The social media was rattled yesterday (March 15) when superstar Aamir Khan posted on Twitter and Instagram around 4.30 p.m. that he was quitting all social media. For a celebrity with 26.7 million-plus followers on Twitter and 3.6 million-plus followers on Instagram, this couldn’t have been an easy decision. After all, how many people in India or even the entire world can boast of 2.67 crore followers on Twitter and 0.36 crore followers on Instagram, that too with such low participation. Believe it or not but the Dangal star had posted just 986 tweets in the 11 years of his presence on Twitter and just 147 pictures on Instagram in the two-and-a-half years he was on Instagram. It is not easy to garner such a following on social media platforms. And, therefore, it requires courage of a high level to be able to sacrifice all that following. It is not as if Aamir can take these millions of followers elsewhere. Now that he has quit the social media, he has lost touch with all of them and each one of them. From being (Twitter/Instagram) family, they have become strangers in a split-second. If that isn’t brave, what is?
Most celebrities mark their presence on social media so that they can be in direct touch with their fans all over the globe. Since time immemorial, stars have shared a love-hate relationship with the media. Generally speaking, stars consider journalists fair or biased depending on whether they write good or bad about them or their films. That is why social media became so popular among the stars who, for the first time, felt, they could do without the media which they often described as “biased”. Of course, stars never could completely do without the media because they soon realised the worth of the fourth estate despite marking their presence on platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Frankly, social media is a double-edged sword. With the bouquets on social media come the brickbats. Since one needn’t reveal his true identity on platforms like Twitter, many “fans” use Twitter to spew venom on the stars they follow. So while the number of followers determines the popularity of the stars, these very followers can insult, ridicule or badmouth the same stars on the same platform. Like all other stars, Aamir Khan has also often been at the receiving end on social media. Karan Johar had once said, “After waking up every morning, when I am on Twitter, I am made to feel that I am the most horrible person to be born on Mother Earth, that I have no right to live. Your followers on Twitter can make you feel like a worm, and many are on the platform only to underline your worthlessness.” One is also reminded of the outburst of Amitabh Bachchan on the same platform while he was recovering from coronavirus at Bombay’s Nanavati Hospital in July last year. Someone had wondered on Twitter why Bachchan was not dying of the virus. That did it! The generally non-controversial Bachchan tweeted such a horrific (but befitting) reply to the faceless and frustrated soul that one suspects, he may have exited the platform for good. Amitabh cursed him (“May you burn in your own stew”) and even threatened him. The veteran star wrote a blogpost on 28th July, 2020, in which he said that though he had not asked his “incensed” followers to take any action yet, he would if he (Amitabh Bachchan) survived COVID-19. He warned that he would tell them, “Thok do saale ko.” (Kill the bas@#*d). Amitabh described the troll using such Hindi words as Mahishasur, charitraheen, besharam, behaya etc. Referring to his 90 million-plus followers, Amitabh had said, “They are a force incensed… they traverse the entire world… from the West to the East, from the North to the South… and that extended family shall in the flash of an eye become ‘extermination family’.” Spewing venom, Bachchan wrote to the troll, “Hey Mr. Anonymous, you do not even write your father’s name because you do not know who fathered you… There are only two things that could happen… either I shall die or either I shall live. If I die, you won’t get to write your diatribe anymore, by weathering your remark on a celebrity name… pity… for, the reason of your writing to be noticed was, because you took a swipe at Amitabh Bachchan… that shall no longer exist!” Bachchan cursed the troll at the end of his blog by saying, “May you burn in your own stew!”
Stars are a thick-skinned lot. In fact, you cannot be a star if you do not have the courage to stomach criticism. That’s because, no star can expect to be a part of only hit or successful films throughout his career. He is bound to face criticism at some stage or the other in his career. In other words, he has to get used to failure alongside enjoying success. Perhaps, that’s the reason why stars are on platforms like Twitter and Instagram. If they are not on social media, they may never come in direct contact with their fans. In such a scenario, criticism does not reach them as directly as when they are on social media. But it is also true that smaller stars are signed for films these days basis the number of followers they have on social media. Producers feel, the mileage their films will get at the time of release would be far greater if their stars have huge following on social media. Nobody has calculated whether this mileage actually translates into box-office collections but in the absence of proof to the contrary, the belief holds that stars with a huge number of followers on Instagram and Twitter can bring the audience to the cinemas. Why, there are some who believe that stars with a large number of followers on social media platforms are more necessary than good scripts!! Of course, this holds good in the case of young stars. Heroes like Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan or Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan don’t need to prove their worth on the basis of the number of their followers. However, exiting social media must surely not be an easy task. It must be leaving a star with a feeling of emptiness. For, stars are lonely people, as it is. Their followers are like their extended families. To bid goodbye to one’s family in one stroke requires courage extraordinaire. After all, how many more stars, with such following on social media, would think of quitting from there?