Selfie, the new in thing

Celeb selfies touched a new high at the recent Academy Awards ceremony. The celeb studded selfie at the award ceremony is considered one of the greatest social media moment, which almost crashed the Twitter site due to the infinite rush of people visiting the page. Following in their footsteps, most of our own celebs have been jumping on to the selfie bandwagon which has now gone viral.

Right from megastars like Mammootty, Mohanlal and Dileep, every celebrity is now under the selfie spell. Apoorva Bose, who loves to share each and every moment of her life through selfies, says that the trend is getting prominence because it is a good way to kill time. “We are in show business, which is actually a good thing, but can get boring too,” says Apoorva. “We need to do something to pass time during the long breaks. For me, selfies are the best way to catch some spontaneous moments, like when I unexpectedly met my friends after a long time. To catch such moments, it is best to take a selfie with them and share it on Facebook or Twitter. I guess selfies are becoming the new ‘in thing’ among celebs and youngsters.”

Interestingly, selfies, which imply self portrait, have different categories like multi-selfie, morning selfie etc. ‘Bedstagram’ or morning selfie is one among them in which the celebs post their ‘make-up free’ photos when they wake up in the morning. Recently, during Celebrity Cricket League (CCL), Twitter came up with a tablet programme concept called Twitter mirror. In which celebrities stand before it for a moment, tap the screen, take a few moments to pose, approve the photo or retake it and send it out through the Twitter feeds hence, the fans can connect with their favourite celebrities.

Selfies help fans be a part of a celebrity’s most candid moments. Roshan Basheer says, “When you take a selfie, all the photos are in close-ups, which is why I like it. When you go for a photo shoot, you need to follow instructions. While taking selfies, you can just play with your facial expressions the way you want. The most important thing, I don’t have to force someone to take my photos — thanks to the high pixel cameras in smart phones.”

Bhavana, Aju Varghese, Meera Nanda, Nivin Pauly, Sunny Wayne, Rima Kallingal are some of the few who create their own visual album using selfies in their social media page. Not just actors, directors and popular singers also follow the trend. Selfies help fans to become close to their stars and be motivated in their life. Actor Mamta and Jishnu, who fought cancer, declared their second coming by posting their selfies, which became popular.

Meera Nanda says, “In fact, selfies are not new, we used to do it right from the moment when mobiles came with cameras. Now we have a platform to share it and reach people. Initially I was not interested in putting selfies on social media, later I realised how it helps in reaching a wide public. Selfies can be used for good causes and now it is one of my hobbies,” she says.