It could be a new profession, the ‘basker-in-reflected-glory’. And India seems to be churning them out by the dozen. Now, the baskers are curious creatures.
They tend to hibernate during the winter of publicity events, coming out only when the spotlight is shining bright. So, it is no surprise that the baskers are to be found at high wattage events like the Cannes film festival and the uber show on earth, the Oscars, apart from minor award ceremonies here and there.
It is here that the basker comes into her own. The modus operandi involves wangling an invite to the red carpet, strategically placing yourself in the line of vision of the paparazzi behind an A-list star and then promptly tweeting that the said stellar personage is your new best friend.
As Indians, we are glad that we have produced a person who has raised this practice to a fine art. We refer to none other than Mallika Sherawat who picks up famous friends with the ease that urchins pick up pebbles on the sea shore.
So last year at Cannes, she become a close buddy of the smouldering Salma Hayek, this year’s Oscars saw the glacial Nicole Kidman complimenting our lass on her gorgeous looks even as she shared a few laughs with Sandra Bullock. And mind you, she is not the only one. Our slumgirl millionaire Frieda Pinto regularly informs us of how virtually all of Hollywood’s directors are panting to work with her, Steven Spielberg, we hope you are listening in case you want the mover advantage. Others like the icy Aishwarya have already ‘arrived’ in Hollywood so James Cameron can take his business elsewhere. It won’t be long before the baskers acquire their own baskers, creating a new celebrity food chain. This gives us ideas. We’d like it to be known that we are quite willing to allow a few eligible baskers into our incandescent presence. And if you think that we are getting above ourselves, well, you are condemned to stay in the shade. -HT