There are moments in life that demand silence. Moments where the heart is too heavy, where words fail, and where humanity must rise above noise. The passing of Shefali Jariwala should have been one of those moments. A time for stillness. For dignity. For letting a family mourn without flashbulbs, questions, and the ever-hungry gaze of the camera.

Even in Death, there’s NO privacy: The media hunts, the audience consumes, and dignity dies

But instead, we witnessed something else. Something disturbing. Something cruel.

As Shefali’s loved ones tried to process an unthinkable loss, they were forced to do so under the harsh glare of the media lens. Her husband, Parag Tyagi, stood broken – his private devastation becoming public property. Her elderly mother, struggling to stand on her feet, was filmed in close-up, her every tear captured for digital consumption. And if that wasn’t enough, even the building’s watchman – a man with no information, no insight, and no role in this tragedy – was interviewed by television channels desperate to extract one more angle. It wasn’t journalism. It was scavenging.

Actor Varun Dhawan, echoing what so many of us felt, posted a powerful message: “Why do you have to cover someone’s grief? Everyone looks so uncomfortable.” He was right. We should be uncomfortable. Because when grief becomes a photo-op, we as a society have lost something far greater than just sensitivity – we’ve lost our soul.

But this isn’t the first time. When Karisma Kapoor’s former husband Sunjay Kapur passed away, even his prayer meet was turned into a video reel and circulated online. No space was left sacred, no goodbye left unrecorded.

And it doesn’t end with the media.

The audience, too, has blood on its hands.

Look at the comments sections under these videos – “Oh, her husband is going to the gym the next day. He must not care.” Or “Look at her relatives – they have nail polish on. They had time for makeup in this hour of tragedy?” It is not just cruel. It is inhumane. This grotesque obsession with how grief should look – as if sorrow comes with a uniform – is one of the ugliest traits of our digital age. We expect the bereaved to cry on cue, to stumble, to dress down, to act the part of a mourning character in a film. If they don’t, we attack them. If they do, we devour them.

What we are doing – both media and viewers – is turning mourning into a performance, and grief into entertainment.

Have we forgotten that these are real people?

Have we become so desensitized that we need zoomed in visuals of someone’s pain to feel something? That we’ve mistaken loss for a live stream, and funerals for footage?

This is not how it’s supposed to be.

As members of the media, we must ask: What are we really chasing? What are we trying to prove by showing a shattered man taking his wife’s ashes to the crematorium? What value does it add to society to shove a mic in the face of someone gasping for breath between sobs?

There was a time when the press served as a witness to truth. Today, we risk becoming spectators to tragedy – leering, lingering, uninvited.

And yet, the real change cannot come from the media alone. It must come from the people who watch, who click, who share. It is the audience that gives this intrusive coverage its currency. Every view, every like, every mindless forward is a message that says: Do more of this.

We need to send a different message now.

Let this be the moment we draw a line. Let this be the time we say enough. That we return grief to the people who are living it – and not turn it into a trending hashtag.

There is no award for who can get the closest to a grieving mother’s face. There is no medal for ambushing mourners outside a crematorium. We must do better. And we must do it now.

To the viewers: reflect. Ask yourself what kind of world you’re building when you mock the mourning, when you doubt someone’s sorrow, when you measure loss by eyeliner or gym attendance. If you wouldn’t want your own worst moment replayed for the world, don’t demand it of someone else.

To the families and friends of Shefali Jariwala and all those who grieve: we see you. We honour your pain. We are sorry that we, the media, sometimes forget to be human.

Shefali deserved more than a lens in her final moments. Her family deserved peace. Her memory deserves respect.

Let us not remember her for how she was filmed in death – but for the joy she brought in life.

Let this not be another moment of shame. Let it be a turning point.

Also Read: Priyanka Chopra REACTS to Shefali Jariwala’s sudden demise: “So shook. She was too young”

BOLLYWOOD NEWS – LIVE UPDATES

Catch us for latest Bollywood News, New Bollywood Movies update, Box office collection, New Movies Release , Bollywood News Hindi, Entertainment News, Bollywood Live News Today & Upcoming Movies 2025 and stay updated with latest hindi movies only on Bollywood Hungama.