Star kids have the word ‘star’ associated to them as soon as they are born. A lot of common kids would think of it to be cool to be a celebrity’s child. With the addition of social media platforms (twitter, facebook, instagram, etc.) to the already existing prying media eyes, privacy is becoming less and less common with anyone associated with a celebrity.
Shweta Nanda, the daughter of the legendary actor Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, has managed to stay out of the limelight. The same, however, does not apply to her teenage daughter Navya Naveli Nanda.
Shweta Nanda has written a powerful piece, titled ‘A Mother’s Request’, in a leading daily that reprimands the media for invading the life and personal space of her daughter who has been in the limelight since she was 13 years old.
‘You do not know my daughter, the websites that post her pictures with captions like ‘Navya Nanda HOT pics’ or ‘Navya Nanda parties with friends, WILD’! certainly do not know her either. Nor, might I add, do they have her permission to post her private pictures. She is not a public figure. Yes, she is related to some very famous people, but that is something completely out of her control.’ she writes about how completely repulsive it is when some sites, for the sake of publicity and clicks share her daughter’s photos with unwarranted headlines.
She also says that as any normal teenager, Navya likes to dress up, hang out with her friends, pose for pictures and yes, go out to parties adding that she has a deadline and is always home well before it is over.
She further puts light on the fact that her daughter’s social media accounts are completely private and it’s bemusing that her private photos still land up on media going viral. She writes how – “Websites with a keen interest in Bollywood and its goings-on, make fake identities (mostly in the names of her friends) and send requests to anyone following her and often to her as well. They then plunder the accounts of her friends and use their photos to post on their websites captioning them irresponsibly and disrespectfully, most of them stop short of objectifying and shaming her. This has been happening with my daughter since she was 13 years old!!”
She also writes how her daughter Navya “likes reading, the Kardashians, rajma Chawal, curling up next to her Naani while watching TV, teasing her brother and counseling her friends when their hearts are broken. She doesn’t have any particular interest in acting or pursuing a career in acting as of now.”
She reprimands the adults who author such stories and asks, “Do the adults who run these sites even know how invasive and inappropriate what they are doing, is? Do they even care? And would they like it if this happened to their children?”
“Navya has a strong sense of self, so perhaps, it does not hurt her as much when in the comments section, people judge her, deride her, call her unattractive or scrawny”, she said talking about what this would do to an impressionable teen’s self-esteem.
Shweta Nanda feels like there is nothing she is able to do as a mother to protect her child from the uncalled for judgments passed by the media when her own parents and family are absolutely okay with what she wears and does.
However she ends on a hopeful note saying, “Perhaps if they understood that we, just like them, are human beings, trying to get about our everyday lives while making sure we give respect to the love and affection people show members of our family, couldn’t they in return give my daughter her private life back?”
