Narendra Modi bombards Bollywood with democracy-loving tweets

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a prolific tweeter, but even judging by these criteria, he really raised the bar on Wednesday. It triggered a deluge of tweets targeting several personalities. But light tweets may well be part of a much more ambitious plan, according to Ayeshea Perera of the BBC in Delhi.

The message was simple: use your influence to get more people to vote. But each tweet – posted about every two minutes for a full hour – was customized to become a motto of untimely motivation, depending on the person for whom it was intended.

In a tweet focused on badminton players, PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, and Kidambi Srikanth, it reads, "The heart of badminton is the court and the core of democracy is the vote, just as you shatter records. , inspire yourself I urge you to raise voter awareness and motivate young people to vote in large numbers. "

Another, intended for politicians, including – in a somewhat daring way – his rival Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition, and the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, explained how a "high turnout bodes well for our democratic fabric". Political veterans would have no choice but to agree with these "wise words" – and that may be part of the plan.

But his most creative tweets were reserved for movie personalities – and he had clearly channeled his inner Bollywood before tweeting on them.

So, in a tweet, Mr. Modi punished the iconic slogan of the 1990s Bollywood blockbuster, Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham: "It's about loving your family."

Identifying the two main actors of the film, Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, as well as its director Karan Johar, the tweet ends with "it's about loving your … democracy".

Next, Bollywood superstars Salman Khan and Aamir Khan, stars of comic blockbuster Andaz Apna Apna. Mr. Modi asked them to motivate young people in their own Andaz style to strengthen the apna (our) democracy and our country. No word games or fancy word games: just replace the word "democracy" in the title of a movie with a word.

He also tweeted several actresses, including Deepika Padukone and Anushka Sharma, but ended the joke. seriously that "as well-known film personalities, whose work is admired by many, I am convinced that their message will have a positive impact on our citizens".

This is not the first time the prime minister has focused on Bollywood. In the last few months in particular, Mr. Modi has taken a lot of trouble to be seen with and around movie stars – even though he has undeniable star power with many personalities in India. The photo above, taken in January and shared on Instagram and Twitter by many of the celebrities featured in it, made this proverbial "break" of social media.

And it's not just about celebrity photographers.

The Accidental Prime Minister, portrayed by Anupam Kher, revisits the mandate of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, based on memoirs of a staff member.

The critic Uday Bhatia has reviewed it for the Livemint website. a "subtle hit job", noting that a "film ostensibly dedicated to Manmohan Singh becomes a timely attack against the Gandhi family".

Uri, a film about India's "surgical strikes" in neighboring Pakistan in 2016 – when the government claimed that it had sent troops to the border to end a militant camp – was much more successful.

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C & rsquo; was a real box office success, and a replica of the movie "How's the josh?" ("How are the fighting going?") Has become a rallying cry in India as tensions with Pakistan have increased in recent weeks.

This is a clear tactic of Mr. Modi to appeal to young voters. In 2014, Mr. Modi's Twitter feed was a powerful electoral weapon, a way to change the way politicians engaged on social media. This time, he seems to bet on the power of the big screen. And again, it worked. Not surprisingly, it's now the hottest topic of social conversation. Each tweet contains thousands of retweets and replies, and in India, millions of them have been connected in the last four years – 140 million of them were added in 2018, many of them young is important.

"This is a phenomenal strategy, can you imagine the amount of pressure exerted on each of those people that he labeled to respond to it?" Akash Banerjee, a political satirist, told the BBC.

"When the Prime Minister of the country will tag you in a tweet and ask you to do your part for democracy, it would be rather rude not to recognize it.So if you look at the tweet tree that's them there will be millions of impressions. "

And as one could expect, many of them struggled to respond.

But under the jokes, Mr. Banerjee said that the flow of tweets is also revealing. He once badyzed 18,000 tweets from Mr. Modi covering a period of four years before and four years after becoming prime minister, and wrote an article about the prime minister as a tweeter. But, he says, he had never seen the volume on this scale before.

"Modi is a street fighter.This is not someone who is counting on his laurels and who is waiting, he will show himself firm with every vote.He knows that he will have before him a hard battle in this election, as the regional parties, in particular, move in for the murder, so he uses every means at his disposal.

"Does this seem hopeless? Perhaps. But he will not let that stop him, he does not care what it looks like. He is focused on murder. "