Paparazzi claim to have been called after Ranbir Kapoor’s team snub them

A recent viral video featuring actor Ranbir Kapoor outside filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Mumbai office has triggered a renewed debate on the Kapoor family’s complicated relationship with the media and publicity.

Did Ranbir Kapoor’s team snub paps despite tip-off?

The incident happened as Ranbir arrived for the shoot of his upcoming film, Love And War. In the video, photographers were heard getting visibly frustrated as they claimed they had been invited by the actor’s team to click his arrival and were suddenly asked to move aside by the security personnel.

One photographer is even heard arguing, "Arrey bhai bulaya hai kya kar rahe ho? Arrey message hum sab ke pass hai, aise kya kar rahe ho?" (We have been called here. What are you doing? We all got a message about the same). While the exchange was brief, Ranbir did eventually stop to pose for the cameras and later went inside.

The publicity puzzle

This incident has come days after the entire family appeared in the Netflix reality show Dining With The Kapoors and spoke about their equation with the paparazzi, and thus seemed to be contradicting their stance.

When asked which Kapoor "tips off the paparazzi," Karisma Kapoor says, "All the Kapoors love the paparazzi." Kareena Kapoor disagrees, saying, "I don’t think we need to tip off the paparazzi. In fact, we tip them not to click us. We don’t want to be clicked."

Fans and observers quickly called out the contradiction, with social media commentary that ran the gamut from "Dude it's so brutal to call people and then not give pictures" to "His biggest pr stunt was claiming that he has no pr."

Ranbir Kapoor’s personal way of publicity has been talked about for a very long time. Filmmaker Karan Johar once commented on the lack of representation the actor has, telling a news publication that Ranbir "handles his own dates. There is no PR, there is no manager, there is nobody around him. He is on his own." But this most recent confrontation outside Bhansali's office seems to indicate an almost concerted effort with the media, one that was much more deliberate than initially assumed, feeding further into the debate on what constitutes celebrity publicity in these viral times.

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