Anyone can shine in this era of instant fame

This is the era of instant fame. It doesn't take long to earn fame on social media these days. Earlier, one had to visit the newspaper offices to get a small news published in some corner, but the new media has changed the game. Now anyone with a smartphone and a workable knowledge of social media is like a self proclaimed journalist or a news anchor. The magic of social media is that a peanut seller in West Bengal hums something in a broken tone and the whole of India gets mad to dance to his tune. The peanut seller had no clue that he was famous. Then, one day he received a call from the music company which remixed his song, asking for his bank account details, to pay him three lakh rupees as the royalty. Bhuvan Badyakar, who used to sell groundnuts as raw almonds (kachcha badam) in a rural market in West Bengal, is now an internet sensation. When someone heard him singing, made a video and posted it on social media. This act changed the fate of the peanut seller. The police department of Birbhum district honoured Bhuvan and he now performs in various functions.
 
A similar event changed the fate of Sahadev Dirdo of Chhattisgarh. This 12-year-old village boy from Sukma district, sang a song – ‘Baspan Ka Pyaar’ in his own innocent way. His video on social media was seen by a famous rapper, who then shot a professional music video taking the boy onboard. The rapper paid the boy four lakh rupees for his role. Today this village boy earns three lakh rupees a month and pays 20 thousand rupees to his managers. He earns two lakh rupees every month from an app on which he uploads his original videos. A minister from his state gifted the boy a new TV set. The boy became an instant hero. Similarly, Ranu Mandal, who used to sing filmy songs in trains to earn a few bucks, got instant fame and was offered a song in a movie by renowned music composer Himesh Reshammiya. Later she also got a chance to sing in a music reality show. Although she was good at singing in her childhood, but was discouraged by her family. In her worst time, she found herself on the road. As usual, one day she was singing at Ranaghat railway station of West Bengal, when a person named Atindra Chakraborty made a video and posted it on social media, which went viral.
 
After ‘kachcha badam’, now an aged guava seller is going viral on social media, who keeps singing loudly to attract buyers towards his fruit cart. One day a fellow recorded his singing and posted the video clip on social media and the internet went crazy. He sings – ‘Ye hari hari, kachchi kachchi, peeli peeli, pakki pakki, meethi meethi, taza taza, namak laga ke khaja’. Someone gave suitable music for the video and the 27-second video clip became a hit on YouTube. The whereabouts of the ‘Amrud Wale Dada ji’ are not known, so he is being searched for. The gist of the story is that in this age of social media no one knows exactly who will get fame, when and where.

(Author is a senior journalist and columnist)