Two snakes spotted at Shah Rukh Khan’s Mannat: Breaking news or just a very slow news day?

Dubai: It began, as many important newsroom discussions do, with a snake.

Actually, not one snake, but two.

On August 17, multiple reports in India said that two snakes were spotted on the lawn of Shah Rukh Khan’s sea-facing Mumbai mansion, Mannat.

One, an eight-foot-long, non-venomous Indian rat snake, was eventually rescued from beneath a ladder. The other apparently made a successful getaway and, at last report, remained unaccounted for.

Naturally, this became news. I even got multiple news alerts on my phone. But should it have?

That was the question that briefly divided our newsroom.

“Is seeing two snakes at Shah Rukh Khan’s home actually newsworthy?” I asked a colleague.

Then came the line that effectively ended all serious discussion.

“Well, at least the snake wasn’t Ranveer Singh, authorities confirm.”

We burst out laughing.

For context, Singh and his wife Deepika Padukone are now SRK’s rather glamorous neighbours in Bandra, having recently moved into their new home near Mannat. So no, before anyone gets excited, Bollywood’s newest neighbour had nothing to do with the reptilian drama.

But we couldn't ignore the elephant, or should we say snake, in the room.

Welcome to entertainment journalism on a slow news day, where even slithery creatures can find themselves sucked into the gravitational pull of Bollywood celebrity.

To be fair, Mannat isn't just another Mumbai bungalow. Shah Rukh Khan’s Bandra home is practically a tourist attraction, with fans routinely gathering outside its gates hoping for a glimpse of the superstar. If something unusual happens on those famous grounds, curiosity is inevitable.

But two snakes?

This is where the eternal entertainment-news equation and winning formula kicks in: celebrity + mildly unusual occurrence = clicks.

Had the same eight-foot reptile slithered into the garden of an accountant in Bandra, chances are it would have enjoyed its privacy.

Enter Mannat and suddenly it has a headline, a species identification and an international audience. And perhaps that tells us more about our fascination with celebrity than it does about snakes.

We want to know what stars wear, where they holiday, what they eat, whom they date and what their homes look like. Apparently, we also want to know about the wildlife dropping by.

The missing second snake only improves the plot.

One rescued. One still at large.

You couldn't write a better cliffhanger.

There is, of course, a perfectly legitimate public-interest nugget buried beneath the Bollywood gloss. The rescued snake was reportedly identified as a Dhaman, or Indian rat snake, and was non-venomous. The episode also involved professional rescuers rather than somebody attempting to tackle the reptile themselves.

But let's not pretend that's why the story travelled.

It travelled because the lawn belonged to Shah Rukh Khan.

And in the ruthless economy of online attention, the question isn't always whether something will alter the course of civilisation. Sometimes the question is simply: Will people click on it?

Think about it. We have the eternal SEO magnet that is SRK, his palatial sea-facing mansion Mannat, two snakes, and one of them is missing. Someone, please alert the CBI.

Which brought us to the more uncomfortable question: was this simply a slow-news-day story, or one of those “RIP journalism” moments when we should all quietly reconsider our career choices?

Perhaps neither. Because somewhere in Mumbai, there is still a snake that can now claim it once shared an address with Bollywood royalty.

And if it happens to slither next door, well, that's another headline altogether. Over to you, Ranveer Singh.