Jaya Bachchan and Viral Bhayani

Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; December 5, 2025)

At ‘We The Women’ event in Mumbai earlier this week, Jaya Bachchan expressed her displeasure with the paparazzi as she said, “Yeh gande gande pant pehen ke, mobile leke [aa jaate hai]… They think that because they have a mobile, they can take your picture, say what they want. The kind of comments they pass!” While the senior actor’s sharp comments were deemed as “elitist” by several industry voices, the issue has now escalated further. Some of Bollywood’s paparazzi agencies are preparing to file a formal complaint with the Cine & TV Artistes’ Association (CINTAA) against the veteran actor’s remarks. They are said to be in discussions before submitting their official complaint.

Bachchan’s statements, where she questioned the background and attire of paparazzi, have left many in the community feeling demeaned, with some photo syndicates considering boycotting her.

Speaking to mid-day, Manav Manglani, who runs an entertainment photo syndicate of about 20 stringers, said, “She doesn’t want to be clicked; we won’t click her. Jaya ji is not someone who gets eyeballs anyway. If she is with her family and wishes to pose happily, then we may [photograph her].”

Leading photographer Varinder Chawla, who runs an agency employing 15 stringers, told mid-day that the remarks were uncalled for. “We should have some self-respect and not cover her. Every time we have clicked her pictures, we have referred to her as Jaya ji. She hasn’t been disrespected. It’s not okay for the privileged to insult those who are doing an honest day’s work. Jaya ji’s comments need to be responded to and sternly so. Why couldn’t Jaya ji have a conversation with us? We always listen. Ranbir [Kapoor] and Alia [Bhatt] asked us not to click Raha [their daughter], we don’t.”

Besides the complaint, the agencies, in association with CINTAA, are hoping to establish a code of conduct that addresses actors’ concerns about intrusion and safety, and paps’ concerns about mistreatment. Chawla admitted that zealous fans sometimes blend in with photographers, leading to incidents of verbal run-ins or crowding at events. The sentiment is that there is an urgent need for formal guidelines governing interactions between celebrities and photographers.

“There is no unity among paps today; anyone with a camera gets clubbed with us and we get a bad name. There are fans posing as us, trying to get inappropriate with actors. Between Yogen Shah and me, we want to ensure that a meeting takes place with actors where we can discuss the issues. Earlier, we had requested Suniel Shetty sir to facilitate this,” added Chawla.
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A lot of kids pretend to be paps, comment on celebrities-Viral Bhayani

Leading paparazzo Viral Bhayani talks about the unregulated pap culture, even as he calls out Jaya Bachchan for her statement about photographers’ clothes

I like Jaya Bachchan more than I do Amitabh Bachchan because I’m like her — I’m straight-forward, I say whatever is in my heart and that sometimes gets me in trouble. Jaya ji has been very sweet to me, and at times, she has snapped at me as well. You have to understand her mood. Every time I would ask her politely for a picture, she wouldn’t deny. 

What she said is partially true, especially when she mentions that paps pass [disrespectful] comments. If you look at the history of paparazzi [in India], there were very few in the beginning. We had ethics and responsibility towards our work, and respected everyone. We maintained decorum. [We were mindful] about our language. Also, we weren’t loud. Patience is important in our profession. But today’s kids don’t have patience. They start screaming and get anxious when an artiste doesn’t come on time.

What has happened now is that the pap [culture] is not regulated. There are a lot of kids who just take phones and pretend to be paparazzi. In case they make a comment at a celebrity, we wouldn’t know. I’ve seen this happen outside some restaurants in Bandra. It’s awful.

Some of them click women if they are wearing short clothes. That has created a bad image of us. Paparazzi is not supposed to be running after semi-naked women. We are interested in good content and good celebrities.

We try to educate our [employees] about how to cover funerals as well. We tell them to cover it in a dignified manner. We should have a moral code, a shared sense of responsibility within the community on how to cover celebrities and events. For instance, I have a rule that nobody in my team will click selfies with celebrities. If you’re seen posing with your arm around a female celebrity, you’re out of my office.

But what I didn’t like is Jaya ji speaking about someone’s poverty. Anyone can be poor. Everyone works hard. Don’t underestimate anybody. I have also risen from a poor background. We change things with our hard work and determination. You can also not comment on someone’s attire. It’s not right to make such statements on clothes or someone’s appearance. Jaya ji works well on social media, but she does not like being filmed. That is her choice, and we can respect that. If at any point she feels [comfortable] with it, we’ll happily film her. There is no ban on her or her family.

As told to Priyanka Sharma
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The actor’s fraught relationship with the paps has sparked fresh controversy. She even questioned their background, triggering backlash from lensmen
Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; December 4, 2025)

Actor and MP Jaya Bachchan’s on-off rapport with paparazzi sparked fresh chatter on Monday.

Talking to journalist Barkha Dutt, Jaya said she has ‘zero relationship’ with paps: “I am the product of a media. Who are these people? Are they trained to be representing the people of this country? You call them media? I come from media. My father was a journalist. I have immense respect for such people.”

She sparked a controversy saying: “Magar yeh jo bahar drainpipe tight, gande pant pehen ke, haath mein mobile leke… they think that because they have a mobile, they can take your picture and say what they want. The kind of comments they pass — what kind of people are these people? Kahan se aate hain? Kis tarah ka education hai? Kya background hai?”

We reached out to the paps, and they are naturally angry.

Varinder Chawla
I have been in the business for so many years, and respected whenever the celebs said something. Ranbir Kapoor said to not pap Raha, same for Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone’s Dua. In 2023, in fact, I had got a video of Amitabh ji from Delhi. Ek fan selfie ke liye aage badhi, unhone bure tareeke se dhakka de diya, chillaye. Seeing his age and image, I sent it to his PR, who requested me so much to not post it, so I didn’t. Humne unki izzat rakhi. I am not saying all the boys on field are right, I have told them to mind their language earlier too. But she should know - the paps which she is targeting, are they all paps, or YouTubers and fans in the mix too? Kisi ko aise bura mat boliye. I told my colleagues apni self respect rakhte hain, aur inko boycott karte hain.

Pallav Paliwal
It’s unfortunate, what she said. Her grandson Agastya’s film Ikkis is going to release, what if the paps don’t come to cover the promotions. Amitabh ji comes outside his house every Sunday, no leading media covers it, it’s us paps. Judging someone on the basis of their appearance, people who work tirelessly day and night… she might be of the opinion that we aren’t ‘media’, but we are social media. Print and electronic se zyaada fast dekhe jaane wala medium hai. If Jaya ji can promote Agastya’s film without paps, on her own, by posting on her social media pages, then okay. Aap itni badi hasti hain, aisa nahi bolna chahiye tha.

Manav Manglani
I respect Jaya ji a lot. But she has not yet evolved with the digital era. The transformation from print to digital is hard for her to grasp, maybe her kids and grandkids could make her understand. At the same time, the sudden influx of some YouTubers and individual content creators with good followers has created some chaos in the field, these guys go to any extent to get some kind of response from celebs which would make their video viral, which is not ethical at all and needs to be stopped immediately.

Ashoke Pandit posted on Insta, reacting to Jaya’s remarks, “Jaya Bachchan ji’s statement against the paparazzi reeks of snobbish elitism. To criticize the aggressive coverage of certain paps is one thing, but to demean the profession altogether, laced with downright classist remarks is unbecoming of such a senior member of our film industry and a parliamentarian. They’re hardworking professionals doing their job, for which most times they’ve been called by the stars and their PR teams themselves. So if she has such a strong opinion against the paparazzi culture, it’s time to look inwards rather than indulge in this misplaced outrage.”