October 24, 2009 4:24:08 PM IST Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

The inventors of Tweeter must be scratching their heads at the latest dictate that has hit the world of entertainment more so in the world of Hindi films. The actors, stars etc., all have been ordered not tot Tweet when they are involved in a shooting, more so sending updates about the progress of shooting.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Tweeter have game phenomenal fan following primarily owing to the fact film stars are updating their status to the fans directly. By following this process they have opened a direct interface with the fans. A case in point is that of Aamir Khan who recently invited one of his Facebook fans to have a luncheon with him. Or for that matter Priyanka Chopra, who has increased her following in a phenomenal manner by regularly updating her progress through her Facebook profile.

What effect would have the ban on tweet on the manner in which the film stars of the present generation been interacting with their fans? The producers and directors are also in a justified in imposing the ban as it is their creative intellectual property rights which are becoming public by the tweets, before they become officially public in the form of the release of the film. Intellectual piracy is a bane for the world of creative medium. More so the Hindi films, and if producers and directors are gravitating to the view to impose ban on tweeting so be it. Scores of Producers and directors in Hollywood do not allow any electronic devices to be present on the sets while the shooting is going on, so that the content does not become public.

The flip side to the argument is the fact that the Hindi film makers cannot assume a holier than thou approach as they also get 'inspired' from films and related products made in different parts of the world, so the belief that the originality of the contact gets lost through tweets is an argument that has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Indeed, Mahesh Bhatt had therefore expressed the view that it is the moral persuasion that should do the trick instead of such kind of bans that do not serve much purpose.

Fan following in this age is becoming very ephemeral and therefore the stars are also warming up to its outreach, as it provides them a window to directly establish link with their fans. Let the stars decide, whether they would like to inform the fans about the status of the films that they are associated with while tweeting. May be, they may not reveal the details of the product, but only provide the status in terms of the place where they are shooting, and this could take care of the concerns of all the directors and producers who have become apprehensive about the outreach of tweet. On this note, here is happy tweeting.


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