reasons and they'll always create story around it. But when I get an opportunity, I tell the truth as it is and it is left to you to believe it or not."
Asked if being a subject of gossip and the intrusion of privacy hurt her, she said, "It happens with film industry. I appreciate media as people get to know of what I am. "
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"The fact that I never pandered to or catered to the media is because there is this ridiculous pattern that follows... You are offering explanations to things you don't need to..."
However, she said, a large part of media has always been good and "I have always been in touch with them from the outset." Taking marriage as an eventuality, the star of hits like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Taal quipped, "If only I knew how far away it is...!" (PTI)
