I have a new respect for Twitter since I started following Bollywood celebs – it’s the democracy of interaction and the immediacy of hearing the news from the horse’s mouth without the intervention of gossip magazines. The complete lack of punctuation and slaphappy grammar makes it even more laid back and buddy-like.
“Amit uncle is just a man with incomparable dignity and perfect protocol…his aura and stature pierces through his humility…he defines us!” writes Karan Johar about Amitabh Bachchan, and somehow those 140 characters coming from Karan give you a more precise picture than maybe a long interview could.
Then you have Shekhar Kapur’s tweets which show you that celebrities are human too – “got my flight all mixed up. Heading to the airport and saw the ticket, The flights tomorrow ! One more day in sunny LA ! Yay !” (I once landed up at the wrong airport in Switzerland, so I can perfectly relate to that!)
Celebs, usually taciturn with details about whom they meet, are pretty gregarious on Twitter. Tweets Shekhar Kapur: “just had lunch with my friend Dr Raj Kanodia – the most popular plastic surgeon in Hollywood – his list is like a who’s who of this town.”
And then yet another tweet: “Would you get plastic surgery?”
You also have routine stuff which shows you famous people also do the things regular people do. Riteish Deshmukh tweets: “Movie time with the family.3 IDIOTS. Most of us are watching it for the second time. Absolutely excited.”
Preity Zinta’s tweet shows the mix of reel and real life: “Nothing like meeting up with childhood friends & laughing at old times ! They still cannot believe I am an actor & I dat they are parents!”
You get to realize that being an actor isn’t all champagne and roses – Abhishek Bachchan, whose twitter handle is juniorbachchan, is probably one of the hardest working actors out there. One of his tweets says it all: ‘The night continues.’ Yet another: ‘Just reached home after a looooong night at work. Have to sleep now, for another long night awaits just round the corner. Good night.”
Sometimes you feel a bit of an eavesdropper, listening in on private conversations. Tweets Shashi Tharoor, the most celebrated Tweeter, “Wonder why Bollywood film producers haven’t yet discovered LatinAmerican locations. Beautiful, also warmer &cheaper than Europe! @kjohar25”
Responds Karan Johar: “@ShashiTharoor…hi…will definitely be taking a trip after the release of my film…a holiday and a location scout. Hope to show u MNIK!”
You do feel a bit invasive, listening to these one-on-one chats.
The best, however, are Shah Rukh Khan’s tweets – they are positively addictive. He tells you about everything, including his on-going cold.
“yeah kinda long day.will have to see a doc again…u all said the cold goes away in 3 days…mine is heading towards a silver jubilee..”
And then: “on a personal front cold still remains intact…but feel a bit better…so will go and work out a bit. sweating makes me feel better.”
And as he heads off for his workout, another tweet so typically Shah Rukh: “when was the last time you did something for the first time. so go ahead and give new a chance…the old will be there forever if u need it.”
Listening to Shah Rukh on Twitter is a quickie on positive thinking, almost like you’ve seen King Khan’s movie in 140 characters!
For those of you who want to follow the glitterati twitterati, here are some leads.
Shah Rukh Khan – Iamsrk
Karan Johar – Kjohar25
Deepika Padukone – DeepikaCalling
Rahul Khanna – R_Khanna
Priyanka Chopra – priyankachopra
Abhishek Bachchan – Juniorbachchan
Riteish Deshmukh – Riteishd
Shekhar Kapur – shekharkapur
AR. Rahman – arrahman
Preity Zinta – realpreitizinta
Lisa Ray – lisaraniray
