The other day I was waiting to interview a high-profile celebrity when I suddenly felt an urgent tug at my arm. It was this young pretty thing, who spoke so softly that I had to strain my ears hard. “I hope you will not ask him any personal questions,” she whispered. “Of course I will!” I told her amused.

“Oh no! You can’t. He will not like it,” she asserted. “Shall we wait till he tells me that?” I asked her still keeping my forced friendly smile intact. I was loving this game but she clearly wasn’t. “Oh no!” she said in an alarmed tone. “He really wouldn’t like it.” Her panic and anxiety was almost infectious. It seemed as if her job depended on my line of questioning. For once I almost felt guilty about what I was doing.

Why have celebs become so fragile that they have to actually hire someone and pay monthly salaries just to tell journalists that they are not comfortable answering certain questions? Give me the good old Dharmendra any day, who apparently chased (literally) a journalist out of the sets  for asking him an embarrassingly intrusive question or more recently a Karisma Kapoor who threw a tantrum at the sight of a journalist she didn’t like and refused to come on the sets, or even a Mahesh Bhatt who stalled the shoot of his film to have a colourful slinging match with a journo on the sets  in full view, after a catty story appeared on him.

At least, they behaved in a human manner unlike these so-called suave, sophisticated, new age celebrities who expect a hired aggressive youngster to keep intrusive journalists out of their hair. Wouldn’t a simple, dignified ‘no-comments’ be much cheaper?