Social media doesn’t have much bearing on Bollywood: Abhishek
Mumbai– Actor Abhishek Bachchan feels the film industry is often misunderstood on online platforms and that there are no rules for or repercussions of what you say there.
The actor said this as he appeared alongside writer-comedian Varun Grover in an episode of Janice Sequeira-created online show “Social Media Star”.
According to Abhishek, in recent times, the industry has often been misunderstood as “rigid and closed to criticism” in social media.
“I think there’s a huge misrepresentation and misconception about the film industry. This is a place I’ve grown up in. If you have an opinion, you’re allowed to share it. There’s no rule saying that you can’t say what you want.
“There are no repercussions. Just because someone is expressing a particular point of view, people are not going to stop working with them.”
The 42-year-old actor, son of megastar Amitabh Bachchan, emphasised that eventually all that matters in show business is talent.
“It doesn’t matter whose kid you are or what connections you have. The only thing that matters is, can you do your job well and does the audience like that? If you’re talented, nobody is going to care what you’ve tweeted about. It’s a business at the end of the day.”
“Social Media Star”, which airs fortnightly on Firstpost, Network18, pairs up unlikely celebrities who have found ways to use various digital platforms in interesting ways.
Big B loses over 4 lakh followers on Twitter, SRK, Salman over 3 lakh
Mumbai– Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan’s extended family on Twitter dropped by over 424,000, while Shah Rukh Khan’s followers depleted by over 362,141 and Salman Khan lost 340,884 followers, among other film celebrities as a result of the ‘sanitisation’ of the micro-blogging platform.
Twitter decided to sanitise the platform by removing inactive and locked accounts. So, a lot of popular names from the film industry ended up with reduced followers.
SocialBlade.com that tracks the number of Twitter followers on a daily basis, had a tab on the count, and said Aamir Khan lost 316,900-plus followers, while Priyanka Chopra lost 354,830 followers and Deepika Padukone lost 288,298.
The micro-blogging platform was yet to come up with an official statement on this.
Twitter earlier this week announced it will remove locked accounts — which are disabled owing to suspicious activity — from follower counts across profiles globally. The locked accounts are different from spam or bots and in most cases, these accounts were created by real people.
The move is likely to affect high-profile users the most.
Celebrities like Divya Dutta, Onir and Apurva Asrani reacted on losing followers overnight.
Divya, who currently has a following of 493,000 fans on the micro-blogging website, tweeted on Thursday night: “Aiyyo, what happened Twitter… Sudden drop of thousands of followers in one hour!”
Filmmaker Onir wrote: “I just realised I lost 1,000 overnight… Same pinch… Laugh out loud Twitter India. What’s the secret?”
Writer-editor Apurva Asrani tweeted: “I lost 500 followers overnight. Wondering if this is the clean up of bots that Twitter mentioned earlier.”
Raghav, Punit donate almost Rs 200,000 to NGO
Mumbai– Actors and dancers Raghav Juyal and Punit Pathak, who won almost Rs 200,000 on the game show “Sabse Smart Kaun?”, have decided to donate the amount to NGO Jan Madhyam, which addresses the needs of disabled and disadvantaged young people.
The actors along with their “Nawabzaade” co-stars Dharmesh Yelande and actress Isha Rikhi have shot an episode of the show. Raghav and Punit teamed up against Dharmesh and Isha to see who is smarter.
Raghav and Punit went back home with almost Rs 200,000 on the show, read a statement.
“We are glad to have come on the show and participate in this game against each other. It was a lot of fun and obviously we were smarter than Dharmesh bhai and Isha. Whatever we win today, we would like to donate the amount to an NGO,” Raghav and Punit said.
“Sabse Smart Kaun?” is aired on Star Plus and Hotstar.
Kamal Haasan, Salman Khan to share screen space for first time
Mumbai– Superstars Kamal Haasan and Salman Khan will share screen for the first time on the reality television show “Dus Ka Dum”.
Kamal will be promoting his upcoming film “Vishwaroop 2” — the Hindi version of which will be presented by Rohit Shetty and Anil Ambani-led Reliance Entertainment — in the Salman-hosted show, read a statement.
There’s a common thread between the two actors — “Bigg Boss”. The Hindi version of the show is hosted by Salman, while the Tamil version is led by Kamal.
In 2013, during the release of “Vishwaroop”, when the controversy of banning the film was all over India, Salman had taken a stand and had strongly appealed his fans to watch it. Salman had also attended the film’s special screening by Kamal.
Now once again, the “Dabangg” star is going all out to support Kamal’s film.
The trailer of “Vishwaroop 2” was released in June.
Written, directed and produced by Kamal, it also stars Pooja Kumar, Andrea Jeremiah, Shekhar Kapur, Rahul Bose, Jaideep Ahlawat and Waheeda Rehman.
“Vishwaroop 2” is scheduled to release on August 10. It is a bilingual shot in Tamil and Hindi, and also dubbed in Telugu.
Divya Dutta loses ‘thousands’ of Twitter followers
Mumbai– Actress Divya Dutta “suddenly” lost thousands of followers on Twitter.
Divya, who currently has a following of 493,000 fans on the micro-blogging website, tweeted on Thursday night: “Aiyyo what happened Twitter… Sudden drop of thousands of followers in one hour!”
This is not the first time a celebrity has lost followers on Twitter. In February megastar Amitabh Bachchan accused the social media giant of reducing the number of his followers.
Her tweet comes after many prominent Twitter users across the world lost more than a million followers as federal and state agencies in the US started investigating shadowy agencies that sell fake followers.
On the work front, Divya will next be seen in “Fanney Khan”, which stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Anil Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao. The film is an official remake of the Belgian film “Everybody’s Famous!”.
Ajay Devgn to play football coach Syed Abdul Rahim
Mumbai– Actor Ajay Devgn will soon be bringing the life of legendary football coach Syed Abdul Rahim alive on the big screen through a biopic.
Rahim served the Indian football team as its coach and manager from 1950-1963. It was under his guidance that the Indian football team won Gold at the 1962 Asian Games and he also led the team to the semi-finals of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. He died of cancer at the age of 54.
Produced by Zee Studios, Boney Kapoor, Akash Chawla and Joy Sengupta, the yet untitled film will be directed by Amit Sharma, while the screenplay and dialogues are written by Saiwyn Quadros and Ritesh Shah respectively, read a statement.
Boney said: “It’s amazing to see football, world’s biggest game, having such a fever in India, and yet our team is not being sent to important tournaments. When my partners Akash Chawla and Joy Sengupta brought me the true story of Syed Abdul Rahim, I was amazed that not many are even aware of this unsung hero and the achievements of that great team which had heroes like Chunni Goswami, P.K. Banerjee, Balaram, Franco, Arun Ghosh among others.
“With the momentum of Khelo India getting pace, it’s time to push India.”
On getting Ajay on board, Boney said: “An actor like Ajay is most apt for essaying this character. We hope that the film inspires millions of youngsters and soon India plays in the World Cup and becomes a potent force in world football.”
Shariq Patel, CEO, Zee Studios, added: “We are happy to collaborate with Boney Kapoor once again to tell the story of India’s football coach, Syed Abdul Rahim. Ajay essaying the character makes it even more special.”
Ranveer Singh wants be like Akshay Kumar
Mumbai– Actor Ranveer Singh says he wants to be like actor Akshay Kumar.
Akshay had wished Ranveer on his birthday on July 6 and described him as a dynamite and a dynamic personality on Twitter.
“One word that comes to mind for Ranveer: Dynamite. Dynamic personality and vibes which always make you smile. Wishing you a very happy birthday and an explosive year ahead,” Akshay had written.
To which, Ranveer replied on Thursday night: “When I grow up, I want to be like Akshay Kumar! Love you sir!”
On the work front, the “Padmaavat” star is currently shooting for Rohit Shetty’s “Simmba”. He has two more films in his kitty “Gully Boy” and “’83”. (IANS)
