There are many things that social media is to be blamed for. Social media usually hates every actor and actress in Bollywood. Every actor and actress in the Hindi film industry gets trolled regularly for no reason. Before social media, you could only access your favourite actor and actresses in magazines and they had a certain mystery to them. Today, thanks to social media, everyone knows what their favourite celebrities are doing every day. Today, even the paparazzi have social media accounts with millions of followers. They rush to share every image, video, and random moment of literally every celebrity. One would even wonder if the term “celebrity” needs a revamp considering everybody seems to be famous these days. What social media has also done is that it has taken away the allure of Bollywood and created many false narratives. No actor or actress is going to respond to every rumour they hear about themselves and honestly, they cannot because, in the age of social media, there are a thousand rumours a day.
Because of this inability to be yourself and only follow a set social media trend, many actors and actresses have become cookie-cutter stars who seem to have no personality. It’s all a bland affair with no spice to enrich and enliven our life. Back in the day, a Rekha was known for her dark lip and her vampish ways. A Hema Malini was the dream girl. A Sridevi was eccentric while a Madhuri Dixit was the ideal Indian woman. A Kareena Kapoor Khan was the ultimate diva while Priyanka Chopra was sexy as hell. Preity Zinta was “one of the boys” and Bipasha Basu was dark desire herself. Even a Mallika Sherawat who wasn’t an A-lister like the others had her own niche. Today, there is no difference between a Janhvi Kapoor, a Sara Ali Khan and an Ananya Panday. They are all pretty girls with similar personas. They act in the same kind of movies, they like the same kind of music and even date the same kind of men. They are all aiming to be their version of what is societally acceptable in India and are naturally afraid of doing anything that would enrage the social media mob.
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“Currently, my relationship with social media is like that of a couple who has taken a long break and then gotten back together so it’s pretty good right now. When it comes to social media, I think it’s important to set boundaries with yourself. You need to recognise when it’s getting too much, or when it’s affecting your mental health, and I’m not very good with that. I tend to indulge once I start scrolling, I just keep scrolling and don’t know where to stop. So I’m really trying to monitor that,” Ananya Panday told Cosmpolitan India, admitting that social media has affected her mental health.
Janhvi Kapoor had a private account on social media before her launch and we’re sure she shared her thoughts and desires and gave her followers a glimpse of her personality. But when she made her account public before Dhadak, she deleted all her posts. Today, she posts promotional pictures, movie news, pictures from vacations and absolutely nothing that would trigger a troll attack. The same goes with Shanaya Kapoor, Meezaan and Ananya Panday. Hence, what you get is an extremely curated feed that gives you no deep glimpse into the lives of your favourite celebrities. In fact, most celebs choose to stay away from social media.
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In 2021, how can one be a Bipasha when any bold post will lead to them being called all sorts of names? How can anyone be diva-ish like Kareena Kapoor Khan without being accused of classism and cancelled? How can anyone be “one of the guys” like Preity Zinta without being called a “pick me girl”? It’s impossible to do that.
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“These alterations in films based on online outrage perhaps show a shift of the balance of power between executives, fans and social media signalling that the audience is not a mere spectator now but a much active participant in content consumption. It is also a testimony to the relevance of social media platforms as they have the power to mould public opinion in a certain direction by starting trends, downvoting and other social media strategies,” says News18 in an article. Well and good. But with this “active participation”, comes a loss of allure and mystery. It’s a tearing away of myriad personalities to form a basic one. And that’s just sad.
ML Entertainment