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Blogs and tweets have given them platforms where they can interact with their fans one to one. Bollywood stars, however, are going an extra mile, literally, to reach out to their fans. So, you had Aamir Khan roaming around the country for two weeks in disguise and challenging his fans to spot him during the promotions of 3 Idiots. The superstar, known for giving personal touch to his film promotions, had also created a secret identity on social networking site Facebook to interact incognito with people. His wife Kiran Rao took inspiration from her star husband to promote Dhobi Ghat. The director has been writing personal notes to journalists introducing her characters and tit-bits about the making of the movie. Aamir had used a similar method to promote Ghajini. "It is a healthy trend in Bollywood. With such marketing tricks, the industry can reach out to more number of people and in an effective way," advertising guru Alyque Padamsee says. The trend started by Aamir Khan has been so successful that other Bollywood stars lost no time in following suit. Bollywood heartthrob John Abraham gave out his cell number on which he was available for a fortnight as a ‘love guru’ to promote his box-office dud Jhootha Hi Sahi while Salman Khan was seen selling tickets of his movie in a theatre in Delhi. "I couldn’t believe my ears when he took my call after two rings and said ‘Hello, I am John here’. We spoke for 10 minutes and 23 seconds and that is the most memorable telephonic conversation I ever had," says college student Rinky Shah. Tormented women are finding the patient ears of actors Rani Mukerji and Vidya Balan as the two launched a helpline, in tune with the subject of their film No One Killed Jessica. "In a small way, we are helping our audience and fans by being there to give them support and make them feel important when they call in and leave a message," Mukerji said. The entire film industry is easily accessible without any pushing or shoving as fans keep on adding glitterati onto their Facebook’s friendship list and following their tweets on Twitter. "The proudest moment of my life came in when Karan Johar replied to my tweet," says Neeraj Biyani, who now keeps a track of every other big shot on Twitter. With their online followers running into lakhs, the list of Bollywood celebs joining the Twitter bandwagon is endless after Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu and Hrithik Roshan became the trendsetters. Later, Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Farah Khan and even Madhuri Dixit joined them to ‘tweet’ their way into the hearts of netizens. Filmmaker Onir went a step ahead and solicited money from the public on Facebook to fund his upcoming issue-based film I Am. Tweeting about everything under the sun, including the mundane ‘Good Morning’ and ‘Good Night’, the once-inaccessible stars are now within the reach of anyone with an internet connection. — PTI
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