Being active on social networking sites has become a part of the job for actors. The number of followers on social media determines how popular an actor is with audiences and thus attracts the attention of casting directors. But actor Angad Bedi, who recently starred in the short film The List, believes people confuse social media followers with a fandom.
Bedi suggested that social media followers are just the ones who enjoy seeing your posts. They won’t necessarily come to see you on screen. Speaking to indianexpress.com, he claimed, “People confuse their number of followers on social media with a following. They are two different things. Fanbase is the number of people who like and view your work. They may or may not follow you on social media. Social media followers are based on how much you post on social media. The more you post, the more followers you have.”
The Inside Edge star also suggested that if an actor decides to take an active role on social media and gain attention through the medium, he/she be “thick skinned” and not swayed by mean comments on their posts should let. Angad Bedi agreed that in this day and age it’s important to share your work on social media to stay relevant, saying, “Not everyone is as talented as Ranbir Kapoor. He is a gifted actor. So if someone wants to cast him, they will cast him regardless of whether he is on social media or not. But that doesn’t apply to everyone.”
Therefore, the actor suggested that people should post their work on social media to stay relevant. “It’s a great medium. You just have to use it to your advantage. But then be thick-skinned about the comments and the number of likes. If you’re doing it for work, just do it for it. i do it for work I put up pictures of my styling as people want to know what you look like as it is an looks based industry. But beyond that, you have to calm down and relax in your own head,” he told us.
Bedi also thinks that “actors are very fragile anyway as they are always judged” so they should “protect” themselves from hate on social media. He said: “Social media is just a part of life and not your whole life. Good mental balance is necessary for good mental health.” He said he doesn’t read comments on his post and doesn’t even care about social media beyond a point.
Bedi’s latest film The List, streaming on Amazon Mini TV, focuses on a young couple who are overinvested in their professional lives and lead robotic lives. They lack feelings for each other and become entangled in a monotonous life. However, unlike his character in the film, Angad Bedi is trying to hold on his life with his actor wife Neha Dhupia far from becoming banal. And it’s her two children, Mehr and Guriq, who play an important role in keeping her life interesting.
“We have a good circle of friends and then we have our children. My wife and I take great pleasure in dropping off and picking up more from their school, and we enjoy taking our children with us. We enjoy traveling. For me it is very important to have the influence of the grandparents in raising the children, so we try to maximize that. We do all the usual things with our kids that our parents did for us. With children, it automatically becomes interesting,” says Bedi.
