Who’s the most Googled Telugu actor of 2016? Well, fans of NTR and Allu Arjun can’t seem to agree on a single answer as both groups have been battling it out online in a bid to prove that their favourite cine idol occupies the top spot. All this, even before Google India made an official announcement about the trends of 2016.
On Wednesday, fans of both the actors began tweeting with the hashtags #MostSearchedTeluguStarNTR and #MostSearchedTeluguStarAA, with each one trying to outshine the other. What ensued was an ugly war of words, memes and images, so characteristic of social media.
The Nandamuri scion’s fans have been circulating an image from Google trends where NTR is seen in the lead.
Each actor’s fans have since been validating their claim with the help of records and calling the others ‘fake’. Bunny’s fans are calling him the ‘King of Social Media’ — thanks to his huge number of followers on Facebook, for getting the fastest million followers on Twitter, his proximity to Malayalam audiences and entry into Kollywood. But fans of NTR aren’t to be left behind as they have been talking about his track record this year — an avant garde film like Nannaku Prematho where his makeover drew him a lot of attention and a blockbuster like Janatha Garage, which got the highest TRPs on television.
While the Nandamuri scion’s fans have been circulating an image from Google trends where NTR is seen in the lead, Bunny’s fans say that it can’t be considered because the phrase is too generic and could imply Sr NTR too! The NTR camp however, has already begun celebrating while Allu Arjun’s PR machinery is confident that he will hold the record no matter what.
A source close to one of the actors shares, “The result is different for different keywords on Google. For instance, NTR can be searched as just NTR, Jr NTR or NTR Jr. Same is the case with Allu Arjun, who is also called Bunny. So it’s not that simple. People have just been comparing Twitter trends and coming to deductions. That’s not how the rating system works.”
For now, the numbers game is on. The battle between fans of the two actors has turned ugly and distasteful, reminding one of the fight between fans of Ajith and Vijay in Kollywood, which peaked to such extremes that the abuses started trending. We can only hope that the urge to prove the superiority of their idol doesn’t turn as ugly as that!
