When Bollywood LAUGHED at itself!

Not only did Alia Bhatt take the wind out of the sails of her detractors by sending herself up with great style, she proved just how smart she was by doing so, thus re-casting herself as not only smart but also cool.

Of the recent slew of parodies and satires on the Internet, the best of the crop involve Bollywood stars sending themselves up.

Those of you who haven't seen that brilliant offering from AIB called Genius of the Year, a parody on Alia Bhatt and her supposed lQ defect, are urged to do so.

Not only did the actress take the wind out of the sails of her detractors by sending herself up with great style -- she proved just how smart she was by doing so, thus re-casting herself as not only smart but also cool.

A similar, if not perhaps more courageous, endeavour was undertaken by Karan Johar in a subsequent offering by the same company where he agreed to participate in a trope which had him pretending to let it all hang out with behind the scenes candour -- the warts, the bitching, the unmatched narcissism during an interview with Cyrus Sahukar, to lull the viewer into thinking that what they were seeing was "true and authentic" when of course it was scripted.

So devastatingly close to the bone was this self-parody that many wondered if it was prudent of the star producer-director to agree to the project: Had Johar been too brave or too foolish to have participated in the venture? Were Indian audiences ready for something so daring ?

The answer to that question is obviously a resounding yes, as newer instances of Bollywood satire, parody and humour greet and impress the applauding public at an astonishing rate.

Because even as Bhatt and Johar's offerings of self-parody were viewed and reviewed on YouTube, Twinkle Khanna, whose Bollywood A-list pedigree reads like a who's who (daughter of Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia and wife of Akshay Kumar), began writing a celebrity column in the supplement of a morning broadsheet.

She proved very soon that besides her pretty face and willingness to send up not only herself, but her star husband she could write too.

The impact of her columns on readers until now, given the limited access to the lives of stars, can only be imagined. To have someone from inside the fish bowl give them a report of what it was actually like is unprecedented.

Chuffed by the success and popularity of Khanna's output, the same paper has gone and signed another star kid with even more blue chip pedigree -- the hitherto low-profile Shweta Bachchan, daughter of Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, sister of Abhishek Bachchan and sister-in-law of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan -- to pen a weekly report of what life is like from her vantage point.

Like Khanna, she too demonstrates a similar penchant for self-parody, satire, humour and an inclination not to take herself or her position too seriously.

To add to the canon of self satire on the web, Saif Ali Khan last week released a biting send up of himself as pat of the promotion of his newest release, Happy Ending, in which he plays an obnoxious and rude reporter interviewing himself where he sends up not only himself, but also the media's objectionable intrusion into the lives of stars.

Perhaps this welcome departure from starry airs and taking oneself too seriously arises not so much out of a newfound talent for humour, but rather from a canny understanding of the media.

After all, if you laugh at yourself and do it brilliantly, not only do you win more fans and admirers, but also no one else will laugh at you!