*Bollywood actress, minor sports mogul and sometime human-rights campaigner Preity Zinta has discovered Twitter.
*This woman is so searingly intelligent that she is currently in Harvard taking a business-school course in mergers, acquisitions and negotiations. Why an actress would want to suffer in this odd way is a little beyond me — presumably it has something to do with the fortunes of her cricket team. Because she owns one.
*The other thing I don’t get about Preity ...
Zinta is that she somehow thinks that Bollywood-beat gossip writers should be factual reporters. Anyone who’s ever glanced at a Bollywood publication knows that this idea is like pushing a rope uphill. Nothing about Bollywood is factual. The ticket receipts, the attendance records, the financing system, the crores of rupees paid to #1 actresses, they’re all completely opaque and/or invented out of whole cloth.
*Furthermore, the business about which glitzy actress is having an affair with whatever guy — they were seen getting out of a limo together, they were spotted sharing a malted ghee milkshake at Pop’s Chocolate Shop — no sane human being would take that tittle-tattle seriously for a nanosecond. It’s all hokum. Anybody who knows anything about Bollywood knows it’s all about feudal family arrangements. It’s about the starkly necessary business of multigenerational filmi clans having star children. The swoony romance stuff is all there to sell tickets to rubes somewhere in deepest darkest Andhra Pradesh.
*Preity Zinta, who is not a star-child from a filmi clan but a former psychology-major who can actually act, dance, and probably even sing (Bollywood song tracks are dubbed, so there’s no telling), has been in the film business for ten long years. She’s a huge professional success. And yet she doesn’t seem to comprehend her situation at all — in her world, there’s an imaginary Bollywood press corps where they write respectful, factual articles about her charity work. How would that even be possible?
*There’s something endearing about it. Her endless feuds with the jackals of the press corps have a kind of Gandhian unworldliness. It’s like she plans to wear them into submission through the process of dripping her integrity on them. It’s sort of amazing.
*Then Preity Zinta discovered Twitter. Of course there was a fake Preity Zinta on Twitter who had 140,000 followers, convincing the gullible that he was Preity through the simple stunt of quoting things she said in tabloid interviews. So Preity fell on this malefactor like an anvil, and she had him beaten off the premises of Twitter with a broomstick, but now she’s got her own Twitter outlet. She is visibly trying to figure it out. Judging by her typos, she’s got a Blackberry.
*Mostly she blows kisses at her fans, but she also factually describes the daily life of Preity Zinta. That part is super weird. It’s phantasmal. Preity’s 140-character diary is much more odd and entertaining than the imaginary sequin-spangled life that people imagine entertainers lead. No, it’s all about the life of an ethically rigid, burningly ambitious, relentlessly upbeat, obviously lonely Type A Indian overachiever who lives out of her suitcase and sleeps maybe six hours a night. Preity’s Twitter stream is a confessional orgy. I don’t think Preity’s best friends in Bollywood have ever been this close to Preity.
*Various pandits have been blogging from Bollywood for some time now — Amitabh Bachchan’s blog is very dignified and interesting, it’s mostly about ethics and philosophy — but Twitter has opened Bollywood up like a zipper. There’s Karan Johar, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Mallika Sherawat (in Los Angeles, no less), but nobody in the booming Bollywood Twitter scene beats Preity.
*I’m quite the fan of media-convergence, but I’ve never seen a phenomenon like this. Following Preity Zinta’s Twitter stream is like having Preity crash on your couch. You want to pat her on the head and feed her a buttered chapatti. It’s beyond any fan-star relationship. It’s some new form of global sociality.
*Take it away, Miss Zinta:
*********
Ok no more silly tweets have a big Merger and Acquisition assignment tomorrow so i have to prepare now …. need to focus on positives.
@vahishta He wrote the completely FABRICATED and FALSE story about me and somebody called Vikram Chatwal and till now i have to deny it.
@puredesiness he does not need to see me to write rubbish ! Thats my point…. thats what yellow journalism is all about !
Sorry guys i am getting carried away !The power of the pen can make you lose perspective and write any thing you feel like ! ((((
I am scared to talk to a guy, forget sitting next to one. If Parag from Mumbai Mirror sees me he will write i am having an affair with him !
Journalists who are using my tweets to write articles pls pay me 3000 rupees. One poor child can be educated for a year ! No more free bees ! ((($64.42? What’s the address, Miss Zinta?)))
Guys i am not leaving films and nor are films leaving me ! Shootings will start in Feb and i will be all over the place i promise….
@rahul1701 No days off for me. Did a virtual climb (Mt. Everest Simulation) with a team of 5 people today and came 1st…. yippie ! Amazing ! (((Boy, I’ll say. What the hell is she doing inside a virtual simulation of Mount Everest?)))
For all the people who love me, I love you too ! For all those who have nothing nice to say about me…. well nobody’s perfect !ha ha ha !
@rameshnswamy I follow my heart ! People will always find fault and be negative, one has to look within for inspiration
People blend better than Governments! My class is full of wonderful people frm all over the world and i am learning so much frm all of them. (((She’s taking a business class in the Yale Business School as she writes this. I wonder if any of her classmates are tweeting the goings-on.)))
In am having such a good time here. No one judges me here or asks me stupid questions and there are no pretensions Finally I breathe ! (((Can you imagine finding existential freedom in a Yale business class? That’s normally one of the most stifling environments imaginable.)))
Someone from class asked if i could show them some bollywood moves… i said “small crowds give me stage fright!” ha ha ha !
@yashduggal Because it is the no.1 business school in the world !
Thankyou to all my fans for ur love and encouragement! Sorry if i cannot reply this week…Pls understand i am going crazy doing homework !
My day starts at 5am and finishes at 11:30pm ! Its a lot of hard work but i sleep with a smile. My class has top CEO’s, Bankers, Lawyers etc..
Being is school is like being a bird in the sky ! I feel so proud to be an Indian ! Most of the professors and students are Indian here !
Just finished with class and a group discussion, I feel like i am reborn.There is always scope to learn and invite new experiences in life !
Doing a course in Negotiations and The Deal Process !
good night everyone ! I need to work hard otherwise i will be seen as a dumb actress …. and that cannot happen so wish me luck ! muaah !
Stepped into the Harvard campus with the biggest smile ! Saw my course and homework and got a heart attack ! Now i am the official book worm!
Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years, people grow old by deserting their ideals… Samuel Ullman.
@shubhas Have you seen the way photographers attack you when they see you ! Poor Amisha was caught in the line of fire ! Its so sad ! (((That would be actress Amisha Patel, presumably.)))
@gijuthomas82 Tell me who else would have the guts to take it easy with films and start something new with cricket ? I like to take chances! (((Paul Newman and his obsession with race-cars comes to mind. Actually, a lot of rich actors take up weird hobbies — Roy Rogers used to sell fast food.)))
@peace_kudos Yellow journalism is when the journalist writes by hearing chinese whispers rumour as opposed to facts. News should be true !
@19abby They colonised us for years …….. This is our way of saying we can come there whenever we want too !!!! ha ha ha !!!! (((You go deshi girl.)))
All the best India ! Men in blue better rock tonight !!! There is nothing like WINNING !!!! Nov 8th from web
@pratikjammy87 of course i am real !!!!!!!!
@saurabhtrue I Dislike Yellow Journalism! In India any one can write anything and as actors we can do nothing !
My Motto in life………….. Yesterday is the past, Tomorrow is the future, Today is a gift…. Thats why we call it the “PRESENT ! ”
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