Baahubali Producer Shobu Yarlagadda Craves Complete Digital Disconnect

Tollywood producer Shobu Yarlagadda of Baahubali fame has tweeted what a great luxury it would be to live without a cell phone and social media presence of any kind. He has quoted Pico Iyer from his recent interview for a travel magazine, in his tweet. For the uninitiated, Pico Iyer is the famous British born essayist & novelist known primarily for his travel based writings.

Following is the actual tweet by the ace film maker -

“I don’t have a cell phone of any kind. I don’t know much about the influencers on social media and I’ve never been on Facebook.” – Pico Iyer! What a luxury! Just the thought is making me feel so free!”

The tweet while expressing the film maker’s fascination with the idea also highlights the stress caused by the need and obligation to be continuously digitally connected and have an “always on” social media presence with real time responses and activities. It underscores how the need to be always connected is encroaching upon our time and sense of freedom.

Venkat Madal with handle @venky4a tweeted in response “be connected, disconnect whenever you need, use the switch”.

Another user with handle @kalaposhakuduu tweeted “Nijam cheppandi. If you really wanted, you could disconnect and do something you love for peaceful life. Privilege and time undi for many of you successful people. Yet the chaos is so imbibed, most don’t know what to do without it.”

Another user @chaitu_gymn stated that “Not using phone is a privilege these days.”

One of the notable examples of complete digital disconnect by a celebrity is, when some years ago, Bollywood actor Amir Khan had gone on 3 months’ vacation without a cell phone with his then wife Kiran Rao.