IndiaGlitz reported yesterday that a film magazine Stardust had been hard-selling a story about Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwariya Rai’s secret marriage in Madurai in its December edition. Big advertisements are appearing in various newspapers to milk the salivating story. Abhishek on his part has been saying that the exchange of garlands was merely for a sequence in their film ‘Guru’ where they are playing husband wife. Well, we’ll have to wait for the film to release to find that out…

No…that’s not the story. The twist happened this morning when IndiaGlitz covered an event of the launch of Collector’s Issue of another film magazine Filmfare at a Mumbai hotel. The cover page of the December issue has Amitabh Abhishek on the front cover with a pertinent headline: ‘The Great Legacy…Magical Movies and Movie Stars Forever’. And, who better than the formidable father-son duo to do the honours of releasing the first copy, with a song eulogizing Filmfare and its contribution to Indian cinema over a period of fifty years. Big B in his small address said that he considers a Filmfare Award to be the biggest honour and that he has always been fond of reading the magazine. Abhi looking dapper in a white number shyly stated that he would like to mirror his father’s words.

So, the question that is niggling everyone’s minds is that has Stardust gone ahead and pulled off this stunt of Abhishek’s marriage to counter the sales of Filmfare’s special issue. I wouldn’t like to compare as to which magazine is better. For even though Stardust has phenomenal sales figures, it doesn’t enjoy respect (generally) amongst the film fraternity for its tendency to publish scandals many of which have no basis. Filmfare on its part has never been a spicy fare to read during a haircut but with senior and respected journalists like Khalid Mohammad heading the editorial department (Earlier), the credibility has always been higher as far as its features are concerned.

The big question that IndiaGlitz would like to put forth is that is such kind of one up-manship a healthy way of combating competition? Do let us know what’s your opinion!