Faking A Fan Following…How Authentic Are The Fan Responses ?

A  new  video  showing Priyanka Chopra emerging from an airport has been  caught out by observant  net users as being doctored. The same two fans who accost her at the beginning of the video are seen  running after her  again for autographs at the end.

Either the “fans” have  nothing better to  do than chase their  “favourite” star  on  the airport. Or , shocking  as it seems,these  are  hired fans.

The practice of  inflating fan participation at public places was earlier a phenomenon restricted  to politicians only. At election campaign rallies cheering audiences were habitually hired to make the politicians look more popular than they really were.Voters  were impressed  by the amplified crowds.

But  actors  following the same practice appears  an exercise in redundancy as  they already have a a massive following.

Shatrughan Sinha who has  faced  the  frenzy as both an actor and politician is surprisingly candid about “hired hysteria”.
Though he refrains  from commenting on  the  Priyanka video Shatrughan Sinha says, “Whether a film star  or a politicians he  or she  must look larger than life in public. It all about an image  creation. If you see no one chasing an actor  at the airport how would it look to the viewer  on the television  or  on the internet? On the other hand if we see so-called fans running after a  star it does create a positive impression on the onlooker. Personally I’ve never had to  hire crowds  to listen to me.  By  the Grace  of  God I’ve always had an attentive audience both as an actor and a politician.”

One of today’s top star-actors , recently much  in the news for exciting happenings in his personal life, has an over-enthusiastic  PR team which has  been instructed to  amass  ‘fan slabs’ at public events who are  generated on demand to shriek and shout when Mr Superstar shows up at the event(suitably late). He then waves at the  crowds as they  shriek and whistle.

While  major PR  companies refused to comment on the practice of hired hysteria  one prominent PR person on condition of anonymity confessed it is “common practice”. “Stars  no matter how big ,  have to order  swollen  crowds  for  their public outings. Why only airports  or restaurants ?Imagine what  a star’s  public outing would look like if  at a stage concert he  or she has a  near-empty auditorium? This happens  quite often  during star worldtours and “fans” are  given free tickets  to  fill the seats.”

A  young filmmaker failed to appreciate the hype around the Ranveer-Deepika wedding. “I wonder  if Indians all across the world actually set all their work aside on  the day of the wedding and waited baited breath for the wedding pictures.  Or was  it a  mere perception created  to hype up the  couple’s ‘very private’ wedding? Perhaps this is  how stars  have their  cake and eat  it too.”