Bouncers: Hired for security or attention?
A bouncer's job is to keep crowds away from celebrities. But nowadays, young, new actors are hiring bouncers for just the opposite reason!
Let’s face it, every time you see a crowd of big, bulky bouncers surrounding someone — you know it’s a big-shot celebrity. But what happens when you don’t really know the person these bouncers are guarding?
At the music launch of Keshava recently, guests were left wondering the same. After important people such as actors Sharwanand and Nikhil, directors Gunasekhar, and Nandini Reddy and producer Gemini Kiran made an entry, there was one special person who walked in, armed with an entourage of bouncers. Everyone, including the cast sat up and whispered out loud, “Who is he?”. Not many seemed to know the mystery man, but for those taking notes on how to get noticed, he is your benchmark.
Forget good clothes and great hair, the best way to make an entry these days is to simply get some bouncers to surround you. These bouncers will push people away (whether or not they are following you) guard you against the unruly crowd and the best thing of all — will make you stand out.
Talking about the mystery man, a guest at the event said, “Suddenly, all the attention was on him and everyone started enquiring who he was. He did give off an air of being someone extremely important, but even the event organisers and the PR didn’t know who he was. Smart publicity!”
“A few politicians who attended the music launch are not seen at regular events, so their faces are not known to everyone,” says Abhishek Nama, the producer of Keshava. Having said that, he admits that he has observed bouncers accompany unknown people at many events and has had a hearty laugh at their expense. While many superstars walk in quietly at most events, these actors are a complete different story. Manchu Vishnu, his brother Manoj and their family members are often spotted with security
Good idea to get attention!
The actors are often accompanied by a huge private security entourage. No matter whose event it is, they always create the hype and garner attention. One wonders why so much noise is created, considering that neither of them are superstars and that they don’t have such crazy fan following either. Then there was the case of TV actor Sagar who at the music release of his big screen debut was accompanied by several bouncers. Sagar might have starred in TV serials, but at no point did he ever require a bevy of bouncers to protect him.
Interestingly, some Tollywood actors like Pawan Kalyan, Mahesh Babu, Allu Arjun, Jr NTR, Rajamouli and others always attend functions, minus the hullaballoo. Some have their own staff who accompany them everywhere, but that’s about it. Remember when Rajamouli organised the Baahubali 2 trailer at a multiplex, he walked in casually without bouncers. He even watches films at multiplexes like a commoner. Pawan recently meet director K. Viswanath, but he came along with his personal staff. Even Mahesh launched a private Youtube channel recently without any security and Allu Arjun too was spotted at a multiplex walking around casually.
“We know the regular film people, but sometimes the organisers tell us to accompany the unknown as well, and we just do our duty,” says a private security person, who accompanies the big stars.
A few years back, Aravind Krishna a young actor was accompanied by half a dozen bouncers for the premiere of his film It’s my Love Story. People were surprised to see that. “Actually, Chetan Bhagat attended that event and I hired bouncers for him. However, they accompanied everyone of that film,” says producer Madhura Sridhar. “I too tried my best to get inside a starry music launch, but I couldn’t. So I called a person who knows these private security people and he sent four bouncers. They took me inside immediately and, I got a good place to sit and watch the event,” Sridhar adds, in a lighter vein.