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India's viral heroes race for fickle fame

Srinivas Gowda's buffalo run set off comparisons with legendary Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

The future of the famous, as Andy Warhol prophesied it to be, is still unfolding. Five decades after the iconic pop artist said that everyone would be famous for 15 minutes in the future, it's okay to say that the internet has democratised fame and given it runtimes longer than what Warhol estimated. It has also redefined the underdog story and led heroes out of anonymity and deprivation into their rightful spaces of acceptance.
India, with an estimated 500 million internet users, has played out varied themes of this tricky thing called internet fame, many of them featuring social media sensations and their eventual slow crash into oblivion. It's all still fickle but this is also a time when internet fame is fame itself, when TikTok stars end up in popular reality shows and YouTubers land film contracts. The spotlight could shift any time but while it lasts, it's real.
In a nation that loves its heroes, these are icons in their own right - ordinary men and women who inspire millions. They tell us that their stories are important too, that they also could build on the starts they got from their suddenly-celeb status, that they could fit in.
We've all rooted for the underdog and we can't have enough of heroes rising from obscurity. Their stories are also necessary reminders at a time when concerns over bigotry and social exclusion are becoming disturbingly real. It's easier to judge, or even discard, their claims to fame than it is to see what they really signify as faces of a potentially equalising change - faces from nowhere, showing up on our walls of fame.
The face of the week is Srinivas Gowda's. A construction worker from Moodbidri in the Indian state of Karnataka, Gowda had hit headlines after he, during a Kambala (annual buffalo races held on slushy fields) event, reportedly ran 142.5 metres in just 13.62 seconds. The feat, recorded and shared widely on social media, set off comparisons with legendary Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. The comparisons, of course, did not say much on how different racing a pair of buffalos on slushy fields is from a professional athletic event. Gowda himself has said how the animals' brisk pace on the field contributes to his own speed.
The state government has felicitated the 28-year-old and the Sports Authority of India has invited him for trials. Gowda has been non-committal on a switch to athletics even as his story continues to throw up new angles for media reports.
Another buffalo racer from Karnataka, meanwhile, has emerged a contender.
Reports say Nishant Shetty covered 100 metres in 9.52 seconds, besting Gowda. The week isn't over and Shetty is still in with a shout.
The initial frenzy has subsided and voices of reason have pointed at the skewed comparisons and dismissed the clamour for scouting more athletic talent from the Kambala fields. The takeaway, however, is that the viral reports introduced the popular rural sport, also connected to traditions of the land, to a whole new global audience.
In 2018, Rakesh, a daily-wage labourer from the state of Kerala, was celebrated on social media after his rendition of a Shankar Mahadevan song. Later, he met the singer and performed live with him. Rakesh is one of the thousands who have used social media platforms to find an audience for their talents. They haven't found major success beyond the celebratory headlines and the buzz, invariably, lasts only till the "next viral sensation" emerges but they still keep showing up on our phone screens.
The story is not always about aspirations and empowerment. Fame comes at roughly 15 seconds on video platform TikTok which has created a new line-up of social media stars and influencers. There, of course, are takers in mobile-first India - reports say more than a third of TikTok downloads are from the country. The quality of content and safety risks involved in shooting challenge videos have divided opinion on TikTok in India but its popularity has even led major Bollywood stars to join in. In January, Mumbai hosted a fan festival featuring top instagrammers and TikTok stars. The crowds at popular spots for shooting TikTok videos, including Connaught Place in Delhi, tell us the story.
It's tough to arrive at patterns to describe the popularity of these men and women, at least some of them unfairly clubbed with 'social media stars'. There is respect for the social change-maker, there is hope in the story of a survivor and there are the entertainers who amuse us, even when doing simple, everyday things. With a like-share click, we could be entering their stories too, perhaps asserting our own conviction that success has eluded the deserving for too long; that it's time to shake things up a bit.
There, perhaps, is a pattern in how we refuse to leave their stories even after they take the happy turn. We watch them in the glow of fame and expect them to handle it with our idea of humility, be responsible to the success we've collectively handed out to them. Ranu Mondal, whose rendition of a Lata Mangeshkar song at a railway station made her a star on the internet, is likely to have learnt it the hard way. A few months later, Mondal sent Twitter on outrage mode for telling off a fan - the accusation was that she behaved like a celebrity which, ironically, she had become.
- R. Krishnakumar is a senior journalist based in Bangalore, India