Taking a selfie with a celebrity now comes with a price tag as fans shell out a fortune to share a frame with their stars and make it their calling card. Shrabasti Mallik finds out about this covert business
You open your social media account one fine morning and find a photograph of your friend, beaming with happiness, posed next to a big movie star. You might feel jealous and you might even be tempted to comment the same. But there is something that your friend will never tell you. Cashing out a few grands (in double figures, starting from a minimum of a lakh with no end to the range) to get roughly five seconds with the star will remian his (or her) little secret.
If you are willing to loosen your purse strings (read ‘a lot’), you can get a picture clicked with any celebrity you want, give and take their availability. Times were simple earlier. Fans used to ask for autographs and feel on top of the world with it. Then with the coming of the camera, people felt the need to get themselves clicked with the stars. And with smarphones, the entire thing has blown right out of proportion. Now, it is not enough to get yourself clicked —you have got to get a selfie. “Selfies are modern day autographs,” Arjun Kapoor had said once in one of his interviews. A selfie is now solid proof of many things combined — where you have been, the people you are with and what’s happening in your life.
Taking a selfie (or a picture, because some people are really classy) today, is no less than a statement, and a section of people do not hesitate to pay the price for it. We come to know that arranging for a photograph with a celebrity has become a business — a business so secretive that no one is willing to talk about it. “Of course, people won’t talk about it. Right from the calls, to the arrangements to the point where the photo is taken — everything is done under the table. You cannot risk getting your name out to the public,” said Juhee Prasad, a public relations professional.
We dug up on how the entire operation is orchestrated. When a celebrity is in town for an endorsement or promotions, it is the celebrity manager or the event manager is responsible for fixing up the schedule. “There are people who want to get a selfie or a photographed clicked with the star. Now, they are either crazy fans or high-class people who are willing to cash out an amount as big as two lakhs (and more, depending on how big the celebrity is) for just five seconds. The managers become the mediators and brokers, who arrange the entire thing, in complete secrecy. It is not a recent phenomenon, though,” said Joyline Sabbathi, an event manager in Delhi.
And paying your way to a photograph comes with its own set of clauses, too. You cannot expect to strike up a conversation. No. You will be asked to leave the moment your photograph is done. “Bouncers stand next to the line of people waiting for their turn. Once the photo is taken, the stars say ‘next’ and the person is asked to leave immediately,” said Hardik Mishra, who paid an incredible amount to get a picture clicked with his favourite actress.
But it is not easy as it sounds. It depends entirely on the affordability and liking. And to some extent, popularity, too. A little birdie told us that Sunny leone would be visiting a Delhi-based restaurant soon and that she has demanded a double figure sum in lakhs for her appearance of about 10 minutes. “Now it will be up to the brokers to arrange line-ups for the entire day and generate more revenue and take that figure up to about 70 lakhs,” said Ayan Talwar, another event manager.
The money generated is later divided amongst the mediators, the stars and often the owner of the place where the event is being held. A PR person even accepted the fact he made a quick 40 grands within a minute. “It was during the promotions for Dilwale that I arranged a photo opportunity for two of my clients. The mediators took two lakhs each and as commission, I received 40 grands in all. This has almost tuned into a business now,” said Anik.
Photographs are meant to capture a moment and are a means to remember something or someone by. Yes, it has turned into a full-time career option but one could never have imagined that could be used to generate business. That, too, of this kind. We do not know how far this will go and to what extent but we have a feeling that wherever the road leads to, is not a clear picture.
(All names have been changed to protect the identity of the speakers and the photos used here are not indicative)