Starry networking

A number of TV stars treat Orkut as a channel to interact with their fans and get a frank feedback, says Srabanti Chakrabarti

OVER decades celebrities have made themselves more and more unapproachable in order to climb the popularity charts. The logic being — the less people see you, the more curious they become to know about you. In fact, production houses have been using this to their advantage by bringing the normally hidden stars in the forefront just before the release of a film. Case in point is Shahrukh Khan’s availability for almost all television shows before the release of Om Shanti Om.

However, the new breed of celebrities — specially from the small screen — seem to think otherwise. They are making themselves more and more available to the general public on cyberspace at least. Believe it or not, most of the upcoming stars from the small screen have their personal accounts on Orkut, not to speak of the communities hosted by their fans. Be it Mouni Roy, Naman Shaw, Gaurav Ghera, Jay Bhanushali, Sanjeeda Sheikh or Hiten Paintal — all of them have personal accounts on Orkut and are using it for various purposes, including getting direct feedback from their fans (and foes).

The social networking site, in the news for all the right and wrong reasons, is a rage among the youth for reuniting with old friends and creating new ones. People find like-minded friends through communities, fan clubs and common postings. But, all this at the cost of privacy and confidentiality. These are unknown words in social networking sites like Orkut — everything on the site is public and anyone with an account can access anyone else’s information. Then what is it that attracts celebrities to Orkut?

Explains Gaurav Ghera, better known as Nandu in Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin, "I am a relatively new Orkutter having created my account in February this year. My primary objective was to interact with my friends and relatives in India and abroad. But it has proven to be a fantastic forum to get feedback from my viewers and chat with my friends. I would be lying if I say I am not addicted to Orkut now."

Agrees Hiten Paintal, son of Paintal and budding television actor, "I created my account in Orkut and Facebook (both social networking sites) with the intention of finding my friends. And I must say I am very happy with the result. I studied in Maneckji Cooper School and had been out of touch with my friends for almost 11 years. I managed to find almost all of them in Orkut. It is a fantastic feeling."

Ditto for Hansika Motwani, the teenaged starlet of Aap Ka Suroor fame. "I had opened an account in Orkut to keep in touch with my friends. My objective has been met. Even my fans scrap me a lot. I do respond when I get time. These days with my busy schedule, I hardly get time to check Orkut!"

Apart from finding friends, social networking sites also work as a very good bouncing board for artistes to gauge their score on the popularity index. And, of course, to use it as a medium for publicising their new roles. Gaurav Ghera, for instance, maintains three profiles on Orkut — one of them named after the new character he is playing in a serial. "I do admit that the purpose behind creating this new profile was to let people know that something like this is coming up. Frankly, the response has also been good. I get a lot of value-enhancing feedback through this medium."

Adds Vinod Singh, the original Ayushman, "I find social networking site like Orkut to be a very good meeting ground. You will find celebrities and fans in my friend list on Orkut. I am equally at ease communicating with my fans through this medium. This acts as a very good stress reliever for me."

But doesn’t Orkut invade their much-valued privacy? "Not really, because we discuss only things that can be shared in public. All personal chats are either done through email or phone," says Paintal.

Ghera agrees, but not before putting his point forward, "Privacy is an issue. But I feel these sites have a strange charm that chat or email does not provide. I feel much more comfortable using social networking sites to chat with my friends." Ghera feels the problem lies elsewhere. "Sometimes the content becomes offensive. I have had scraps in my account which have been pretty offensive and I found it difficult to respond to them. On some occasions I have taken it up as a challenge and written back to them and converted them to my friends."

But these accounts and the various fan communities on these sites definitely provide an ego booster to the celebrities. And more than that it also provides them with first-hand feedback and a true gauge of their popularity, instead of having to rely on second-hand information from cronies.

However, there are some fake accounts as well! With cyberspace, doesn’t that come naturally? Biggies like Ronit Roy, Hiten Tejwani, Aamna Sharif are all victims of false accounts being created in their names. Even starlet Hansika Motwani has fake accounts in Orkut, in addition to her real account. A simple search on Hansika Motwani reveals seven accounts in Orkut and all claim to be the real one of the starlet. When asked about the real one, the teenage star says: "I have only one account. All other accounts have been created by my fans. Frankly, I find it pretty interesting that there are so many accounts in my name. I am just one film old in Bollywood. If my fans find me worthy of so many accounts, I find it pretty flattering!"

One feels, the last statement, in a nutshell, sums up the real reason for stars opening accounts in social networking sites. You get to meet your fans and followers in cyberspace without the hassles involved in a physical meeting. You get your ego trip without having to worry about being mobbed. And you get free worldwide publicity without having to spend money for hiring PR agencies.

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