In less than 50 minutes on Wednesday actor John Abraham reached out to thousands of fans (and the potential audience of his forthcoming film Shootout...
At Wadala (SAW) from places as far as Romania, Fiji, Afghanistan, Nepal, Austria, SriLanka, Peru, Munich, Dubai, Birmingham, California, Kuwait, Toronto and closer home in Gujarat, Hyderabad, Kerala among other places. How? The model-turned actor who has so far stayed away from social media platforms has finally joined Facebook and Twitter.Sitting at his Bandra office in Mumbai, the actor launched his official Facebook fan page and Instagram stream with an interactive live Facebook video chat.
The actor chatted with his fans on biking, fitness, his other film Madras Cafe, a documentary that he is producing, his family, the social causes he supports, being a sex symbol, his co-stars and why he doesn't want to work on TV. Quite a handful for those wanting to know more about him.
On his foray into the world of social media, John at the outset admitted to being a late bloomer. "I came on very late and I don't know if I will stay on forever. So given the limited time I am here, I want to use the medium very effectively because it's such a powerful medium and you need to use it correctly. I hope to use it honestly and I hope I get the benefit of an intelligent audience."
John feels it has definitely taken him a lot of time to understand and realize the power of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Considering many of his colleagues are already Twitter and Facebook veterans, wasn't he at any point tempted to join the bandwagon? "Never," he blurts out immediately.
He maintained, "I have never been tempted by the norm. I have always done things that are outside the norm." Not even when someone coaxed him into getting on it. "The world can tell me anything. I only do things that I want to do. That's the way I function," he declared.
Among the Bollywood fraternity John's particularly awed by superstar Amitabh Bachchan's dexterity on social media platforms.
"Mr Bachchan's frequency of tweets has impressed me. I think it is unparalleled. I happened to be watching some IPL matches the other day and his tweets were being displayed. I was like shocked and said, 'wow, awesome, great.' He is such a great mind. He just follows everything."
Celebrities guard their personal space fiercely and John is no different. Being out there on public platform does pose a challenge for someone who is not willing to lay bare his life out there in the open.
"It depends on how much information you want to dispense and how smartly you do it. If you are a private person and you don't know how to dispense any kind of information, don't get into this social networking space. I am a private person but I think I have handled my private life very well in today's conversations that I have had with my fans."
With his gangster flick Shoot Out At Wadala set to release on May 3, you hope that John known more for his sex appeal will climb a few notches higher as an actor. Sounding super confident he said, "I will probably go light years ahead. With Shootout... I have left John Abraham. It's only Manya Surve and the only person responsible for that is director Sanjay Gupta. He deserves all the credit for extracting Manya Surve out of me. I personally believe it's my bet performance."
So the truth is John has a film to promote at this juncture and being on Twitter and Facebook serves his purpose. His timing seems to be right. John of course denies it.
"There is never a right or wrong time for me. It's just my gut, my intuition and that's what's made me come on to Facebook and Twitter. I have never planned too many things in my life. I enjoy being on it now and I have to say it's very addictive," he said flashing those now famous dimples.
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