Shraddha Kapoor, Instagram and statistics you didn't need
I have been jobless for five months now. Which means inconsequential pieces of news pick my interest, like: 'Shraddha Kapoor becomes the third most-followed Bollywood actor on Instagram'. She now has over 50 million followers.
For someone who has a forgettable filmography except maybe an Aashiqui 2, Chhichhore, ABCD 2 and Stree (I'm being kind with the latter two) and a vapid personality, why is Shraddha Kapoor more popular on Instagram than Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma? A mildly famous subreddit happened to be discussing Instagram behaviours of stars and got me curious.
Five days ago, it was reported that the only two Bollywood stars ahead of her were Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone. If numbers are to go by, Shraddha has inched (or millimetred) past Deepika in the last couple of days and has now reached the second spot!
Now Deepika's PR, for anyone who feeds on entertainment news for breakfast would know, is intense. Best wife? Deepika. Best actress ever since 1920? Deepika. Ranbir's ex? Deepika. Ranveer's crush? Deepika. Dimples? Deepika. Kartik ke saath airport pe impromptu dance in the presence of every pap photographer ever? Deepika. Depression helpline? Deepika. To the extent that they even took the unprecedented move of taking Deepika to JNU in the middle of her film promotions. It may have resulted in a severe backlash for her movie, but Deepika.
Deepika Padukone never goes out of season in Bollywood. Shraddha Kapoor though, has no season. Even around the time her movies are scheduled to release, she will be part of a few bland film promotions. Why does she have more followers than the aggressively vain Deepika Padukone?
50 million is a big number. Statistics show there were 80,590,000 Instagram users in India in January 2020, which accounted for 5.8% of its entire population. Men making a large part of this -- 72.7%.
People aged 18 to 24 were the largest user group (38,700,000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 18 to 24, where men lead by 19,300,000.
PS. Even Modi ji has only 45.1 M followers.
This explains why women in Bollywood have a significantly higher following than their male peers.
But are all these followers interacting with Bollywood actors? Your guess is as good as mine. In case it isn't, they're not. Bot an observation!
From the time the lock down began in India, Kareena Kapoor's Instagram posts have seen an interaction rate of 18.557% with 3.6 M followers. Understandably, her posts have Taimur and an uncontrived peek into her life. Kareena had also never been on social media before she debuted with a blue tick on Instagram in March this year. We, the mango people, had no idea what her living room looked like or what she wore at home, or how Taimur painted the walls of her balcony before March, 2020. The interest in her IG posts is real.
Interestingly, she is followed by Tara Sutaria, Ananya Pandey, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sara Ali Khan and Kiara Advani when it comes to interaction rates. Deepika Padukone saw an interaction rate of 3.34%, Shraddha Kapoor 2.92% and Priyanka Chopra 1.79%. Are the disproportionately large numbers of followers for the top three actors to be blamed for this? (Enter: law of large numbers). Are 18-24 year old IGers engaging more with the younger stars? Or, do the top three most followed women have an older audience that does not actively engage with them?
Or, bots.
How are the non-nepo stars doing?
Disha Patani has seen a steady 3.76% interaction rate on her posts with a total of 37.1 M followers. Thank you, Calvin Klein and washboard abs. The total interactions on her post since 23 March, 2020 are 65.46 M. This is substantially higher than her peers Bhumi Pednekar (3.3%, 5.2 M followers), Katrina Kaif (3.05%, 40.3 M followers), Anushka Sharma (2.47%, 39.2 M followers), Taapsee Pannu (2.37%, 16.9 M followers), Kriti Sanon (2.35%, 34.8 M followers), Yami Gautam (2.146%, 11.8 M followers).
Is that why Disha Patani has more branded content on Instagram than the others?
Point to note: Anushka was actively promoting Bulbbul on IG in this period.
Interestingly, Sonakshi Sinha has seen an interaction rate of 1.3% with her 18.4 M followers. She is the only actor among the 20 women Bollywood actors on my list who is seeing red. CrowdTangle shows -0.269% — a sizeable decline in followers, as of 15 July, 2020 (s2g, ngl. Image attached for proof). Aag lage basti mein, and all that.
Sonam Kapoor has the lowest interaction rate of 1.261% with 29.4 M followers. No comments (LOLsss, see-what-I-did-there). Does it have something to do with the fact that Sonam posted the most number of times among all these actors? She's on top of the leaderboard when it comes to posting with an average of 1.12 posts per day during the lock down, when the average stands at 0.49 posts per day. Is she spamming her followers to the extent that they don't want to see her any more?
Whose videos are being watched the most?
Do videos reflect the authenticity of followers? Facebook pages that have bought likes can easily be identified on the basis of their video views in most cases. If video views linger in the range of a few hundred to a couple of thousand when the page has over a million likes, it's plausible that bots are to blame. Does that hold true for Instagram as well? Kriti Sanon and Disha Patani rank higher than Shraddha Kapoor here.
Again, the point to note here is that Anushka Sharma was heavily promoting Bulbbul during the range I've selected. The highest percentage increase in video views can be seen for Ananya Panday and Sara Ali Khan. Can teen fan clubs make such a big difference to numbers?
Coming back to Shraddha Kapoor, total interactions is where she finally breaks into the top three spot. Also, who are these people following Priyanka Chopra? Are they Indians who are now bored of commenting JIJUUU on her photos with Nick Jonas or are they firangs who know nothing about her except for the fact that she's Nick Jonas' wife? Why won't they engage with her?
Everyone is on a shopping spree on Instagram, especially the top three who seem to be in an unending race to the top on the vanity ladder. These numbers clearly do not translate into box office success, but do they get you more endorsements and deals? Because if this whole exercise is performed only to fool the mango people into believing who the real queens of Bollywood are then pliss to donate monies to me for charity ðŸ˜.
Conclusion:
“Most people use statistics like a drunk man uses a lamppost; more for support than illumination”
― Andrew Lang
For someone who has a forgettable filmography except maybe an Aashiqui 2, Chhichhore, ABCD 2 and Stree (I'm being kind with the latter two) and a vapid personality, why is Shraddha Kapoor more popular on Instagram than Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma? A mildly famous subreddit happened to be discussing Instagram behaviours of stars and got me curious.
Five days ago, it was reported that the only two Bollywood stars ahead of her were Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone. If numbers are to go by, Shraddha has inched (or millimetred) past Deepika in the last couple of days and has now reached the second spot!
Now Deepika's PR, for anyone who feeds on entertainment news for breakfast would know, is intense. Best wife? Deepika. Best actress ever since 1920? Deepika. Ranbir's ex? Deepika. Ranveer's crush? Deepika. Dimples? Deepika. Kartik ke saath airport pe impromptu dance in the presence of every pap photographer ever? Deepika. Depression helpline? Deepika. To the extent that they even took the unprecedented move of taking Deepika to JNU in the middle of her film promotions. It may have resulted in a severe backlash for her movie, but Deepika.
Deepika Padukone never goes out of season in Bollywood. Shraddha Kapoor though, has no season. Even around the time her movies are scheduled to release, she will be part of a few bland film promotions. Why does she have more followers than the aggressively vain Deepika Padukone?
50 million is a big number. Statistics show there were 80,590,000 Instagram users in India in January 2020, which accounted for 5.8% of its entire population. Men making a large part of this -- 72.7%.
People aged 18 to 24 were the largest user group (38,700,000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 18 to 24, where men lead by 19,300,000.
PS. Even Modi ji has only 45.1 M followers.
This explains why women in Bollywood have a significantly higher following than their male peers.
But are all these followers interacting with Bollywood actors? Your guess is as good as mine. In case it isn't, they're not. Bot an observation!
From the time the lock down began in India, Kareena Kapoor's Instagram posts have seen an interaction rate of 18.557% with 3.6 M followers. Understandably, her posts have Taimur and an uncontrived peek into her life. Kareena had also never been on social media before she debuted with a blue tick on Instagram in March this year. We, the mango people, had no idea what her living room looked like or what she wore at home, or how Taimur painted the walls of her balcony before March, 2020. The interest in her IG posts is real.
Interestingly, she is followed by Tara Sutaria, Ananya Pandey, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sara Ali Khan and Kiara Advani when it comes to interaction rates. Deepika Padukone saw an interaction rate of 3.34%, Shraddha Kapoor 2.92% and Priyanka Chopra 1.79%. Are the disproportionately large numbers of followers for the top three actors to be blamed for this? (Enter: law of large numbers). Are 18-24 year old IGers engaging more with the younger stars? Or, do the top three most followed women have an older audience that does not actively engage with them?
Or, bots.
How are the non-nepo stars doing?
Disha Patani has seen a steady 3.76% interaction rate on her posts with a total of 37.1 M followers. Thank you, Calvin Klein and washboard abs. The total interactions on her post since 23 March, 2020 are 65.46 M. This is substantially higher than her peers Bhumi Pednekar (3.3%, 5.2 M followers), Katrina Kaif (3.05%, 40.3 M followers), Anushka Sharma (2.47%, 39.2 M followers), Taapsee Pannu (2.37%, 16.9 M followers), Kriti Sanon (2.35%, 34.8 M followers), Yami Gautam (2.146%, 11.8 M followers).
Is that why Disha Patani has more branded content on Instagram than the others?
Point to note: Anushka was actively promoting Bulbbul on IG in this period.
Interestingly, Sonakshi Sinha has seen an interaction rate of 1.3% with her 18.4 M followers. She is the only actor among the 20 women Bollywood actors on my list who is seeing red. CrowdTangle shows -0.269% — a sizeable decline in followers, as of 15 July, 2020 (s2g, ngl. Image attached for proof). Aag lage basti mein, and all that.
Sonam Kapoor has the lowest interaction rate of 1.261% with 29.4 M followers. No comments (LOLsss, see-what-I-did-there). Does it have something to do with the fact that Sonam posted the most number of times among all these actors? She's on top of the leaderboard when it comes to posting with an average of 1.12 posts per day during the lock down, when the average stands at 0.49 posts per day. Is she spamming her followers to the extent that they don't want to see her any more?
Whose videos are being watched the most?
Do videos reflect the authenticity of followers? Facebook pages that have bought likes can easily be identified on the basis of their video views in most cases. If video views linger in the range of a few hundred to a couple of thousand when the page has over a million likes, it's plausible that bots are to blame. Does that hold true for Instagram as well? Kriti Sanon and Disha Patani rank higher than Shraddha Kapoor here.
Again, the point to note here is that Anushka Sharma was heavily promoting Bulbbul during the range I've selected. The highest percentage increase in video views can be seen for Ananya Panday and Sara Ali Khan. Can teen fan clubs make such a big difference to numbers?
Coming back to Shraddha Kapoor, total interactions is where she finally breaks into the top three spot. Also, who are these people following Priyanka Chopra? Are they Indians who are now bored of commenting JIJUUU on her photos with Nick Jonas or are they firangs who know nothing about her except for the fact that she's Nick Jonas' wife? Why won't they engage with her?
Everyone is on a shopping spree on Instagram, especially the top three who seem to be in an unending race to the top on the vanity ladder. These numbers clearly do not translate into box office success, but do they get you more endorsements and deals? Because if this whole exercise is performed only to fool the mango people into believing who the real queens of Bollywood are then pliss to donate monies to me for charity ðŸ˜.
Conclusion:
“Most people use statistics like a drunk man uses a lamppost; more for support than illumination”
― Andrew Lang
Also, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, please hire someone better to redo your Instagram strategy. I'm begging and I'm not even a fan.
This research is entirely based on numbers from CrowdTangle between 23 March 2020 to 15 July 2020.
This research is entirely based on numbers from CrowdTangle between 23 March 2020 to 15 July 2020.
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