Ladies and gentlemen, something truly significant happened on the second of January. (No, I’m not referring to your hangover, although doubtless that was epic as well.) On January 2, Shah Rukh Khan joined Twitter. Yes, that’s right. Time for all of you Twitter-haters to finally perk up and pay attention. Shah Rukh Khan, that’s King Khan to you, joins Mallika Sherawat, Priyanka Chopra, Dino Morea and other Bollywood stars who use the social media site to connect directly with fans throughout the world. As a Twitter addict and Bollywood fan, I admit I’m a little excited about this development. When I first heard (through Twitter of course) that SRK had joined Twitter, he had a mere 1200+ followers. Right now he has 24,947 followers, a number that will no doubt double in the next few days, perhaps even hours.
On his Twitter acount, SRK claims he was roped into joining Twitter through his friend, Karan Johar, who is also the director of Khan’s forthcoming film, “I am Khan.” No doubt the move is a well-timed publicity stunt to coincide with the film’s release. But it’s still significant given how few Bollywood stars are actually on Twitter. Khan’s first few Tweets (that’s status updates for you Facebookers/Luddites) are the usual mundane statements one would expect from a Twitter noob. He talks about his family, his back and his sleep schedule. Nothing to swoon over. But who cares? IT’S SHAH RUKH KHAN. I’m guessing his fans would be entertained if he spent his days tweeting about his pore treatments. Either way, the fact that in a few days SRK managed to gain a foothold in the Twitter follower race is a testament to the appeal of Twitter. Following your favorite celeb on Twitter gives you an inside look into the inner workings of their minds and allows you, sometimes directly, to have a conversation with them.
It’ll be interesting to see how Khan uses Twitter in the next few months. Will he interact with his fans a la Mallika (whose Twitter use while she was in America garnered her an invite from Twitter’s headquarters)? Can he surpasss Bollywood Twitter Queen, Priyanka Chopra’s 100,000 + followers? Use it to promote a blog like Amitabh? (By the way, how does the Big B have only 4,000 followers? Be warned, SRK, boring only gets you so far.) Get into trouble like Shashi Tharoor? We’ll just have to wait and see. (So far, his only @ response has been to journalist Barkha Dutt.) Perhaps he’ll pull a Miley Cyrus and leave in disgust? Personally, I’d like to see him go beyond the obviously PR benefits and use his platform to spread socially-conscious messages to his fans (perhaps promote charity work, etc). One can only dream. Either way, I’m glad he’s on Twitter. Hopefully he’s a good contributor. On the flip side, thanks to SRK, now my mom wants to learn more about Twitter. As long as she doesn’t follow me, it’s all good.
What about you folks? If you’re on Twitter, are you following SRK? If you haven’t joined Twitter and you’re an SRK fan, does the fact that he’s on it make you change your mind? Lemme know. Also, if there are any other Bollywood folks on Twitter that you recommend we follow, do tell.
(h/t Sugi)
