Tell ‘tail’ groupies

Deanne, friends with SRK

Call it the groupie phenomenon or just sheer ‘stalking’!

With the IPL season on and many cricketers and celebrities going about town, there’s been a sudden rise of the city’s youth hanging out in hotels and after-parties to not only get a glimpse of celebrities but also to get quick pictures with them.

Deann D’Cunha, student, who got her 15 minutes of fame after she sang with Bryan Adams’ on stage, has pictures of herself and friends posing with Bryan Adams, Shahrukh Khan and Brett Lee! But she denies having specially gone to the hotel to get a glimpse of them.

“We had just gone there for lunch and Shahrukh Khan happened to be there. But we knew someone big was coming because they had laid out the carpet. I just thought it would be fun to get a picture with him!” she giggles.

Funnily enough, you don’t need to be a die-hard fan of a celebrity to be seen with them. Like Gaurav Sondhi says, “It just ups our social status among friends.” Gaurav, who has just completed his final year, knows a few RCB’s cricketers personally thanks to his mother’s salon. “I know Virat Kohli and Zaheer Khan personally, but I still go to the after-parties to hang out with the others. I guess I could call myself a groupie,” he laughs.

So, what’s the deal with this ‘groupie’ phenomenon and what do they get out of it? Gaurav pretty much hits the nail on the head, “It’s like we’re ‘in the circle’. The personal brand value goes up, and of course, it does wonders for our image with the girls,” he says cheekily.

Dr Chandrashekar, a psychiatrist explains, “Everyone has an inner need to get name and fame. And recognition comes easily by associating oneself to a celebrity. Even if it is just for a short period of time, it boosts the ego among your social circle. So, being seen with a celebrity even if one is not a big fan does exactly that.”

But, where Deann and Gaurav have only ‘targeted’ a few celebrities, there’s Kunal Vaswani, banking executive, who has at least fifty-odd pictures with celebrities on a social networking website. “I have pictures with almost all of them. I go to their hotels, since I know they’ll be there. It’s nice to collect photographs with them and meeting them personally feels really nice,” he says.

Well, to each his own, is all we can say!