Pehchaan kaun?

By IndiaFM News Bureau, January 20, 2006 - 01:33 IST


Everything a celebrity does becomes a statement. And the latest medium to make this statement is via your cell phone. Technology is improving and fast! And our stars are making the best out of it… Personalized tunes are the latest rage. It's not uncommon to call someone and get greeted by a jazzy song or dialogue in the form of a ring back tone or a ringtone. So let's have a look at what's playing on the phones of our favorite celebs…

The wacky ones…

Bipasha Basu gives new meaning to the term wacky. Call her up and you will be greeted by her own voice, frantically searching for her phone. And she asking everyone from her Mom to her dog Poshto where her phone is! This one gets full marks for creativity. Incidentally, when a couple of months back we had asked her, she had said that her ringtone is the boring tring tring. But looks like she just could not resist the idea! Her other half, John Abraham has a tune we could have guessed. Call him and you will hear the sound of bikes whizzing by!

Another creative ring back tone we came across was that of Hrishita Bhatt. It has Ashok Kumar's voice saying, "Are beta tumne itne dino ke baad phone kiya" Funny! Very funny!

Apart from dialogues, it is common practice for Bollywood celebrities to have the songs of their latest projects as their ring back tones. Last year, when Tanushree Dutta hit the scene, she had two releases lined up back to back. As she stated back then, for 15 days in a month it's the title track of Aashiq Banaya Aapne and for the other 15 days it is Halka Halka Sa Nasha from Chocolate. That's diplomacy at its best!

Call Kunal Khemu and you can hear the song picturised on him, Tujhe dekh dekh from Kalyug. In fact, even his ring tone is that same. His co-star Deepal Shaw greets people with the song Dheere Dheere from Kalyug which was picturised on her. Shreyas Talpade, who mesmerized us with his performance in Iqbal, has the song Aashayein from the same film as his ring back tone as well as his ringtone. In fact, that's the same album you will hear in his car. Item girl Rakhi Sawant has the song Hothon Pe Aisi Baat, in which she was featured. Celina Jaitley, however didn't choose her own song but Kangna by Dr. Zeus as her ringtone.

Music directors have it easy as they can use their own compositions as tones. Take Anu Malik for instance, who greets people with Dil Chura Ke from No Entry. According to him, "People are glad that I have it. Phone nahin bhi uthate to hum gaana sunte rehte hain. It's a huge compliment!" It sure is! Similarly, Bappi Lahiri's preferences keep fluctuating between his own compositions Jawani Jaaneman and Raat Baaki.

Similar is the case of film makers who have a wide range of music to choose from. Director Madhur Bhandarkar's pick is the song Kitne ajeeb rishtey from his own film Page 3. Says Pritish Nandy "My ring tone is the one from my own film Chameli. I have made many films after that but the rain dance by Kareena still continues to haunt me." On the topic of video ring tones he says, "I have heard of video ringtones but I haven't used them."

One of the most popular ring back tones in the past few months has been Right Here Right Now from Bluffmaster. Says television actress Rakshanda Khan, "When people call me, they hear Abhishek's voice. But my ringtone is weird. I can't describe it. It's a woman voice saying strange things. You don't wanna hear it." Okay, so we don't want to know!

There are some who prefer something more traditional. When we asked Mandira Bedi, she replied, "For years I had Saare Jahaan Se Achcha. I like that a lot though I don't have it on this particular phone. I don't generally download. If any of my friends have a good ring tone, I asked them to send it to me." Mohit Suri, who directed Zeher and Kalyug, likes to keep it spiritual with the Gayatri Mantra.

And the not so wacky…

Then there are those who seem completely unaffected by this phenomenon and are not really bothered. The super-suave Kabir Bedi tops this list. "I don't download ringtones. I just have the most normal, boring, practical, functional tone. I think life is complicated enough without having ringtones or ring back tones. I'm happy that people just hear the phone ring when they call me." Quiz him about video tones and he replies, "I haven't heard of video ring tones though it sounds interesting. I must confess that a lot of my life runs on sms! But video ringtones does sound like a good idea!"

We asked a host of television personalities on their choices! Kabir Bedi's sentiments are echoed by Bhavna Balsavar. "My ring tone is a normal tring tring like my landline. I don't like caller tunes. I should feel like the phone is ringing and not like the radio is playing. My phone can have video ring tones .But I don't have any."

The Nach Baliye couple Varun and Rajeshwari have similar views. Varun's phone is always on the lowest volume. And his wife likes to keep her phone 'normal' so that she knows that the phone is ringing! Comments Mona Singh a.k.a. Jassi "My ringtone is the Nokia ringtone. I don't download. If I want to listen to music, I'd rather listen to it at home or in my car. And I haven't heard of the concept of video ringtones." Even Govind Namdev states that he does not have a favorite ringtone.

So for all those crazy ideas, we even have some who are completely aloof. But who knows? Maybe a couple of months from now, the trend will have caught on. Just like it did for Bipasha Basu. Better late than never, what say?