Recently, digital sensation-turned-reality-show star Uorfi Javed — who showed up in a dress featuring a wiggling gecko, basking in the attention for her debut series Follow Kar Lo Yaar — posed with actor Ananya Pandey for Mumbai’s paparazzi during a promotional event for Pandey’s show, Call Me Bae. Both of them — one, an outsider and the other, a star kid — were effusive in their praise for the other and her show.
The release of their shows on Prime Video two weeks apart (Follow Kar Lo Yaar on August 23 and Call Me Bae on September 6) is an indication of how digital platforms have democratised showbiz today. The journey that Javed and Pandey, both in their mid-20s, have had so far is vastly different. Uorfi, hailing from Lucknow, carries the trauma of a controlling father and growing up in a broken home. Mumbai-bred Ananya, daughter of actor Chunky Pandey, was born into the elite world of Bollywood, made her debut as a protegee of Dharma Productions with Student of the Year 2 (2019) and went on to work in several major movies.
While Ananya’s career has followed a path similar to other star kids such as Sara Ali Khan and Janhvi Kapoor, Uorfi has created a space for herself in the entertainment industry with her spunk and inventiveness. Initially frowned at when spotted in her outlandish outfits near Mumbai’s airports, she eventually managed to draw praise for her out-of-the-box outfits and being able to carry them off. Her career is built on creating viral moments during “celeb spotting” by paparazzi, which in reality is a well-planned PR strategy employed by many to stay relevant. Spurred on by the recognition and social media following she has received, she now harbours the ultimate dream of achieving “Shah Rukh Khan-level” fame.
Centred around Javed, the nine-episode Follow Kar Lo Yaar explores her everyday life and dynamic with family members. Despite her insecurities, what shines through is her ambition — which ranges from her wish to undergo breast augmentation surgery to owning a private jet. When we meet Javed on the show — which is undoubtedly inspired by Keeping Up with the Kardashians — she is fixated on becoming an entrepreneur, boosting her brand and getting extremely rich. One might assume she is being delulu, but she articulates what most “influencers” and other new-age celebrities dream of. India has witnessed a considerable rise in the number of “celebrities”, who, powered by the internet’s extensive reach and proliferation of digital platforms, started as digital content creators or influencers. The measure of their success often depends on how many millions of followers they have and the number of collaborations they attract. While being “popular” can be an added advantage, ultimately it’s the number of their followers, likes on their posts, and views of their reels that matter the most. Despite being the brand ambassador of multiple major brands and a film star, Ananya still needs to boost her social media connection with the masses as much as Uorfi does. This connection is the reason behind Shraddha Kapoor — known for her girl-next-door image and relatable posts — becoming the second-most followed Indian on Instagram.
In Follow Kar Lo Yaar, Uorfi, in the same breath, proclaims that she wants to be extremely rich and respected — something that was denied to her in the early years of her life. Yet, she is quite comfortable sparking a controversy. She knows well that her career is built on the shock and curiosity she creates with her appearances, and, at times with her statements. While the on-the-fly style of documenting Javed’s life in real-time, may be exhausting in parts and the family fights repetitive, Follow Kar Lo Yaar does manage to capture the ordeals and oddities that those chasing fame and fortune go through.
Though these two web series belong to different genres, there is a surreal overlap between Uorfi’s outsider-to-internet sensation and Call Me Bae’s heiress-to-hustler narrative. What are the odds that both these stories unfold in Mumbai, a city that swears by jugaad and is known as the destination of those seeking glory in showbiz? The promotional says Bae is “broke, but refusing to be broken”. This is probably true of many young people in India dreaming big.
alaka.sahni@expressindia.com
