May 11, 2008

Bol Bachchan

He's good. Amitabh Bachchan has been blogging for almost a month, and as noted by one very devoted fan1, he writes well. But more importantly for a celeblogger, the opinions seem to flow straight from those long fingers (via a Macbook). The punches that would sweep aside life members of Bollywood's Hall of Shame on screen aren't being held back.

The timing was interesting. AB has been in the news for much of this year2, and crucially, much of it has been aimed at him personally or has just been obnoxious3. The feeling of 'being used', especially by the media, perhaps tipped over a pain threshold. It's a different thing that the same media has now switched to using the blog and its posts as fodder, but at least followers of the actor can cut the middlemen out. For a man protecting his dignity and his family, not to mention his 'brand', this is an astute move.

Not just 'shanivaar ki raat Amitabh ke saath'
More than the intensity, the frequency of the posts has come as a surprise. There is usually one entry each day (typically overnight), and sometimes follow-ups. The posts have occasionally slipped into overly sensitive refutations at times. But Amitabh is at his best when dipping into old memories, recalling his esteemed father, or providing mundane minutiae about a profession that I have always considered to be one of the most boring in terms of daily routine.

Footnotes:
[1] We do wonder if the fan got a response to his comment?
[2] A spike on Google Trends confirms this.
[3] The notorious Aaj Tak Amitabh Bachchan ko tha.Nd lagii 'Breaking News'.

3 comments:

kapeesh saraf said...

Just realized that the blog is hosted on bigadda, a reliance anil dhirubhai company. Wonder if there is an element of marketing/advertising involved...seems like an attempt to get 2 birds with 1 stone (pardon the cliche)

J Ramanand said...

Kapeesh: the big man has already addressed that in a post (and in an interview to CNN-IBN tonight), where he says bigadda is just hosting the blog until his own site comes up, and he approached them because he does know Anil Ambani.

Harish Kumar said...

No response to the comment but this blog has made him more endearing! Th interview to CNN IBN was also damn good. If there was anyone who could afford to start this crusade against the media, it had to be HIM.