How social media will kill Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra's stardom
Two conflicting statements on stardom happened over the past week around the same time. Priyanka Chopra crossed the two-million mark in terms of followers on Instagram. The self-confessed social media junkie's new feat was abundantly tom-tommed by her PR team, as latest proof of her popularity.
Around the same time in faraway France, European legend Catherine Deneuve was making an interesting observation about showbiz in an interview to a popular weekly of her country. She contended that the meaning of stardom was getting crushed under the weight of social media and selfies.
Priyanka's next big cyber hit, her PR machinery has already declared, is going to be her entry into the ten-million club on Twitter. Deneuve would perhaps not be impressed. Speaking strictly in the French context, she declared there were no real stars left in her country (which is true) because all of them have forgotten how to remain discreet. The familiarity culture of the digital world, she felt, corroded the very concept of stardom.
#Whirlwindtravels .. #mumbaicalling.. #BajiraoMastani .. #NoTimeZone #OverworkedMind #FlyFly zzzzz pic.twitter.com/DzHF9WZiOM
— PRIYANKA Aka Ayesha (@priyankachopra) May 13, 2015In India where a multi-crore film industry finds support in a mammoth world of endorsements to drive mass mindset, the scene would seem more complicated. Random look at the social media explosion reveals Priyanka along with Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Alia Bhatt, Hrithik Roshan, Sonakshi Sinha and Sonam Kapoor lead an ever-bloating B-Town bunch keenly followed on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Of course, there are the likes of Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor and Akshay Kumar who seem to agree with Deneuve and normally avoid the cyber circus, but their numbers are few.
Are Bollywood's online junkies sacrificing some of their sheen by rampantly socialising online? Conversely, in an era when smart PR activity drills it into popular mindset that nothing succeeds like excess, will being net-shy help retain stardom?
Raees shoot going great,smiles all around. & main apne dukh ko doobane ke liye gym jaata hoon & get into this body… pic.twitter.com/enZgMcysYv
— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) May 2, 2015You spot a difference between Deneuve's viewpoint and what B-Town's cyber addicts seem to be chasing. These celebrities are looking beyond stardom. They want to constantly update their identities as brands.
We live in an era when a matinee idol's popularity is no longer gauged simply by the number of films he/she does, or the number of hits he/she delivers. Brand power unlike screen stardom is about the art of making news all the time, at times even without doing anything concrete.
The information overdrive culture of the online world provides an easy platform for as much. Priyanka would perhaps argue unlike what used to happen during Deneuve's prime in France, Bollywood 2015 swings towards a culture where the more you are seen, the more buzz you create.
There is a flipside to this, mind you. Industry observers and image consultants alike wonder how many of these celebrities, who become too familiar online, will manage to retain charisma once they are past their prime. Social media frenzy, they point out, never has logical basis. The number of followers a star commands online may or may not be a definite yardstick of actual popularity.
The only sustaining thing about social media, after all, is its chaos.