I was assigned some work by my university professor. I was supposed to find out Bollywood “TASHAN” among Kashmiri youth. Accordingly, I went to children’s park at Raj Bagh for interviewing some people for checking the impact of celebrity culture in their lives- how celebrities influence them, what they know about their celebrities, etc. I met two young people Suhail Amin and Kazim Shah for this purpose.
Suhail is in his mid twenties, running a computer documentation centre. Admittedly, he is a film bug and never misses a chance to watch movies. A big fan of Salman Khan, he has a big poster of the star in his office. He some years purchased a booklet on Salman Khan published by Stardust Magazine. He is quite aware of his favorite star’s history. He can name all his films, hits and flops. Suhail, admittedly, sported cowlicks in 2003 after watching Tere Naam. He buys being human T shirts and other stuff that makes him feel closer to his favorite celebrity. He has virtually become addicted to Mountain Dew after Salman advertised for it , and believes the popularity of the brand rose after Salman became its ambassador. The only thing he doesn’t follow is the earings that his star sports.
“ Someday, lemme first build a body like him”, he chuckles.
Kazim Shah runs a courier business in Raj Bagh. A young man in his early twenties, he is a big fan of Shahid Kapoor. He feels Kapoor is the ultimate star with boyish looks. What Ricardo Kaka is to soccer, Shahid is to Bollywood. A 10+2 pass out, Kazim does not keenly follow Bollywood except for his favorite star. He counts a few films of his favorite star and believes he looked good with Kareena Kapoor. He sports half sleeves more oftenly because of his favorite star. Furthermore, he feels that he should do more ads. He has watched Jab We Met nearly a hundred times and sported specs like his favorite star in the movie. He sports a crew cut because Shahid’s sports it these days. It has cost him 300 rupees at the hair dressing saloon.
From the above interactions we can conclude that Suhail follows his favorite celebrity more keenly. The reason for this can also be his literary taste. He like Kazim sports a crew cut like his favorite celebrity. Besides, he sports a bracelet like Salman and now and then checks the mirror. The brand value of celebrity is evident here as he consumes Mountain Dew from the past few years and in his own words has become addicted to it. Subconsciously, there seems an urge to be in the public eye for suhail. Affected mannerisms vouch for this fact. Furthermore, his interest in bodybuilding elaborates the point of celebrity influence in our day to day lives.
Kazim is an ardent fan of Shahid but cant seem to follow his favorite star more keenly. Being less privileged in education, TV is the only source of information for him. However, like Suhail , celebrity brand status is a big influence on him. He consequently, wears Short sleeved T shirts and dons a hair style that matches with his star. Both the cases go on show the influence of celebrity as a commercial enity.