Posted:
Dear Readers,
If I don't post this blog right away, I'm afraid
@Kareena_No1 on Twitter will have me hung,
drawn and quartered. My apologies. I've been
busy, so I'm just sitting down to discuss this poll
question I had asked you earlier this month:
WHICH BOLLYWOOD STAR HAS THE MOST ACTIVE
FANS ON THE NET?
Here's how you voted:
34% of you believe Kareena Kapoor Khan has the
most active fans on the Internet.
25% believe it's Aishwarya Rai Bachchan .
15% picked Shahid Kapoor fans.
7% of you voted for Rani Mukerji 's fans.
4% each believe that Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika
Padukone's fans are most active on the Net.
3% - Salman Khan's fans.
2% - Priyanka Chopra 's fans.
1% - Amitabh Bachchan 's fans.
Those who didn't get any votes at all: fans of
Ranbir Kapoor, Preity Zinta, Aamir Khan, Madhuri
Dixit-Nene, Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Hrithik
Roshan, Sonam Kapoor, Katrina Kaif .
MY TAKE:
If you were to go by the raging battles on the social
media, it would seem that Shah Rukh Khan and
Salman Khan are the Bollywood stars who have the
most active fans on the Internet. Yet, it's Amitabh
Bachchan who has the largest number of followers
on most platforms (7.2 million followers on
Twitter, 6.9 million likes on FB as I write this post)
- and if you follow such things closely you will see
his fans too are quick to zero in on anyone
seeming remotely critical of him.
From personal experience I can tell you that the
most overwhelmingly positive response I've ever
got to a query on Twitter has been from Rani
Mukerji fans. When I was hosting an interview
show for Headlines Today till three years back, I
used to have a Twitter section in which I'd ask my
guest questions sent to me by people following me
on Twitter. No stars' fans have ever flooded me
with as many questions and messages as Rani's
fans would when I'd alert them about an
interview. They sent me so many tweets for one
particular show, that when I printed them out it
came to 35 pages! This was about 5 years back,
Rani was already floundering in the industry at the
time and it was clear that her decision to stick
primarily to Yashraj Films' projects combined with
the industry's tendency to tire easily of heroines
had damaged her career, possibly irreparably.
From her fans' messages though, it was evident
that there was a hunger among them to see her in
more films and in substantial roles. The experience
of that interview with Rani set my mind ticking so I
checked the Twitter account of her contemporary
Preity Zinta whose acting career was clearly pretty
much over by then. The numbers were startling:
she has 2.6 million followers as of now with not a
single film in hand and none in sight, and even
today they remain a very active community. Again,
from the messages being sent to her, it was clear
that there was a hardcore fan following yearning to
see her in more films and solid roles.
On a not-so-positive note, when I first joined
Twitter, I found the fans who tried to intimidate
me the most were Salman Khan fans - back then
they'd pick on every single tweet I posted on
Bollywood heroes and allege an anti-Salman bias
for the most laughable reasons, I assume to put me
on the defensive. Was I doing something wrong, I
wondered? This is obviously exactly the question
they wanted me to ask myself. I was reviewing
films for Headlines Today at the time and for
weeks before a Salman film's release, they'd start
sending tweets of this sort: We know you media
are all pro-SRK and anti-Salman so it goes without
saying you will give Bhai's film a bad review. After
a while I began to realise that this was a
psychological game to influence critics who might
consequently, at a sub-conscious level, hesitate to
give a negative review even if they were genuinely
unfavourably inclined towards a particular Salman
film. Was I being singled out for such attention?
Was I flattering myself that people thought I
mattered enough to be targeted with such mind
games? Fearing that my ego was getting the better
of me, I visited the Twitter accounts of critics from
rival channels and newspapers and found that they
were all being similarly targeted, some mildly as I
was, and some rather viciously.
Then when Guzaarish was released and I happened
to tweet my thoughts about the film I had my most
unpleasant experience ever on Twitter. Fans of
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan
bombarded me with tweets threatening all forms of
violence including rape and murder on me and my
family, while directing the most vile abuse at me,
my family and my organisation. I immediately
visited the Twitter accounts of critics from two
rival channels and whaddyaknow: the very Twitter
handles that were attacking me that day were
writing to both of them with the exact same threats
and abuse. That's when I devised my personal
social media policy (for want of a better word) that
I intend to practice for all time to come: NEVER
REPLY TO ABUSE AND THREATS. It helped. In time
I found that abusers melted away. I'd like to
assume with Gandhian conviction that this
happened because there is limited satisfaction to be
derived from cursing and threatening a person
who refuses to respond. Now I find the people on
my followers list are primarily interesting film
buffs with whom one can engage in a sensible
conversation; the insecure, verbally violent sort
rarely bother me now.
Question is: from personal experience, do I
conclude that the Bollywood stars with the most
active fans on the Internet are Salman, Rani,
Aishwarya and Hrithik? Not necessarily. First, I
believe it is unfair to gauge the fan activity of male
and female stars with the same barometer. It is an
achievement for the female stars and a measure of
their extreme charisma (which the industry does
not fully tap) that they have such massive fan
followings considering that they almost never get
the kind of larger-than-life roles that the men get.
Second, the heavy activity among female stars' fans
shows a keenness to see them in the sort of projects
that made them stars in the first place. Goes
without saying, there are not enough such projects
going around. After a while, the enthusiasm of the
fan followings is bound to dwindle. Third, a star
may have active fans on the Net even without
being personally present on any web platform.
Aishwarya, Kareena, Katrina, Rani and Ranbir are
proof of that. Fourth, numbers don't necessarily
indicate activity, which is why when I uploaded
this poll, I urged readers to read the question
carefully. To my mind - and this is purely from
observation - though Bachchan fans are extremely
active on the Net, fans of SRK and Salman are even
more so, possibly because Bachchan's numerous
projects are still the sort that one would see in a
star's second innings whereas SRK and Salman are
right now at their peak. What about fans of the
third Khan? Well, though Aamir is a massive star,
he himself is relatively indifferent to the Net
therefore the other two end up scoring over him in
this respect. On the other hand, because of the kind
of projects SRK and Salman choose, the kind of fan
Shah Rukh attracts is more likely to be already
active on the Net and able to articulate their views
in comparison with the average Salman fan (not
all, but most, please note). My guesstimate - which,
incidentally, mirrors the analysis of the film
industry too - is that Shah Rukh and Aamir fans
have similar profiles while Salman and Akshay
fans have similar profiles in terms of education,
background and so on.
My vote therefore:
Among the female stars, I'd say the ones with the
most active fans on the Net (in this order) are: (1)
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (2) Priyanka Chopra (3)
Rani Mukerji (4) Kareena Kapoor Khan (5) Deepika
Padukone
Among the male stars, I'd estimate this order of fan
activity: (1) Shah Rukh Khan (2) Salman Khan (3)
Amitabh Bachchan (4) Akshay Kumar (5) Shahid
Kapoor
Signing off now. Do vote in the next
poll which will soon be up.
Warm regards,
Anna
annavetticadgoes2themovies.blogspot.in/2013/11/poll-3-bebo-vs-ash-vs-srk-vs-salman-vs.html?spref=tw&m=1
If I don't post this blog right away, I'm afraid
@Kareena_No1 on Twitter will have me hung,
drawn and quartered. My apologies. I've been
busy, so I'm just sitting down to discuss this poll
question I had asked you earlier this month:
WHICH BOLLYWOOD STAR HAS THE MOST ACTIVE
FANS ON THE NET?
Here's how you voted:
34% of you believe Kareena Kapoor Khan has the
most active fans on the Internet.
25% believe it's Aishwarya Rai Bachchan .
15% picked Shahid Kapoor fans.
7% of you voted for Rani Mukerji 's fans.
4% each believe that Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika
Padukone's fans are most active on the Net.
3% - Salman Khan's fans.
2% - Priyanka Chopra 's fans.
1% - Amitabh Bachchan 's fans.
Those who didn't get any votes at all: fans of
Ranbir Kapoor, Preity Zinta, Aamir Khan, Madhuri
Dixit-Nene, Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Hrithik
Roshan, Sonam Kapoor, Katrina Kaif .
MY TAKE:
If you were to go by the raging battles on the social
media, it would seem that Shah Rukh Khan and
Salman Khan are the Bollywood stars who have the
most active fans on the Internet. Yet, it's Amitabh
Bachchan who has the largest number of followers
on most platforms (7.2 million followers on
Twitter, 6.9 million likes on FB as I write this post)
- and if you follow such things closely you will see
his fans too are quick to zero in on anyone
seeming remotely critical of him.
From personal experience I can tell you that the
most overwhelmingly positive response I've ever
got to a query on Twitter has been from Rani
Mukerji fans. When I was hosting an interview
show for Headlines Today till three years back, I
used to have a Twitter section in which I'd ask my
guest questions sent to me by people following me
on Twitter. No stars' fans have ever flooded me
with as many questions and messages as Rani's
fans would when I'd alert them about an
interview. They sent me so many tweets for one
particular show, that when I printed them out it
came to 35 pages! This was about 5 years back,
Rani was already floundering in the industry at the
time and it was clear that her decision to stick
primarily to Yashraj Films' projects combined with
the industry's tendency to tire easily of heroines
had damaged her career, possibly irreparably.
From her fans' messages though, it was evident
that there was a hunger among them to see her in
more films and in substantial roles. The experience
of that interview with Rani set my mind ticking so I
checked the Twitter account of her contemporary
Preity Zinta whose acting career was clearly pretty
much over by then. The numbers were startling:
she has 2.6 million followers as of now with not a
single film in hand and none in sight, and even
today they remain a very active community. Again,
from the messages being sent to her, it was clear
that there was a hardcore fan following yearning to
see her in more films and solid roles.
On a not-so-positive note, when I first joined
Twitter, I found the fans who tried to intimidate
me the most were Salman Khan fans - back then
they'd pick on every single tweet I posted on
Bollywood heroes and allege an anti-Salman bias
for the most laughable reasons, I assume to put me
on the defensive. Was I doing something wrong, I
wondered? This is obviously exactly the question
they wanted me to ask myself. I was reviewing
films for Headlines Today at the time and for
weeks before a Salman film's release, they'd start
sending tweets of this sort: We know you media
are all pro-SRK and anti-Salman so it goes without
saying you will give Bhai's film a bad review. After
a while I began to realise that this was a
psychological game to influence critics who might
consequently, at a sub-conscious level, hesitate to
give a negative review even if they were genuinely
unfavourably inclined towards a particular Salman
film. Was I being singled out for such attention?
Was I flattering myself that people thought I
mattered enough to be targeted with such mind
games? Fearing that my ego was getting the better
of me, I visited the Twitter accounts of critics from
rival channels and newspapers and found that they
were all being similarly targeted, some mildly as I
was, and some rather viciously.
Then when Guzaarish was released and I happened
to tweet my thoughts about the film I had my most
unpleasant experience ever on Twitter. Fans of
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan
bombarded me with tweets threatening all forms of
violence including rape and murder on me and my
family, while directing the most vile abuse at me,
my family and my organisation. I immediately
visited the Twitter accounts of critics from two
rival channels and whaddyaknow: the very Twitter
handles that were attacking me that day were
writing to both of them with the exact same threats
and abuse. That's when I devised my personal
social media policy (for want of a better word) that
I intend to practice for all time to come: NEVER
REPLY TO ABUSE AND THREATS. It helped. In time
I found that abusers melted away. I'd like to
assume with Gandhian conviction that this
happened because there is limited satisfaction to be
derived from cursing and threatening a person
who refuses to respond. Now I find the people on
my followers list are primarily interesting film
buffs with whom one can engage in a sensible
conversation; the insecure, verbally violent sort
rarely bother me now.
Question is: from personal experience, do I
conclude that the Bollywood stars with the most
active fans on the Internet are Salman, Rani,
Aishwarya and Hrithik? Not necessarily. First, I
believe it is unfair to gauge the fan activity of male
and female stars with the same barometer. It is an
achievement for the female stars and a measure of
their extreme charisma (which the industry does
not fully tap) that they have such massive fan
followings considering that they almost never get
the kind of larger-than-life roles that the men get.
Second, the heavy activity among female stars' fans
shows a keenness to see them in the sort of projects
that made them stars in the first place. Goes
without saying, there are not enough such projects
going around. After a while, the enthusiasm of the
fan followings is bound to dwindle. Third, a star
may have active fans on the Net even without
being personally present on any web platform.
Aishwarya, Kareena, Katrina, Rani and Ranbir are
proof of that. Fourth, numbers don't necessarily
indicate activity, which is why when I uploaded
this poll, I urged readers to read the question
carefully. To my mind - and this is purely from
observation - though Bachchan fans are extremely
active on the Net, fans of SRK and Salman are even
more so, possibly because Bachchan's numerous
projects are still the sort that one would see in a
star's second innings whereas SRK and Salman are
right now at their peak. What about fans of the
third Khan? Well, though Aamir is a massive star,
he himself is relatively indifferent to the Net
therefore the other two end up scoring over him in
this respect. On the other hand, because of the kind
of projects SRK and Salman choose, the kind of fan
Shah Rukh attracts is more likely to be already
active on the Net and able to articulate their views
in comparison with the average Salman fan (not
all, but most, please note). My guesstimate - which,
incidentally, mirrors the analysis of the film
industry too - is that Shah Rukh and Aamir fans
have similar profiles while Salman and Akshay
fans have similar profiles in terms of education,
background and so on.
My vote therefore:
Among the female stars, I'd say the ones with the
most active fans on the Net (in this order) are: (1)
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (2) Priyanka Chopra (3)
Rani Mukerji (4) Kareena Kapoor Khan (5) Deepika
Padukone
Among the male stars, I'd estimate this order of fan
activity: (1) Shah Rukh Khan (2) Salman Khan (3)
Amitabh Bachchan (4) Akshay Kumar (5) Shahid
Kapoor
Signing off now. Do vote in the next
poll which will soon be up.
Warm regards,
Anna
annavetticadgoes2themovies.blogspot.in/2013/11/poll-3-bebo-vs-ash-vs-srk-vs-salman-vs.html?spref=tw&m=1
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