The Net connection

Hectic shooting schedules, a frenzied social life. Are TV stars wired to the Net for a zippier rapport with their friends and fans? Some are extremely Net savvy, some are completely unfriendly, was what Prashant Golecha found out. There are some, like Sai Deodhar, who spend over five hours every day surfing and chatting on the Internet and there are others like Cezanne Khan who say they just don't have the time for it! Many television artistes, who have discovered the power of the Internet in connecting with their fan community online, have used it to their advantage. Remember Amar Upadhyay started a website of his own called www.mihiramarhai.com after his popularity reached a crescendo following his death on Kyunki…? Amar says the website shut down some months ago, but his cousin continues to run another website called www.mihirvirani.com, which is used by Amar's fans to update info on him! This, despite the fact that Amar has nothing to do with Mihir Virani anymore! Amar himself is pretty net savvy. He regularly checks updates on himself through Google searches, just as he checks out new models of cars on the Net. He says he prefers the Net to the newspaper as it gives specific news on demand. One of Amar's fetishes is to chat online with fans and strangers. He recalls, "I tried chatting once under a fictitious name with a guy, and later when I disclosed my identity, he said, "Sure! And I am Amitabh Bachchan!" Among the babe brigade, Sweta Keswani isn't too hot on computers. Her email id, she says, got inactivated three times, because she didn't operate it frequently enough. "I had a laptop. I sold it off last month as it was of no use to me," she shrugs. Yet, Sweta thinks computers are an easy enough gadget to operate if one has the time and inclination. "No computer course is required, one just needs to follow the steps and options. I have a PC at home but my father operates it." But Sweta, who thinks of herself as an outdoor person, says computers make her feel isolated. "My job as an actress demands socializing and has no use of computers or the Internet but they are the bloodline of business people and companies. One reason I stay away from Internet is that it drowns you and you get addicted," she reasons. Original Kkusum girl Nausheen has never got hooked to computers and the Internet. "I find them too technical. I prefer to use the phone than the Net," she says. On the other hand, bubbly Ruby Bhatia maintains her own website, www.rubykbhatia.com, though she claims not to check her own mails very regularly. Manish Goyal has bought a PDA with a three inch touch screen and a MP3 player that's Net enabled. Says he,"I love to surf HBO.net and starpulse.com, as I love to know more about Hollywood actors. I often download wallpapers. On an average, I spend one hour daily on the computer. Computers and Internet are a part of my lifestyle and I often ask my wife (Poonam Narula) to take an interest in them but she is just not interested." So, it fell to Manish's lot to surf for baby related websites to hunt for a name for their newborn baby recently! Sai Deodhar, on the other hand, uses the Net to relax after a hard day's work on the sets. "I read a lot of literature and poetry on the net. My favourite website is www.thesaurus.com. Yahoo has recently launched radio and I love to hear that. I enjoy doing crosswords on computers. I also write poetry on computers." A laptop is high on her wish list right now, says Sai. Being an only child, Sai says she treats her computer more like a companion. The inside information is that she fell in love, courtesy this machine. He was 19, she was 16. They were childhood friends. He went away to the US. A year or two later, he saw some of her pictures which her dad had despatched. Oh boy, she has grown, sorry, blossomed- he felt. Messages became more lovey-dovey and they found that they had a lot in common. Latest, Sai flew down to the US and spent 15 days with him and his family. There is no kazi out here in this miyan-biwi story, which is therefore apparently heading for a fairy-tale ending. The lucky guy is Chaitanya Tambe. For doctor turned businessman turned actor Anuj Saxena, life is unthinkable without computers and the Net. "On the click of a mouse, you get everything. The advantage of emails is that you can reply when you have time and it saves paper as well. But then emails can't be a substitute of a conversation. The human element is not there on the net" he reasons. Still, catch Anuj anytime on the sets and you see him with his laptop, browsing between shots! Narayani Shastri is one actor who misses her PC and the Net, as she has moved to a new house and the computer is yet to be installed. "But I don't feel a vacuum if I don't go on the Net every day. Moreover there are other things to pursue in life," she laughs. Juhi Parmar too has a GPRS enabled cell phone, but she says her use of the Net is strictly requirement based, "and sometimes that doesn't happen even once in the whole month. I don't have a PC and don't feel the need to have one. I am a "No Computers" person and I don't surf the Net," she grins.