South Indian Actors Turn to Twitter to Inform and Entertain Fans During the COVID-19 Lockdown

As India continues to follow a nationwide lockdown to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the entertainment industry has come to a standstill, resulting in cancelled shoots and indefinitely postponed film releases. This crisis is challenging the ways in which actors connect with their fans.

Despite that, fans remain optimistic, and are taking to Twitter to interact with their favourite actors. In return, South India’s leading actors are leaving no stone unturned in reciprocating this affection. From Telugu cinema’s megastars, Chiranjeevi (@KChiruTweets), Mahesh Babu (@urstrulyMahesh), Ram Charan (@AlwaysRamCharan) to Tamil cinema’s pride Rajinikanth (@rajinikanth), prominent South Indian celebrities are Tweeting to engage with fans and encourage them to stay home and be safe. Actors are also making videos at home with song lyrics that urge people to isolate and stay safe amidst the COVID-19 crisis, several fans too are joining the made-at-home video action on Twitter.

Chiranjeevi (@KChiruTweets) shares, “I owe everything to my fans and audiences. The possibility of directly interacting with them and sharing my thoughts through a platform like Twitter has often crossed my mind. But during these unprecedented times, I felt an urgent need to communicate directly with my fans and fellow Indians and this led me to join the platform in March, on the Telugu New year’s day and the first day of the nationwide lockdown. During COVID-19, it has become more important than ever before to stay connected so that we can get through this pandemic together. Twitter is doing a great job of helping people do that.”

The lockdown has merged the boundaries between professional and personal lives, and many actors are Tweeting snippets of precious moments spent with their families. In fact, Mahesh Babu (@urstrulyMahesh) made his ‘stay home, stay safe’ appeal to fans by sharing a video of his daughter in which she talks about the precautionary measures that are necessary to fight coronavirus and flatten the curve.