So, how many of us would be able to put a face to the name ‘Pooja Jain’? Not many, I suppose. What if I reframe my question and ask how many of us can recall a YouTuber who goes by the name ‘Dhinchak Pooja’? The name would definitely ring a bell or two in the subconscious mind of quite a few of us. In the years 2016 and 2017, her utterly unmelodious (if that is even a word) songs like ‘Daaru, daaru, daaru…’ and ‘Selfie maine le li aaj…’ had pervaded the music industry. She ended up becoming a celebrity guest in the reality TV show Bigg Boss 2017.
Last year, the social media was caught up in a whirlwind of lunacy when some hitherto unknown social media influencer, Dananeer Mobeen from Pakistan became an overnight sensation with her Instagram post ‘Pawri Ho Rahi Hai’. She was not only interviewed by news channels but her antics were also replicated by film stars, sports persons, social media hosts, young and not-so-young boys and girls around the sub-continent. A year later, how many of us know the whereabouts of the ‘Pawri Girl’ and what she is up to?
The list is endless. These are the Blink-and-you-miss celebrities or more appropriately, Celetoids– a term coined by Sociologist, Chris Rojek. The Wiktionary defines a Celetoid as ‘a person who is famous for a brief time; a short lived celebrity.’ Chris differentiates between the terms– Celebrity and Celetoid by claiming that a celebrity is a person who is famous for a considerable period of time and is a bankable ‘star’ in his/her field whereas a celetoid enjoys a short-lived fame and is therefore not bankable. Also, sociologists believe that the ‘celetoid culture’ is thriving in current times as a result of the boom in reality TV shows and their mass popularity. Rojek, in his book Celebrity published in the year 2004, presents his views thus,
In contemporary society, the cult of celebrity is inescapable. Anyone can be turned into a celebrity, and anything can be made into a celebrity event.
It has been largely observed and quite shocking indeed that many of these celetoids owe their two minutes of fame to some sort of notoriety or scandal that propels them into the limelight which they tend to cash upon. Most of the time they are roped in by some reality show or social media channel. They give a couple of public appearances, get ‘papped’, sign autographs and then settle down like froth. Some of these are even lost to the world of ignominy. Remember how the 21 year old intern, Monica Lewinsky rocked the White House through scandalous revelations about her affair with the then President, Bill Clinton.
Back home, most of us still manage to get goosebumps when we recall the infamous ‘Snorting Scandal’ generated by late politician Pramod Mahajan’s son, Rahul Mahajan. Rahul went on to become a celetoid by taking part in the show ‘Bigg Boss’. Later he was offered another reality show where he was to choose a wife for himself through the process of Swayamwar.
People of my generation who have been nurtured on the maxim of ‘sahej pake so meetha howe’ find it hard to align themselves with this new found ‘Celetoid Culture’. In the times of instant noodles, instant gratification and instant claim to fame, the young and impressionable minds fail to differentiate between what is desirable and what is not. They would go to any extent and perform weirdest of deeds only to become, no, not celebrities but Celetoids!
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