There was a time when film folk were interesting, engaging, authentic, and, above all, graceful. But these days they are only in a hurry.

Cine Blitz completes 35 years in publishing this month and we are as wide awake as if it were just our first morning. Even though our fervour is, more often than not, not reciprocated…

Where is the time to stand and stare…or reflect!

Or do things just for the joy of it…It’s getting tougher for us, I must confess. Our best ideas for features, interviews and covers lie in our files, awaiting the patronage of an adventurous spirit, a breed, I’m afraid, rapidly diminishing amongst film stars.

Believe me, being the in-flight magazine for Kingfisher Red makes us the most circulated film magazine anyways. We catch more eye-balls than any other film or celebrity magazine in the country, so our concerns are not readership related. We grudge the joy of working that is denied to us.

Photo sessions and interviews are treated like chores by most of the stars, tiresome chores to be completed before the release of a film. No harm in that as long as they care enough to make it half as worthwhile for us and our readers as it is for them. Most of these interviews are distributed like pamphlets amongst the media. Minutes are divided by shoddier seconds. Let’s finish it off over the phone please. Unfortunately there are enough buyers for these ‘long distance short interviews’. How far we can hold our own in this completely impersonal atmosphere is a matter of thought. From their managers urging us to put their stars on our covers before the release of their films, sometimes, it becomes impossible to get even a ‘No’ in response from the very stars when you want to contact them in between releases. They are hard-pressed for time I know, but some of them are just uncultured, swollen-headed, full-of-themselves, badly-behaved assholes! Covers done, film is released, raat gayi, baat gayi! No replies, no call back, no courtesies, no graces, no etiquette… Too accustomed to their one-night stands, huh?

So let’s continue treating each other as a necessary evil and go through the motions. Everything cold, calculated and business-like, mechanically done with an eye on the final result, like making babies in a test tube! Now how much fun can that be!

There was a time, not too far back, when interviewing film stars was a pleasure, when interaction with them was more personal and meaningful. You could have real conversations with them. There was a time when film folk were interesting, engaging, authentic, and, above all, graceful. But these days they are only in a hurry.

A browse through our old issues always takes us back to those times when stars still had something to say. And we had something to write.

It’s not the same any longer. It’s not been the same for a long, long time.