Mumbai: The postmortem of graceful actress Sridevi's demise done by Indian news channels has left us grieving. An excess of anything is bad! But the mainstream media is far removed from the reality. In fact, they have become something akin to reality shows, albeit the badly scripted ones. Everyone who was shocked by the news of the untimely demise of Sridevi moved on to verify the authenticity of the matter. In this new age of communication and news broadcasting, print, radio, TV and news websites are way behind WhatsApp and other social media platforms to propagate news, mostly fake news. Since we cannot exactly rely on social networking sites to give us the right news all the times, we look up to the mainstream media channels to do that for us. Unfortunately, the TV News channels, in trying to beat the cut-throat competition, tried to cash in on all the hype and hoopla surrounding the incident, relying more on dramatising the event rather than on narrating  the real truth to us.

Even without any verified information, all the news channels, citing their personal 'sources', flashed the news: 'Sridevi’s mortal remains will be arriving in Mumbai from Dubai within a few hours'. The same ticker kept rolling as 'Exclusive' and 'Breaking News' on all the channels till the official statement from Boney Kapoor’s representative that came in the evening revealed that Sridevi's body will not reach India on that day. The news channels with their battery of reporters and cameramen waited outside the actress’ residence to bring in the exclusive news and troubling all the celebs who dropped in to offer their condolences.

Then, the postmortem report came and all hell broke loose. While we agree there are discernible inconsistencies in the report, was there a reason for all the nautanki done by our channels? The anchors who behaved like some teary-eyed fans of Sridevi turned into fierce judges and detectives, screaming their guts out as they dissected the postmortem report. From the 'cause' of death to what Sridevi was drinking before her demise to the time when her husband knocked on the hotel door - all the answers were ready with the anchors. Not just answers, they had props and 3D visuals ready to explain their version of stories, which also included a sick image of Sridevi photoshopped into a bathtub, as if the viewers really wanted to see that!

Have a look at these Indian Archimedes and their 'Eureka Moment' with photoshopped bathtubs - 

To be the Ultimate News Anchor you have to become Sherlock + Archimedes and hence you need a wine glass with the bathtub!

And yes! Do not forget to use words like Breaking News and Exclusive.

To beat each other in the race of TRP’s, the news channels changed their gears from calling the actress charming, beautiful and a superstar to an alcoholic, beauty conscious lady who went under the knife several times to stay and look younger. The adjectives changed; her profession and stardom, which was used to glorify her yesterday, were in question today!

Thanks, Akash Banerjee, your video sums up all my feelings -

The celebs are coming together now and are openly speaking against the sensational coverage done by the media, but it's too late; the postmortem and character assassination is already done and as people say, those once dead never come back. Sad but that is the truth.

There is no issue to raise questions and have meaningful discussions on the cause of death or what's written in the postmortem report. What leaves us grieving is this sensationalism of news and the character assassination of someone who just died, without concrete facts, without any care for their kin who are still recovering from the loss. Twitter hashtags of these channels changed from #RIPSridevi to #SrideviDeathMystery. Mind you, the mortal remains are still with authorities and the funeral is yet to happen! But we doubt after such sensational hashtags and coverage, the actress can actually rest in peace.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 27, 2018 12:53 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).