In today’s social media-driven world, the race to go viral often comes at the cost of personal space and comfort. As paparazzi culture becomes increasingly aggressive, several celebrities have pushed back against intrusive zoom-ins and uncomfortable camera angles. What may seem like harmless photographs often leaves stars feeling violated, especially when cameras linger on excessive close-ups or capture them from inappropriate angles.
Recently, actor Karisma Kapoor requested photographers not to zoom in or click from certain angles, while actor Ridhi Dogra consciously walked backwards during a spotting to avoid being photographed from behind. Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, too, was seen shielding daughter Sara Tendulkar from cameras to avoid intrusive shots. Amid the growing debate around invasive photography, HT spoke to paparazzi photographers, who shared their side of the story.
Manav Manglani
The seasoned photographer tells us, “Yeh paps nahi hai, yeh youtubers hai jo yeh sab kar rahe hai, seeing that their only goal is to gain views and virality. I have never supported such behaviour, my team or myself; don’t shoot support this. The pages who are even posting such videos have very small social media following and are trying to viral through these zoom-in videos. We don’t even publish it on our social media pages.”
Ajay Chaurasia
Ajay Chaurasia, who works for Viral Bhayani, tells us, “Please don’t call them paps. Yeh woh log hai jo inn events par apne HD 4k camera’s leke aa jate hai to only create viral content. Pehle guess who chala tha, phir yeh zoom-in aaya hai, par yeh sab woh log nahi kar rahe jo itne time se industry mei hai. In all honesty, sometimes even celebs ask to be clicked with a zoom-in angle. Yeh toh wahi baat hue, kare koi, aur bhare koi.”
When actors called out the ‘Zoom-in cluture’
Karisma Kapoor
Last month, while being photographed outside the sets of a dance reality show, India’s Best Dancer Season 5, actor Karima Kapoor was heard saying “Zyada zoom mat karna”. Soon after, several social media users praised her for taking a stand.
Ridhi Dogra
The actor while attending an event in the city, asked the paps to school others paps to not click celebs from behind. In the video, Ridhi can be heard saying, “Listen, tell them not take backside pictures of anybody. Teach all of them, I am saying on camera.”
Ayesha Khan
While attending an event, actor Ayesha Khan initially was seen posing happily for the paps. It was later when she realised that some paps were zooming-in, that she called them out. “Aap izzat khud hi kamae ge… khud hi gawae ge. Please matt kariye, acha nahi lagta.”
Sachin Tendulkar
During the pre-wedding festivities of cricketer Arjun Tendulkar in March, dad Sachin Tendulkar was seen stepping behind daughter Sara Tendulkar as soon as some paps allegedly attempted to capture her from the back. Several fans on social media praised the former cricketer, calling him a “true gentleman” and a “protective dad”.