Udit Narayan's 'Concert Kisses': Can 'Stars' Assume Consent of Fans?

The hit song Tip Tip Barsa Pani often resurfaces on social media. From being featured in trending reels to split opinions over a remake – the timeless hit has seen it all. But this time around, the song plays in the background of a viral video that’s found itself in the center of a disturbing controversy. A video of singer Udit Narayan surfaced on social media where he can be seen interacting with fans during a performance of Tip Tip Barsa Pani. A couple of female fans and one male fan approach the stage, their phones poised to take selfies, and the singer indulges them, even motioning his bodyguards to make way for them. As the video progresses, the singer can be seen kissing many of the female fans as they leave smiling. A few seconds later, another fan approaches. Mid-selfie, she leans over and kisses the singer on his cheek after which he turns over and plants a kiss on her lips.Expectedly, the video started making the rounds on social media leading to many expressing their disappointment and disapproval in the singer's behaviour.Within a few days, clips of the singer’s interactions with other female fans and celebrities like Alka Yagnik and Shreya Ghoshal have made their way online, with many users pointing out that the female celebrities seemed uncomfortable and 'shocked'. Teach Consent, Break Culture of Silence: How To Create Safer Schools for GirlsKisses between celebrities and fans, unfortunately, are not a rare sight and every time, they reignite complicated conversations around consent and power dynamics. The conversation exists on two sides of the same coin – the blurring of consent in a situation with a clear power dynamic and the parasocial relationship that can exist between a fan and a celebrity. Post-controversy, or rather as it rages on, Narayan issued a ‘defence’ in a statement to Hindustan Times – "Fans itne deewane hote hain na. Hum log aise nahi hain, hum decent log hain," (Fans have an obsession. We are not like this, we are decent people).”“Some people encourage this and show their love through this. Udaake kya karna hai ab iss cheez ko (What is the point of making a big deal out of this)? There are so many people in the crowd, and we have bodyguards present too. But fans think they are getting a chance to meet, so someone extends their hands for a handshake, some kiss the hands... yeh sab deewangi hoti hai. Uspe itna dhyaan nahi dena chahiye (All this is fans' obsession; it shouldn't be given so much attention)."Udit Narayan, SingerIn all honesty, the entire controversy can be reduced to this: “Nobody should initiate affection, in any form, towards a stranger or anyone who hasn’t granted them explicit consent to do so”. And a quick scroll on the internet might reveal that it’s not a hot take. It’s natural for the controversy to generate mixed feelings – it's difficult to ascertain if the fans were uncomfortable either, from the really grainy clip. But the issue is deeper than an isolated incident. The reason the last few seconds of the clip are mostly invoking ire is also because it’s not just weird, it’s an escalation of intimacy without explicitly seeking consent for the same.I’m hesitant to use the term ‘blurry’ when it comes to consent because, truly, consent must always be explicit. The term, in this case, refers more to the effect ‘power’ can have on consent. Does the person involved in a situation of intimacy have the agency to say ‘no’ outright without having to think about possible negative consequences? Let’s consider a very basic scenario – by the very virtue of being a woman in a patriarchal setting, any woman who speaks about her consent being violated has to prepare herself for a plethora of reactions. Some supportive, some antagonistic. Now consider that the person she’s speaking up against holds some position of power over her – emotional, professional, financial. In a sense, ‘upsetting’ this person could lead to a direct harmful consequence – people (across genders) have lost their jobs (and in more grim scenarios, their lives) for speaking up against abuse. Naturally, celebrity-fan kisses aren’t in the same realm as sexual abuse, but the conversations tend to inevitably fall under the mandate of consent. Kissing fans on stage has often popped up as part of a ‘concert experience’ – Elvis Presley would kiss practically every woman in the room (case in point his ‘Love Me Tender’ performances) and the women would cheer and swoon. Even Matty Healy has often courted both controversy and ‘appeal’ for kissing fans during performances. There are conflicting opinions about this phenomenon. Some argue that fans have a deep-set admiration or a ‘crush’ on pop stars and celebrities and the ‘kiss’ is a part or fulfillment of that fantasy. In that sense, ‘consent’ is granted in the realm of that fantasy. However, one can’t ignore the other school of thought that argues that this seemingly consensual behaviour does rise from a fan being ‘star-struck’. And outside of the ‘pop star’ status, the behaviour is simply problematic. India Needs to Lower Age of Consent (And Stop Misuse of Child Protection Laws)Simply by being a celebrity – an unattainable figure in many eyes – there is a power dynamic at play. Then, perhaps, the onus of rejecting this intimacy falls on the celebrity. Some fans may consent, others might not and without the ‘Is this okay?’ question, that is difficult to determine. In 2018, ABC used a ‘good luck kiss’ between Katy Perry and a male fan to market its 'American Idol' reboot. The infamous kiss had caused a conversation about consent to take hold of social media. A 19-year-old contestant was asked if he had ever ‘kissed a girl and liked it’ (a cheeky reference to Perry’s famous song). When he responded in the negative, Perry called him over to the judge’s seating and asked him to give her a kiss.Clearly reluctant (after saying ‘no’ at first), the constestant does so and during a do-over (after Perry says, ‘He didn’t even make the smooch sound!’) Perry turns her face, leading to a lip lock. The boy went on to say, in interviews, that he doesn’t believe he was harassed but many have discussed that someone in his place would have limited agency. It’s a person’s shot at their big break, and they’re faced by three ‘celebrity’ judges – how does one be assertive in a situation like this? While we need to discuss the boundaries that fans must also respect when it comes to a celebrity – more often than not, celebrities are hypersexualised by their fans – the power balance rarely ever changes. The celebrity has much less to lose by saying ‘no’ than a fan would. If Narayan, or celebrities in his position, took a stand against the disrespect of personal boundaries, it would become easier to discuss them in the public space too.If we brush aside the act of a fan kissing a celebrity in a ‘moment of infatuation or obsession’ or a manifestation of a ‘fantasy’ or we don’t call our celebrities for behaviour that is deemed inappropriate, we set a dangerous precedent. We set a precedent where ‘implied consent’ holds importance that it shouldn’t. ‘Implied consent’ is key in conversations about situations like these – where there is clearly no conversation between the parties involved other than their ‘actions’.What would one consider to be 'implied consent'? In ‘implied consent’, speaking primarily in a general sense, consent is assumed through a person’s actions or inaction – this, for obvious reasons, can’t be used in situations of intimacy. ‘Actions’ can be wildly misinterpreted – for instance, a friendly hug can be misconstrued to be ‘consent’ for sexual advances.'Consent in Criminal Law Most Important Conversation': Aaliya Waziri on New BookIt's one of the reasons for dialogues like 'Ladki ki naa mein haan hoti hai' (There's a yes hidden in a woman saying no) that Bollywood movies have loved to parade around as an excuse for blatant harassment of female characters. A celebrity interacting with fans is not consent for fans to break personal boundaries and a fan’s adoration for a celebrity is not consent for the initiation or escalation of intimacy. The entire debate around celebrity status and the infamous ‘fan kiss’ is much deeper still but for the matter at hand, I can’t help but reiterate that it all boils down to a simple statement:“Sexual advances, in any form, towards a stranger or anyone who hasn’t granted explicit consent to do so is problematic."Alia Bhatt Announces She’s Pregnant and the Internet Needs To Leave Her Alone

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Udit Narayan: On Explicit Kisses and Implicit (Non) Consent

The phenomenon of celebrities kissing fans isn't new, but merits a conversation about the complexities of consent.

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Topics: Elvis Presley katy perry Udit Narayan