Mumbai: Vijay Subramanian, the founder of Collective Artists Network, recently spoke about the rising Gen Z social media stars and why superstars like Shah Rukh Khan need not worry about their stardom.
Asked if the film world is under threat from a new style of storytelling led by the creators, Vijay told Hindustan Times: “I’m a big propagator that old media, as it was, is probably on its final legs. A few more years from now, there’ll be a complete transition to media, which is predominantly digitally native. The moment I saw that trend kind of come in, I knew that every part of the business that we operate in is going to become extremely critical to operating from a place where we are ready for that economy.”
He continued, “There were two broad pillars of iconicity and stardom in the country. It used to be the movies and cricket. And I think that’s kind of shifted to now there being three, the third being the digital content. You have to be ready for it.”
However, Vijay firmly stated that social media stars cannot replace the existing superstars.
“I think that’s a bit of a myth… Superstardom is superstardom. I don’t think they’re interchangeable or overlappable. I don’t think Shah Rukh (Khan) ever competed with Sachin (Tendulkar). They stood for their own thing. Or I don’t think Ranbir (Kapoor) and Virat (Kohli) are competing against each other. I think similarly, you know, there’s this constant battle of ‘is social social media stardom going to eat into the classic celebrity culture’? The answer is no!” Vijay stated.
“I think you’re a social media star today because you have a slightly more loyal fan base, but superstars are superstars. Their superstardom has been built over decades, not over months or years; it is not topical. So, I don’t think it’s going to be cannibalistic. They’ve built their stardom over 15, 20, 30 years. A technology wave is not going to wash them away,” he explained.
“I think the problem with the creator economy that was there and that we are looking to solve is that today, creators are very ephemeral. They last for a span of 1 or 2 years,” he said, adding that creators need to ask themselves: “How do you keep reintroducing yourself? How do you keep disrupting?”
“I feel micro dramas are going to come in. Fast fiction is going to become a reality, and AI-led content is going to become more and more prevalent.”
