With each passing day, the paparazzi culture in India seems to be becoming increasingly insensitive. Just for a photo or a few seconds of footage, paps are seen running behind celebrities' cars, mobbing them, or even zooming into their homes. Even during the demise of veteran celebrities, they are often seen shouting, pushing, and zooming their cameras for pictures.
Recently, during Dharmendra's passing, paparazzi were seen zooming in on celebrities' faces as they hurried into the crematorium. For days, paps had stationed themselves outside Dharmendra's residence as well as Hema Malini's home, hoping to catch glimpses of visiting celebrities.
While Dharmendra was hospitalised and several actors went to see him at Breach Candy Hospital, the paparazzi hovered around their cars and continued clicking photos despite repeated requests for privacy by Sunny Deol and Esha Deol. Many videos showed celebrities folding their hands from inside their cars, pleading with the paparazzi not to click. Sunny Deol even lashed out and asked the paps to leave Dharmendra's premises, reiterating the need for privacy.
Recently, Jaya Bachchan and several other celebrities have criticised the growing invasiveness of paparazzi culture. Joining the discussion now is actor Janhvi Kapoor, who attended the We The Women Asia event in Mumbai, where she spoke about the deaths of her mother, Sridevi, and Bollywood veteran Dharmendra, and the insensitive manner in which the media covered both.
Janhvi Kapoor says aftermath of Sridevi, Dharmendra's deaths proved 'derailment of morality'
Speaking about her actor and mother's death in 2018 and now the way media and social media handled Dharmendra's hospitisation coverage, Janhvi said it shows a derailment of human morality.
She added that she avoids talking about her mother's passing because people might think she is using it to gain headlines. When asked about her take on paparazzi culture, she said, "The feeling and the phase that I went through during that time is something I'll never be able to verbalise. And I think it was such an individual experience that even if I told you everything about it, I don't know if anyone would be able to relate to it."
She further added, "I'm always conscious about sounding like I'm trying to get people to feel bad for me. I know everyone is opportunistic in nature, and everyone wants a headline. I would hate to sound like I'm using such a painful part of my life and my relationship with my mother for attention. That always holds me back."
Janhvi continued, "The voyeuristic nature of journalism today, of media culture and social media, has single-handedly contributed to the complete derailment of human morality. I saw it when I lost my mom."
She recalled how her grief was turned into online content for the sake of TRP, "I don't know if anyone can imagine what it's like to lose someone so close to you and then see it become a meme. I don't even know how to compute it, so I don't know how to explain it. But it's only gotten worse. We saw what happened with Dharam ji. It's happened repeatedly before, and I'm sure it will only get worse," she went on to say.
Questioning the sensationalism in the media, Janhvi asked, "Everyone wants their TRP to go up, but at the cost of what?"
For the unversed, Sridevi died in Dubai due to accidental drowning on February 24, 2018, just months before Janhvi's Bollywood debut with Dhadak. Dharmendra passed away on November 24, 2025, in Mumbai after a brief hospitalisation.
