Anna Mathews (BOMBAY TIMES; May 18, 2020)

In a sudden move, actress Priya Prakash Varrier decided to deactivate her Instagram account, leaving her 7.2 million followers puzzled. The ‘wink’ girl had broken social media records by becoming the third celebrity in the world to gain over 6 lakh followers in a day, after Kylie Jenner and Cristiano Ronaldo, and the fastest Indian celebrity to reach the 1 million mark on Instagram in early 2018. But it looks like the lengthy Coronavirus quarantine period has compelled her to take a break from the platform.

Prakash Varrier, Priya’s father, tells us, “Yes, she has taken a conscious decision to deactivate her Instagram account as she needed a break from all that screen-time. However, this is only temporary. Whenever she feels like it, she can rejoin the platform.”

Interestingly, Priya’s other social media handles remain active. A digital media expert adds, “It’s likely that she deactivated the account because she wants to be taken seriously as an actress, rather than be sidelined as a social media influencer. It is difficult to see why else she would do this at such a time, when everyone is spending time online.”