Her contemporaries could learn a thing or two about film promotion from Sonam Kapoor. Last year, the Bollywood actress wanted her followers to post their Dubsmash videos of her film Prem Ratan Dhan Payo's title track for a competition, and got everyone from superstars Shah Rukh Khan to Sridevi shake a leg to her song.
To promote her next film, Neerja, a biopic about an Indian stewardess who died while trying to save passengers on-board Pan Am flight 73 when it was hijacked in Karachi in 1986, Kapoor has called everybody to share videos of themselves revealing their biggest fear and how they conquered it — to inspire others battling with the same anxieties.
“I often wonder how fear gave Neerja courage,” Kapoor wrote on Instagram and spoke about her greatest fear of letting her father, the veteran actor Anil Kapoor, down. “He is my biggest inspiration. My life’s mission is to make him proud and to be the best actor and person that I can,” said the 30-year-old actress, who is playing the lead role in the film, due out on Thursday, February 18.
Celebrities are surprisingly enjoying baring their souls on social media using the hashtag #fearvsneerja.
Actress Alia Bhatt’s biggest fear is of missing out. “I have major FOMO (fear of missing out). I just need to be everywhere. I just need to be doing everything,” she said, to which Sonam aptly replied: “Miss @aliaabhatt you my darling are always going to be the centre of it all, because you were born to be! And if you are having fomo I’ll make sure you get all the deets!!! Love you so much for doing this!”
If Bhatt has FOMO, Priyanka Chopra confesses to having nomo-phobia, or no mobile phobia. “It’s the fear of losing signal, it’s the fear of running out of battery, it’s the fear of losing sight of your mobile phone and it makes you crazy and you don’t know what to do,” she said.
Model, actor and social activist, Dia Mirza, is scared she will one day wake up to a world covered in plastic. “Imagine everything that’s beautiful, that we really appreciate, that is bountiful, is covered in plastic,” she said.
Plane landings make Priyanka Chopra’s cousin, the actress Parineeta Chopra, anxious. “I need somebody sitting next to me to hold my hand because I feel like I’m going to crash,” she said.
And Salman Khan shared a lesson he learned from his dad when he was young. "Jo dar gaya, samjho mar gaya." The phrase, which means "One who is afraid is as good as dead," later became a famous punch line by Gabbar Singh in the superhit Sholay, which is co-written by Sallu's father, Salim Khan.
Filmmaker Karan Johar has many fears but his biggest one is “of anyone who ever takes my photograph showing my right profile. It should always be my left.” Kapoor jumped in to console him: “Kjo all your profiles are beautiful! But I guess I’m biased about family! Love you!”
Stand-up comic Tanmay Bhat of AIB could not resist taking a dig at Sonam Kapoor, referencing her blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in a controversial Coldplay video shot in Mumbai that was slammed in India for cultural appropriation.
Bhat said: ‘I fear that Coldplay will ask me to appear in their video and I will be in it for exactly 3 seconds!”Kapoor retorted good-naturedly: “You will def register in those three seconds!!! Lol.. You’re so mean but I still love you! Thank you for doing this!!”
artslife@thenational.ae
