The virtual route: Celebs entertain fans digitally | Bollywood - Hindustan Times
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The virtual route: Celebs entertain fans digitally

Hindustan Times | ByRishabh Suri, New Delhi
Jun 12, 2020 05:41 PM IST

Actors such as Anupam Kher, Richa Chadha and Saqib Saleem, among others, didn’t let their creativity get ‘locked down’ in the lockdown — they took to social media to share self-shot videos, all revolving around different themes, to entertain their fans.

Expect your favourite stars to keep you entertained even during a crisis. From March, when lockdown 1.0 was imposed due to Covid-19 pandemic, to now when people are slowly returning to work, many celebs have taken the virtual route via social media to keep their creativity alive.

Anupam Kher, Richa Chadha and Vir Das have shared their respective series’ on social media.
Anupam Kher, Richa Chadha and Vir Das have shared their respective series’ on social media.

Richa Chadha started her series, Quarantina, where she brings in a dose of bizarre news from around the world. She says she came up with this short video idea to “make people smile despite the grimness of our reality”. 

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Chadha further elaborates, “I started writing and editing this because good news is so hard to find, every day seems like it has gotten harder. We’re living through a cluster of calamities apart from economic and social strife that’s happening. Also, the migrant labour, and starvation, disease related problems. I keep my chin up because as long as we’re alive, there’s a reason to smile.” 

Anupam Kher, on the other hand, came up with an elaborate series called When Bittu Meets Anupam where he plays both the characters himself and the two chat about life and the time gone by.

“They’re both manifestation of your own self,” says the 65-year-old, adding, “I shot a few videos and tried to work on it. Then when I was comfortable with my first one, then it was a great experience, shooting the whole thing in one shot. I’ve to rehearse it. While I’m saying Anupam’s lines, in the mind I think of Bittoo’s lines. It takes me about five-six hours to rehearse and execute it.” 

Saqib Saleem, too, tried his hand at a similar format like Kher’s, called When Saqib Met Aqib, where he played dual roles. While his sister, actor Huma Qureshi came up with a show called It’s Neverr Too Late with HQ,where she talks about issues related to mental health. Tahira Kashyap Khurana recently concluded her series, Lockdown Tales With Tahira. 

Comedian-actor Vir Das feels that technology has enabled artists to generate good stuff even in such grim times where everyone is trying to adapt to the new normal. The Bright Side, his short video series, has him serving up some pretty grim news with a pinch of wit.

“I assure you there’s an audience out there waiting to lap up the good stuff that’s being served. In my case, people kept pouring in to watch, which motivated me to keep working. If there’s demand, there’ll be supply. The ache of not being able to go to entertain physically remains, but the show must go on. I was amazed at the promise of some stories that content creators were coming up with,” says the 41-year-old.

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