The brave not-so-new world of Twitter is a ruthless place, where no one is spared.
The brave not-so-new world of Twitter is a ruthless place, where no one is spared. This time, megastar Amitabh Bachchan had to face the wrath of the site when the Twitteratti saw through the apparently harmless personal letter to his granddaughters, which they claim is a publicity strategy for his upcoming film, Pink. If it was indeed a marketing strategy, was this step unethical on Amitabh’s part? Or is the Twitteratti getting too touchy? We also ask celebrities if in the age of the overactive social media, the ‘star system’ is fading out and the aura of superstars
diminishing?
We get celebrities to give their take on a current issue each week and lend their perspective to a much-discussed topic. This week we talk about: Big B’s letter a publicity stunt?
Rakul preet, Actor: ‘He’s facing backlash only because he’s a celebrity’
I think we should focus on what is written in the letter. I think he is facing backlash only because he is a celebrity. Even if the letter is a stunt, one should see the bright side of it, instead of creating controversies — there was a message for everyone to learn from it. People tweeted back to him saying that they wished somebody had told them such things earlier. I personally don’t believe in stardom; we’re all just doing our job. It is the people who make or break stars. It’s just that when we have a bigger influence, our messages reach out to more people.
Saloni Chopra, actor: ‘The letter was not a publicity stunt’
More than an actor, Amitabh Bachchan is a great human being. He is one of the many actors who can inspire people. The letter he’d written to his granddaughters is really beautiful. As he mentioned, the letter is not just meant for Navya and Aaradhya alone, but for all granddaughters out there. People on the Internet made an issue out of it because the content of the letter made a few uncomfortable. Most of the people in our country are not ready to accept the fact that girls can decide their own lifestyle. So, when an influential person writes such an open letter there will be a huge outcry against him on Twitter. It is baseless to say that Amitabh wrote the letter as a publicity stunt, ahead of his film’s release. He is Amitabh Bachchan, the God of Indian cinema. He will never do that for marketing himself.
Kenney Jacob, social media expert: ‘No one on social media is spared’
Twitter has a diverse mix of people, and some can be touchy. Having said that, if everyone agrees to what the mainstream media puts out, what’s the point of social media? I don’t think Amitabh Bachchan did anything wrong by involving his granddaughters for a movie promotion; the trick worked. Like they say, there is no such thing as bad publicity. A private company making the Indian PM their poster boy is what is unethical. Super stars in India still have an aura and continue to have a huge fan following. However, no one on social media is spared from criticism.
Ivan Mehta, tech writer: ‘Celebrities are still centre of attraction on social media’
It’s surely okay to use social media for marketing. But if you execute it badly it can hurt your image and it ends up looking like a stunt. The star system still exists — the celebrities are still the centre of attraction, even on social media. And since they are more visible, they end up being watched all the time. Every step they end up taking goes under a scanner of suspicious eyes.
Aditya Gupta, Co-founder, iGenero: ‘Now, Opinions of audiences are tangible’
We see this as overactive social media only because now opinions of audiences are tangible. Traditional media would have covered the same thing during the pre-social media phase — people might still have expressed their harsh or blunt opinions but those wouldn’t reach a bigger group. It would perhaps be discussed over dinner, or a party as a passing comment. The star status hasn’t diminished, if anything, it has got another metric to measure — how many twitter followers does an actor have, how well does he/she tweet, how quirky/stupid the celebrity is on Twitter. Twitter has given traditional media and fans yet another point of contact with the celebrities and yet another facet to discuss about.
Anitha Kholay, fashion designer and car rallyist: ‘It works as a publicity stunt for the movie’
It indeed works as a publicity stunt for his upcoming movie Pink, since the timing of this tweet seems apt at this point. Having said that, I have to confess this was a thoughtfully written message that also sends out a strong social message. A personality like Amitabh Bachchan already has a huge fan base, and may not require a publicity strategy whatsoever, but there’s always a right time for everything, so maybe he feels this was the perfect time to send out this message.
