From wishing your loved ones to telling your boss that you want to quit, online platforms are offering a host of celebrities to share personalised messages
Kunal Guha (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 30, 2020)

Every year, Melbourne-based twins Navdeep and Avdeep Munjal make it a point to visit their mother Rekha in Delhi on her birthday which falls on July 7. This year, when the  Coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on their travel plans, the twins chanced upon a unique birthday gift — getting their mother’s favourite TV star Rohit Roy to wish her on their behalf. The 60-year-old was deeply moved when she received a short video from the Swabhimaan star. The message, which landed in her inbox out of the blue, was not only about how much her sons missed her, but the actor even told her that she needs to take care of herself. The Munjals managed to make their mum’s special day unforgettable through Celebyte, an online platform, which offers many celebrity engagement packages.

And today, when most continue to remain self-isolated for fear of contracting the Coronavirus, this form of levity that comes with some semblance of connection with one’s idols, is really a pitch-perfect offering. For a predetermined rate (anything from Rs 500 to Rs 50,000), a fan can get a celebrity of his or her choice to send a personalised video message to a loved one (typically, birthday or anniversary wishes), get on a video call, reply to a text, or slide into their DMs on Instagram. “While our customers want access, the celebs want to monetise their time on social media. We help facilitate this in a way that the friction is eliminated,” says Sanjay Tripathy, co-founder and CEO, Celebyte. His firm has also developed celeb-interaction apps for actors Riya Sen and Minissha Lamba and has garnered over three million users cumulatively across 14 apps.

Similar platforms such as Wysh, Gonuts, Tring, Unlu and Simsim Rubaru, too, are cashing in. From an assortment of TV actors (like Delnaaz Irani, Hiten Tejwani, Kiku Sharda) and film veterans (like Prem Chopra, Madhu Shah, Shakti Kapoor) to a plethora of Bigg Boss contestants (like Arshi Khan, Shefali Jariwala), impersonators (of Nana Patekar, Donald Trump) and TikTokers, everyone is just a click away.

Dial a celeb
Producing personalised video messages usually takes little preparation. Most are shot on the phone and filmed at breakfast tables, while lying in bed, or on film sets — whenever a celeb can spare a few minutes. While the promised turnaround time is from five to seven days, most try to honour requests within 24-48 hours. “We have surely benefited from people’s apprehensions about exchanging physical gifts,” says Mahesh Gogineni, co-founder of Wysh, which has grown 15 times since its launch in January. “There has also been no innovation in the digital gifting space for long, and since people are crazy about celebs, it’s a perfect match,” he adds.

Beyond birthdays
While getting a celeb to wish someone is a popular choice, many are opting for more creative reasons. For instance, an entrepreneur got ghazal singer Talat Aziz to shoot a heartfelt video for his father, thanking him for his sacrifices and asking him to keep faith in his son, despite his start-up’s relatively poor performance over the last two years. And to sweeten the deal, Aziz signed off with the recipient’s favourite ghazal. “We also had a head priest who wanted Kailash Kher to send a message out to devotees,” says Joji George, founder of Gonuts. “In April, we heard from someone from Varanasi who wrote a poem in honour of frontline health workers and wanted it to be read out by Kailash Kher.”

A unique request came from someone who was trying to resign from a job he had held for eight years. “He wanted Delnaaz [Irani] to speak to his boss and get the ball rolling before he could follow it up with a one-on-one,” says Rahul Saini, co-founder, Tring, which launched this March and lists over 1,800 celebrities.

The kickbacks
These platforms work on a revenue-sharing model. Hence arriving at the ‘right’ price is tricky. Stars need to score enough bookings at a modest price and yet, if they underbid themselves, they won’t be able to keep up.

That said, the big earners can make over a lakh a month. And for most, it is easy money, given the effort and time spent. “If a celeb charges Rs 1,000 for a 30-second-video message and does 30 such requests, he’s earning Rs 30,000 in 15 minutes. A TV star may not be able to make that much money in such a short period of time,” says Gogineni, who feels the demand from users can be extremely price sensitive. He gives the example of a celebrity, who charges Rs 999 for short videos on his platform, but Rs 1,500 on another platform. “Despite the marginal price difference, the star received 54 requests from my platform and only four on the other,” he says.

But there’s no fixed rule. Rohit Roy, who features on several platforms, bumped his rates up, but remains one of the most requested talents.

Saini says that 98 per cent of users on such platforms are not willing to pay more than Rs 2,000. “Those who are popular and demand a high price fall in a niche segment, but those who are popular and yet affordable comprise our cash cows,” says Saini.

Going forward, the demand for such a service is surely likely to surge, especially given that today being a celebrity casts a wide net. “This segment is still evolving. You will see more celebrities being a part of their fans’ highs and lows,” says Tripathy. The stars don’t mind either. It’s helpful to have another revenue stream when their own industry is still limping back to normal.

Bareilly Ki Barfi filmmaker’s next to roll next year
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 9, 2019)

After making her directorial debut with Nil Battey Sannata, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari went on to direct Junglee Pictures’ Ayushmann Khurrana, Kriti Sanon and Rajkummar Rao-starrer romcom Bareilly Ki Barfi, which bagged her the Filmfare Award for Best Director. She has just wrapped up her third Hindi directorial, Panga. The film which features Kangana Ranaut in the lead as a kabaddi player, opens next year during the Republic Day weekend, and not one to rest on her laurels, Ashwiny has already planned her next.

Mirror has learnt that she will direct a film on Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy and his philanthropistauthor wife Sudha Murthy. It will be jointly produced by Mahaveer Jain, Ashwiny and her filmmaker-husband Nitesh Tiwari, who is presently busy with the release of his Sushant Singh Rajput and Shraddha Kapoor-starrer Chhichhore. “She has already started researching Indian IT’s first couple because she wants to have all the facts right before she dives into this inspiring story. The film is expected to roll next year. Sanjay Tripathy (writer-director) came up with the idea and scripting will begin soon,” a source informed.

Murthy was employed with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad and Patni Computer Systems in Pune before he started the IT company Infosys in 1981. He served as the CEO from 1981 to 2002, then as its chairman till 2011. Sudha was the first female engineer to be hired by the automotive manufacturing company TELCO in Pune. She got married to Narayana while she was still employed there.

Described as the ‘father of the Indian IT sector’ by Time magazine for his contribution to outsourcing in India, Murthy is a recipient of the Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan. Sudha has been felicitated with Padma Shri by former President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.


Top to bottom: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Nitesh Tiwari, Mahaveer Jain

Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; April 16, 2016)

Sarika is all set to turn TV show host with Savdhaan India, which deals with real-life crime stories. Talking about her third stint on TV — the first two being in the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Yudh (2014) and in the Bipasha Basu- hosted Darr Sabko Lagta Hai (2015) — she admits that it was an enjoyable experience. “It’s non-fiction yet, there is an element of cinema and the combination is interesting,” she says.

The actress is taking on the subject of medical crime in the series from this weekend and explains that such subjects need to be handled with care. “It is a sensitive subject and needs to be treated carefully — right from the performance to your costumes. Everything has to be in tone with the issues we are talking about, so there is nothing loud or over the top,” she elaborates.

The show’s director Sanjay Tripathy had earlier directed Sarika in his film, Club 60 (2013).  When I came on board for the show, I thought of her as anchor,” informs Tripathy.

Sarika adds, “When Sanjayji called me for this show, I was on board with no questions asked because Club 60 team is like family and me doing this show is an extension of that experience.”

Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 3, 2014)

Farooq Shaikh’s last release, Club 60, has re-opened in a noon show at PVR, Lower Parel, and in a theatre belonging to the same chain in Delhi as a tribute to the actor who passed away last Friday in Dubai. “Given that there are three new films flagging off this week, we could only go for a limited release. It was a heart-felt decision,” says Shalu Sabbarwal, vice president, marketing.

Sanjay Tripathy, the director, points out that his film which opened with three daily shows on December 6, was in the theatres till Dhoom 3 upstaged it. “Before word-of-mouth could spread, its two-week theatrical run was over. We’d been getting a lot of enquires which multiplied following Farooq saab’s untimely end, so I asked my distributor if he could get a theatre to agree to a limited second run as a gesture of goodwill since the home video sales are still bring negotiated,” he says.

Sanjay met Farooq for the first time for a documentary on earthquakes. He then played a sutradhar in one of Sanjay’s TV shows and one day, while returning home, he sounded the actor out on Club 60. “He liked the script and suggested Sarika’s name in the role of his wife, urging me to watch Parzania,” says Sanjay.

He recalls the actor warning him that they had to be really careful with his content-driven, performance-oriented film since they couldn’t rely on big names, familiar faces and item numbers to cover up any mistakes. “His favourite saying was, ‘Safed kapde pe daag jaldi nazar aata hai,’” says the filmmaker.

Farooque played Dr Tareeq Sheikh, a neuro-surgeon suffering from acute depression after the death of his only son. Though Sanjay insists Farooq was perfectly cast despite the fact that he was always cheerful on the sets, sharing his love for food, and sweets in particular, the actor admitted to him half-way through the film that he’d have loved to play Raghubir Yadav’s character Manu bhai.

Sanjay wanted him for his next film, Escape To Nowhere, and wanted him to go through former security chief of RAW, Amar Bhushan’s book on which it was based. “But last Saturday I woke up at 6.20 am to a missed called from Satish Shah and a message that read RIP Farooque Shaikh,” he sighs. “Club 60 has lost its most lively member.”

MEANWHILE...
In the next six days, leading directors who had worked with Farooq Sheikh will come together on a common platform to reminisce about their experiences with him. The line-up includes M S Sathyu (Garam Hawa), Raman Kumar (Saath Saath), Dibakar Banerjee (Shanghai), Ketan Mehta (Maya Memsaab), Sai Paranjpe (Chashme Buddoor), Muzzafar Ali (Umrao Jaan), Sagar Sarhadi (Bazaar), Sanjay Puran Singh (Lahore) and Ayan Mukerji (Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani). The discussion will be recorded and hosted in the western suburbs, either at the Iskcon auditorium or the Bhavan's College. The session is the brainchild of Ashoke Pandit, President of the Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association. Deepti Naval, who cut short her trip to Himachal Pradesh to attend Farooq’s last rites, is lending a helping hand. She said, “Ashoke has informed me. But they will have to do it before January 9. Because I have to go back to Himachal.” Farooq and Deepti have worked in eight films together and Listen Amaiya, which released last year, reunited them on screen after 28 years. “Without Deepti, the tribute will be incomplete. So we will all meet up before January 9,” said Pandit.
    —Vickey Lalwani