Contactless fandom, the new normal in Covid-19 times?

Given the current pandemic, when social distancing has become the norm, fans who are eager to get near their favourite stars, know that distance matters now.

“I would refrain from taking autographs from celebrities this year,” says Amar Jeet Singh aka the autograph collector, who has over 5,000 autographs of eminent personalities from various fields, both national and international, in his collection. Singh says quite a few other autograph collectors will follow suit.

Actor Sonam Kapoor is seen clicking a selfie with fan at an event.

Well, it seems, along with everything that is changing in the life and times of Covid-19, fandom too is up for a revamp. And, contactless fandom might become the ‘new normal’.

Talking more about their decision, Singh adds, “We used to travel throughout the country to collect autographs. But we won’t this year. As responsible citizens, we know that the less contact we make, the more we can stop Corona from spreading.”

“The idea is to not go near Akshay sir or other actors. We’ll be requesting members to maintain physical distancing,” he adds.

Raj Sharma of Salman Khan’s fan club, Planet Salman on twitter, echoes the thought. “We love Salman Khan and don’t want to create problems for him. We would request our members to not crowd around him. If he agrees to click a selfie from a distance then only go for it,” he adds.

The fan clubs also mentioned about being sad that there won’t be any hugs, handshakes or meeting their favourite stars at film festivals too. However, they aren’t complaining, as this time, according to Gupta, too shall pass and those good days of having that personal touch with their favourite stars would soon be back.

Actor Shah Rukh Khan greeting his fans with his smile and handshakes seems to be a thing of the past in Covid-19 times.

Mehak Malhotra, a Sidhharth Malhotra fan, says if at all she meets him during this period, she would request someone else to click a photo. “Would request Siddharth sir to pose from a distance, we can explore camera angles to give an impression that we aren’t standing apart.”

Actor Sonu Sood, who has been stepping out daily for his humanitarian work, shares fans do understand. “People sometimes come requesting for a selfie but when I tell them this isn’t the right time they understand. There have been times when I’ve taken selfies but from a distance and only if s/he was wearing a mask. I would miss having my fans around but now we all have to operate differently,” he adds.

Much like fans, bodyguards and managers of these actors are also wary. Shree Tele, Akshay Kumar’s bodyguard, shares he would be extra cautious. “I’ll also maintain distance from him. No one would be allowed to come near him unless he approves,” he says.

Radhika Mehta, who works with a leading celebrity management firm , and looks after actors Siddhant Chaturvedi and Rhea Chakrabarty, admits “It would be a task” to keeps fans away.

Shahrukh Gillani, from the same agency, who manages Radhika Apte, adds, “We would do a recce of the place in advance to understand how many people are expected. The team will be wearing masks, gloves, carrying sanitisers etc. While maintaining distance ourselves, we would keep a keen eye on everything.”

Meanwhile, K-pop fans in India are opting for online artiste interactions. One such fan, Shubhangi Varma shares, “When a K-pop artist releases a new album, there are fansign events which give us an opportunity to meet them in-person and get their autographs, like we did when IN2IT, Kard, VAV (K-pop groups) were in India. But now everything is happening online because of the crisis. They’re organising virtual events, video call interaction with fans. We’re trying to participate in such events too.”

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