Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

During the last one week there were birthday of three important film personalities, and they are icons of their times, whom the present stars shamelessly emulate, and the fans still sing hosannas about them, but there birthday now seems to be a blip on the screen of time. Besides, if one were to extend the time frame under reference to few days, four stars would have shared there birthday, but only one has been remembered while other three have been forgotten.

The stars under reference are Dharmendra, whose birthday fell on 8th December, Dilip Kumar whose birthday it was on 11th December and Rajnikant who celebrated his birthday on 13th December. It was only Rajnikant who was remembered profusely by his fans and this was probably owing to the reason that he has a loyal fan club, which sort of idolizes and reveres him, and therefore they do not forget his birthday at all. But have Dharmendra and Dilip Kumar become so obscure that there birthdays is not much of a concern to their fans who in the heydays of these two stars would have done anything to even get a glimpse of Dharmendra or Dilip Kumar.

It was magnanimous enough on the part of Dharmendra that he on his own went out to wish Dilip Kumar on his birthday, while no other star was to be seen, and in the case of Dharmendra there was no mention of his birthday made even by the party to which he belongs, though the city of Mumbai is plastered with multitude of posters for even leaders who are yet to make a mark. What is the reason for this sorry state of affairs, where the stars who have enthralled the fans in the summers of their time and have given their blood and grime during their sun set hours have been dumped into the consigns of history.

At least those stars that have made their careers emulating either Dharmendra or Dilip Kumar should make it a point to wish these stars on their birthdays. It is a small gesture, which is the minimum that is expected as a courtesy for these mega stars that have been the pillars on which the edifice of Bollywood is standing tall. The comment of Sunny Deol that industry and the fans should not forget the stars is an apt summation of the status that the industry is in.

Has the time not come for the industry to reverse the trend that is synonymous with Bollywood of worshipping the rising sun and not caring to watch even over the shoulders for the sun that is on the verge of setting into the horizon? In this information age tools of information need to be tapped and a central data base be created and shared on the web so that at least the celebrities of their times, who gave the direction to the industry are wished by the fans, even electronically on the days when it matters for them. And a beginning could be met with celebrating the birthday of the original Yahoo star Shammi Kapoor, who is the fourth star whose birthday is just round the corner, as the youth of the present times, still continue to sway to his music in their various hangouts, though in a remixed version.