I recently came across a story that made me angry! It got my blood boiling and had me cursing the sorry state of humanity.
Indian hockey star and Olympics bronze medal hero recently opened up in a podcast about something unexpected that happened at an airport. Players from the Indian hockey team, which had recently won their bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, were at the airport.
In such circumstances, you would expect fans and other passengers to approach the players to congratulate them on their incredible performance and ask for autographs. But, alas, someone else ruined their moment.
Nagpur’s famous tea seller and social media sensation, Dolly Chaiwala was also at the airport. People flocked to him instead of the hockey team members leaving them embarrassed.
The 26 year old Hardik revealed during the podcast, “I saw it with my own eyes, at the airport. Harmanpreet (Singh), I, Mandeep (Singh); there were 5-6 of us. Dolly chaiwala was also there. People were getting themselves clicked with him and did not recognize us. We started looking at each other.”
“Harmanpreet has scored more than 150 goals, Mandeep has more than 100 field goals. For an athlete, fame and money is one thing. But when people are watching you and appreciating you, there is no bigger satisfaction than that for an athlete.”
As a sports fan, when I heard about this, I outraged in my mind for a few minutes. How stupid do people have to be to value a social media influencer over athletes who made the country proud?
Once I got the outrage out of my system, I then began to logically question what makes social media influencers so popular and why people hold them in higher esteem.
Then, I realized that they actually do not!
Dolly Chaiwala is like any other tea-seller out there. He makes tea which is as good as any chai ki tapri. In fact, the cutting chai made by your local tea-seller may be better. There is really nothing special about Dolly’s tea.
Then how is he a social media influencer?
The answer is simple. It is the perception of authenticity.
Too simple? Let me elaborate.
Dolly chaiwala is a man who has worked his way up from poverty and through his instagram account, he has managed to tell his story to the unwashed public. Someone who has worked his way up from the bottom to become rich and famous. Indians love a good rags to riches story.
But then this is true for many entrepreneurs and industrialists. Many, have a presence on social media but their following is not as big as Dolly chaiwala. What is the secret which makes Bill Gates come all the way from Lake Washington to meet him?
The secret here is the perception of authenticity.
A typical Dolly chaiwala reel will show him preparing tea in a flashy manner. But that is not all that the audience perceives. In their mind, they see someone just like them who has made it big. If he can do it, so can I. This is what the audience thinks subconsciously.
It is not just Dolly. There is Chandrika Dixit, the social media influencer who sells ‘Mumbai ka famous vada pav’ at a roadside stall in Delhi. She has a significant fan following and reportedly earns Rs 40,000 per day selling vada pav.
As a Mumbaikar, I can say with absolute certainty that any vada pav seller in Mumbai can prepare better vada pavs. But again, what works for Chandrika is the perception of authenticity. She is on social media and has told her story to the world.
This is key here – HER STORY!
Every individual has their unique story to tell. They have their own victories and their own struggles. Some call it a personal brand. Others call it influencing.
The same goes for influencers doing crazy stunts, often adopting clownish personas to gain a following. Influencers like Mr. Beast, Speed, Jake and Aaron Paul, etc. They are not celebrities. They are just like you and me.
The fan following is not the same as the craze received by cricketers and film stars. Players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and film stars like Ranbir Kapoor, Shahrukh Khan are seen as gods. Figures that are so great that we don’t deserve to walk the same path, so bright that we can’t to stand in their presence. At least their talent makes them that way.
Social media influencers are great because they have cracked the code. Unlike film stars and cricketers, they don’t need a huge PR and marketing machine to show themselves as authentic. They just speak in front of a camera. They understand that just saying things in their own way, from their point of view makes them unique. The audience does the rest to complete the perception of authenticity.
As for why hockey stars (or any non cricket/ non bollywood personality) are not famous. Well, they are famous. They have their own niche following and those people do see these athletes as gods. Its just that these sports and disciplines do not have the same level of popularity of cricket.
I would like to end by saying, Be Authentic. Our parents used to tell us to be ourselves. Turns out they were right.
