Madhuri, Deepika, Gauhar — How everyone in Bollywood is getting the same PR tip

Illustration by Ramandeep Kaur | ThePrint
Illustration by Ramandeep Kaur | ThePrint


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Madhuri Dixit is exhibiting you what’s in her bag, Deepika Padukone is belting out Instagram reels sooner than followers can sustain, and TV actor Gauhar Khan is exhibiting us her marriage ceremony story on YouTube. To not be left behind, Shah Rukh Khan has trended on Twitter but once more this week along with his AMA — Ask Me Something — spherical.

From YouTube channels, Instagram reels to Twitter, Bollywood celebrities appear to have lastly realised the facility of social media. It’s larger than any model endorsement — it’s the Holy Grail of fame.

It’s a universally acknowledged reality that you have to have your social media recreation ‘on fleek’ if you’re a public character. Weirdly, although, Bollywood has all the time performed catch-up on this regard. However 2020 — the yr the world locked down — reminded many of the harsh actuality of fame: Out of sight, out of thoughts.

Primarily, the movie star cultural revolution that swept the West round 2015, when social media was the be-all and end-all to being related, appears to have lastly hit Bollywood. And it’s not simply the film stars, TV actors too have realised the potential of this medium. Actors and spouses Dipika Kakkar Ibrahim and Shoaib Ibrahim each have separate YouTube channels with 1 million subscribers every.

Gone are the times when being a star meant that you simply needed to keep on a pedestal and away from the common people. Stardust and Femina are gone. Now, it’s all about sharing as a lot of 1’s life as attainable — revealing the individual outdoors the film display.

There’s a motive Kim Kardashian is arguably the preferred movie star on the planet.

Like American entrepreneur Scott D. Prepare dinner as soon as mentioned, “A model is not what we inform the patron it’s – it’s what customers inform one another it’s.”


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Bollywood and social media

The video platform YouTube appears to be a favorite for Bollywood and it additionally doesn’t damage that it’s monetised. Outstanding Bollywood celebrities like Madhuri Dixit, Alia Bhatt, Kartik Aaryan, Jacqueline Fernandes, Neha Kakkar, Shilpa Rao all have channels with a reasonably large following.

And regardless of the pretty fundamental rehashed content material, in comparison with those that make movies on YouTube for a dwelling, their movie star manages to garner hundreds of thousands of views. It seems to be like most stars get the identical PR recommendation as of late.

Whereas one could not want Madhuri Dixit’s recipe for sabudana khichdi or modak — together with her husband Shriram Madhav Nene making a visitor look — the title of the actor is sufficient for her to attain over 8,00,000 subscribers. Her movies additionally routinely get hundreds of thousands of views. And he or she has been one constant vlogger with movies on common matters like skincare, haircare, and on a regular basis make-up. By the seems to be of it, Madhuri Dixit’s profession as a YouTuber could be extra profitable than her comeback in Bollywood.

Some celebrities even began afresh to get on this bandwagon. Take a look at the curious case of Deepika Padukone. She deleted all her outdated posts on 1 January this yr. What was once largely formal content material that seemed prefer it was being put out by her group, has now obtained an entire makeover. Deepika Padukone routinely places out vibrant, head-bopping reels, all branded together with her title. It’s about what’s on her playlist (Justin Bieber), this-or-that movies (she picks filter espresso over chilly espresso), and the Buss-It problem (that includes Ranveer Singh).

Equally, Alia Bhatt’s YouTube channel with 1.5 million subscribers, replete with health and wholesome meals movies, can be extraordinarily common. Whereas she has not posted shortly, the truth that a top-billed actor like her ventured to create her personal channel earlier than most others speaks concerning the affect that YouTube has.

Jacqueline Fernandes and Kartik Aaryan are additionally pretty devoted YouTubers with 6,57,000 and 5,20,000 subscribers respectively. The latter has a spread of movies on his channel together with an interview sequence ‘Koki poochega’, the place he has interviewed the likes of Barkha Dutt, Anupama Chopra, and Farah Khan.

Priyanka Chopra has all the time been very social media savvy however her Instagram, with a staggering 61.7 million followers, is sort of on level. Ever since her no-return journey to the West, she routinely posts about her guide, sequence, manufacturing ventures and has even began posting reels together with her husband Nick Jonas. Her two canines have their very own public Instagram pages.

Even Shah Rukh Khan, in contrast to the opposite Khans, conducts pretty common AMAs by means of Twitter, which let’s be sincere all of us secretly look forward to. And I suppose for those who’re SRK, you don’t really want to do greater than that.


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Each follower issues

The individuals who have truly capitalised on Indians’ belated love for YouTube video-bingeing are tv actors. Indian TV, by all accounts, is a somewhat unstable business and when the lockdown was imposed in March 2020, hordes of actors flocked to YouTube.

TV actors like Gauhar Khan, Rubina Dilaik, Erica Fernandes, and Suyyash Rai have common channels. Most with hundreds of thousands of followers. Ask any common YouTuber, attending to that million-mark isn’t any simple feat.

Instagram is the opposite platform the place it has turn out to be necessary to ace one’s recreation. You don’t should be an A-lister actor to be common on Instagram. The platform has proved to be fairly a enterprise for comparatively lesser-known celebs as nicely and that’s the place social media actually shines. Now a Bollywood actor is not only recognized by the sum whole of their profession, there are a lot of different avenues the place they will make a dwelling.

Malaika Arora Khan, with 12.6 million Instagram followers, is a good instance of this. Her account is religiously adopted by a number of individuals fascinated by health. Equally, Mira Rajput, Shahid Kapoor’s spouse, could not strictly be a Bollywood movie star however is sort of energetic together with her account. Her haircare and skincare IGTV movies have been watched by hundreds of thousands. Now she endorses large manufacturers by means of Instagram.


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From large display to social presence

Social media created a brand new crop of celebrities altogether, with the rise of the influencer tradition. And the move was often from social media to the massive display. However now, curiously, the move is extra from the massive display onto social media, particularly in India. Not many are fascinated by ‘holier than thou’ celebrities who want to stay aloof from their followers.

How many individuals even recall somebody like Angelina Jolie and Tom Cruise now. Gen Z doesn’t keep in mind Cruise leaping on Oprah’s couch. These days are gone.

Social media has modified the definition of movie star. And Bollywood is simply catching up.

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