New Delhi: If anyone told me four years ago I'd be writing about Sherlyn Chopra, I'd have asked "Sherlyn Chopra, who?" The odd child of a booming Indian social media scene, Chopra arrived blazing across the horizon, riding a popularity wave in the wake of a tremendous publicity coup she pulled over contemporaries, many of whom with little or no access to the magical world of influential Hindi film stars.
Till she tweeted photos with Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner at his mansion in the Holmby Hills, LA, the media had almost forgotten about Chopra. She had a short run during the third season of the popular reality show 'Bigg Boss'.
Unlike the flamboyant and controversial contestants of the now-famous Indian version of the 'Big Brother', Chopra came across as mostly a quiet type, slightly reticent and aloof on the show. Her 'Bigg Boss' appearance was certainly nothing spectacular compared to the deluge of effervescent and self-aggrandising messages she sends out to fans these days through Twitter.
When Poonam Pandey, who is truly the first celebrity who can be called the Kim Kardashian of India for her mundane and astonishingly persistent - sometime raunchy - updates about her life, started the trend of uploading obviously 'Photoshopped' and risqué photos of herself on Twitter, not many believed this can be a career path, as good as any, for anyone.
Pandey perfectly fitted into the vacant slot of an online celebrity, catering to an audience that has a flaming and voyeuristic interest in the lives of celebrities but with no access to them. Hell, our mainstream Bollywood actresses are busy feeding an image of virtuosity created in the late 60s and 70s as an important criteria for desirability.
Pandey stunned all with her glitter covered nude photos and photoshoots inside bathrooms where she played seductively with the showerhead. She added hundreds of followers on Twitter and launched a site where she posted more such content for people who wanted access to soft porn in the privacy of their bedrooms.
When Canadian porn star Sunny Leone arrived in India with alabaster smooth skin and promises of tantalising things, online India was all aflutter. A porn star acting in a mainstream Indian film was unprecedented. What was even more unheard of was her easy acceptance in the national media, ordinary households and online forums. Leone's debut was devoid of hardcore adult content but it had enough verve to fire the imagination of a warm blooded Indian.
Chopra inherited the baggage left by Pandey and Leone. Her work was cut out. Shock, intrigue and up the ante. She did that and some more. Where her predecessors held back out of perhaps some sense of propriety, Chopra went to town confessing about having slept with people for money.
Before the media could absorb the shock, she uploaded photos of a woman masturbating with a cucumber and fondling herself. As expected, her follower count shot up overnight and she 'trended' worldwide on Twitter. But Chopra, a product of the very media she lambasted, worked the public hesitation and indignation to her advantage, answering questions of strangers and retweeting scores of comments of publicity seekers.
While Pandey and Leone were clearly eager to sustain the wave of recognition and popularity to angle for a film role, Chopra aimed bigger. She will appear nude on the cover of Playboy magazine and is hoping to break into the modelling and showbiz scene of Los Angeles. If a Hindi film role came along in the process, she wouldn't mind that either.
But will tweeting pornographic images, that are easily available on the internet and will only amuse pre-adolescent boys in their dormitories, be enough?
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