Amitabh Bachchan was once the country’s biggest superstar. And at 75, he continues to command unmatched star power and adulation. Proof? The hundreds of people who throng outside his residence every Sunday or the prime position that he enjoys in almost every public appearance that he makes. He must truly be a content man.
But sadly, his craving for attention on social media seem to point to another story.
Big B is active on social media and many times his online antics resemble that of attention seeking teens. One of his tweets from a few years ago says that out loud. “Seeking attention is a quality that requires “unabashed guile”! (Took me several attempts to get just the spelling right !!)” reads a tweet from May 1, 2013.
He gets particularly worked up when other stars fail to respond to his text messages. And he tweets out his displeasure, like he did recently when Anushka Sharma did not respond to his ‘Happy birthday’ SMS. “Anushka .. this is Amitabh Bachchan @Srbachchan .. wished you on May 1st via sms .. no response .. checked they said you changed number .. sent greetings again .. love and wishes .. you looked radiant at the IPL game last night,” (sic) he tweeted.
Actors like Preity Zinta, Akshay Kumar, Shilpa Shetty, Ranveer Singh and Sonam Kapoor have also received Big B’s peeved tweets for not responding to his birthday wishes.
Amitabh Bachchan tweets on his number of followers:
Dear Twitter Management , its quite amazing how you manage to keep numbers of followers CONSTANT, & not moving AT ALL despite maximum activity !!??????????.. well done !! I mean how do you keep the score board from not moving despite every ball being hit for a 6 !!
Arre yaar Twitter ji .. yaar ab toh hamare numbers badha do .. kab se itna kuch dal rahe hain .. kuch aur karna ho, number badhane ke liye to bolo.. TJKBM !!!
To Anushka Sharma
@AnushkaSharma .. Anushka .. this is Amitabh Bachchan @Srbachchan .. wished you on May 1st via sms .. no response .. checked they said you changed number .. sent greetings again .. love and wishes .. you looked radiant at the IPL game last night ????????
To Sonam Kapoor
Big B tweeted to Sonam Kapoor: “... and what about ME .. this is Amitabh Bachchan my dear .. i sent you an sms on your birthday and you never replied ..aaarrrgghh !!?? (sic).” To which an embarrased Sonam replied, “Oh my god sir!! I didn’t get it!! I always reply!! Thank you so much! I got @juniorbachchan message. I’m so so sorry (sic).”
To Shilpa Shetty
Shilpa ji ... !!! happy birthday .. important day and year for you .. sent you sms and to Raj .. did you get it ???
To Akshay Kumar
When Akshay took to Twitter to thank everyone for wishing him on his birthday, Big B wrote on Twitter, “@akshaykumar Yo Akshay !! hey ! I sent you sms greetings for birthday . Did you get it ? Or is your phone jammed ? Love and success always (sic).”
Conversation with Ranveer Singh
Replying to one of the birthday wishes asking his to keep challenging the unchallenged, Ranveer Singh tweeted, “thank you so much! that is the intention! love always (sic).” Big B slipped his tweet, mildly chiding Ranveer for ignoring his text message. “hey .. but what about my intention .. sent you sms greetings for your birthday .. did not get a reply .. did you see it ... (sic).”
Ranveer was quick to respond and tweeted, “Except that i TOTALLY replied! I just cross checked it too! You were in fact one of the first to even wish! (sic).” And later added, “And it’s the little things like these, that make you THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME !!! #bachchan #GOAT I’m blessed that you even know i exist! (sic).”
To Preity Zinta
Preity Zinta ...!! wherever you are, since you have refused to reply to my sms .. Ha ha ..A very happy birthday .. love and happiness
Ageism in the film industry!
So why are these stars not responding to Big B’s text messages? An industrywallah anonymously comments, “Actors’ phones will be with their managers while they are working. Plus, they receive hundreds of messages on special days. It’s possible that they may miss some. But we can never be sure. If an actor has time to tweet, he can respond to messages from important people. So, did they ignore Amitji’s texts? Your guess is as good as mine!”
But why call out the defaulters on Twitter? “People like him who have always been in the limelight would like to stay relevant. Why else would he be on Twitter? Secondly, he wants the attention which is going to someone else. Thirdly, I personally feel it is the age thing. You start feeling neglected because probably people are not paying as much attention to you as earlier. These are three most common factors that are usually at play,” says psychologist Parul Doshi. “There could also be a fourth factor narcissism,” she adds. Doshi also points that the present generation may not be as proactive as him, and he should try to understand it.
Bachchan, who has 34 million Twitter followers, does seem to be taking social media seriously. A large part of the promotions of his latest flick 102 Not Out was centered around on social media skills. And his obsession is also quite evident in his complains on about not getting more Twitter followers despite him sharing so much.
Sample this tweet on May 4, “Arre yaar Twitter ji .. yaar ab toh hamare numbers badha do .. kab se itna kuch dal rahe hain .. kuch aur karna ho, number badhane ke liye to bolo?????????????? .. TJKBM !!!” Earlier this year he threatened to quit Twitter because the number of his followers dropped.
“Social media has its pluses but being glued to it can be dangerous. In Bachchan’s case, it looks like a classic case of narcissism. We need to remember that there is life beyond social media. He still works as hard as in his youth, is getting many roles, so why should he bother about the number of followers at all!” concludes Doshi.
True that! Irrespective of who responds to his messages, and how many followers he has, what’s undeniable is that he is still one of the biggest stars in the world of entertainment. No hashtags required.
Learning a lesson
Omar Abdullah
@OmarAbdullah | Sir if you with 34 million followers still check your score board I shouldn’t feel silly at the occasional peek I take at my relatively minuscule tally
Raheel Khursheed
@Raheelk | At some point, one hopes @SrBachchan will realise that no one uses SMS anymore. Just tweet your wishes man. It is not a good idea to ignore wishes from Bollywood’s biggest star
