Youth Corner:
Indian Celebrities Embrace Social Media
Awhile back, I wrote an article about how Bollywood celebrities (Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Anurag Kashyap, you name it!) are actively blogging. But, blogging is just one of the many forms of social media available these days. Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Google and Yahoo Groups…Indian celebrities—whether they be directors, actors, music directors, singer, lyricists, authors, or politicians—are all quickly embracing social media.
Recently, Mallika Sherawat became the first Asian star to be invited to the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. Already, she has over 6,800 followers on Twitter! Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kailash Kher, Ayesha Takia, Gul Panag, Pankaj Advani, Priyanka Chopra, Hansal Mehta, Vishal Dadlani are some of the other Bollywood celebrities active on Twitter. Actress Gul Panag recently tweeted, "Just got my Airtel bill. It’s falling every month. I am using more Edge tweeting than talktime!" Twitter also made Indian news headlines when someone opened a fake Twitter account in actor Shahid Kapoor’s name. And, in case you’re wondering, it’s not just Bollywood artists who are tweeting to fans—cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and politician Narendra Modi also tweet!
While Indian celebrities have recently started to get addicted to Twitter, they have long been using Facebook. A new promotion strategy being implemented by marketing savvy filmmakers is to create Facebook pages for films. Photos, links to news articles and YouTube videos are posted and even advice is solicited from fans on Facebook. Director Imtiaz Ali (Socha Na Tha, Jab We Met, Love Aaj Kal) asked fans for suggestions with Love Aaj Kal’s film title. The Love Aaj Kal’s Facebook page already has over 3,000 fans. Likewise, Vishal Bhardwaj’s upcoming film Kaminey has over 2,900 fans on Facebook. Dev D used social media very intelligently—the film’s director, Anurag Kashyap, actively blogged on PassionForCinema, UTV posted videos on YouTube which attracted thousands and thousands of hits and the "Lust Line" received a lot of news coverage, too. The end result, Dev D’s Facebook page has over 14,000 fans!
It’s not just actors, directors and musicians who use social media networks. Sonia Gandhi has a Facebook page with over 1,900 supporters. Even authors including Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (The Mistress of Spices, The Palace of Illusions) and Jhumpa Lahiri (The Namesake) are actively interacting with fans on Facebook. Divakaruni even has Google Group to interact with readers and fans. Orkut also has its share of celebrity users, including music director and singer Vishal Dadlani and actor Manjot Singh (Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!)
More and more professionals are also realizing the benefits of LinkedIn. Lyricist Nusrat Badr, singer Jayachandran and film director Hansal Mehta are some of the many Indian celebrities using LinkedIn. Film director Jehangir Surti (Aa Dekhen Zara) says LinkedIn helped him connect with marketing heads for in-film branding. Although, he does point out that one of the cons of using social media is "crazy fans and pushy artistes who can bombard you with requests which may not be appropriate at the time." But, he also adds that some of the many benefits of social media also include interacting with a fan-base and "getting a layman’s feedback."
Indeed, celebrities benefit greatly from social media. Not only are they able to link with other professionals and are able to interact with fans and promote their work but they also avoid the risk of being misquoted.
It’s not just celebrities who benefit from social media—even journalists benefit a lot! Aakash Gandhi, a writer and editor for PlanetBollywood.com points out, "Social media platforms are very helpful to entertainment news portals such as our web site, PlanetBollywood.com. Not only does it help news portals interact with readers, it also helps them connect with celebrities without having to go through a middle-man/PR person to schedule interviews and get information to use in news scoops." Ah, the many benefits of social media!
[ BY AMANDA SODHI ]
