New Delhi: We go deeply into the realm of celebrities on social media as cricketer Virat Kohli becomes the first Indian to reach the milestone of 250 million Instagram followers. Experts estimate that social media deals account for roughly 20–30% of a celebrity's current earnings.
While it may seem that celebrities posting peeks into their daily life on social media are only doing it for the love of their followers, the truth is more complicated. Did you realise that influencers and celebrities get paid huge sums for all of their online activities? For instance, cricketer Virat Kohli, who recently passed the 250 million-follower threshold on Instagram, charges between 3.5 and 5 crore for each Instagram post.
An HT source says that the fee varies for different elements on the social media platform: “A story is cheaper than a post, because a post stays foreverA story with a link to the brand’s page is expensive. Even a post with a link is pricey. The most expensive is when a celebrity’s page does a collab with a brand’s page.”
MOST FOLLOWED INDIAN CELEBS ON INSTA (in millions) and EARNINGS PER POST (as per a report in HT)
Virat Kohli- 250- 3.5-5 CRORES
Priyanka Chopra Jonas- 87.7- 2 CRORES
Shraddha Kapoor- 80.8- 1.5 CRORES
Alia Bhatt- 77.4- 1.5- 2 CRORES
Deepika Padukone- 74.1- 2 CRORES
Katrina Kaif- 72.8- 1 CRORE
Shrenik Gandhi, CEO and Co-founder, White Rivers Media, who has worked with a host of both Indian and international talents on the digital space, told Hindustan Times, "Social media contributes a lot to a celeb’s financial department. Social media is the only two way medium, it acts as a strong validator or unvalidator for a brand, which is priceless. Secondly, let’s assume before I sign a deal with an actor. It acts as a great research tool for me. If a sneaker brand approaches me and says ‘3 crore spend karne hain’, social media becomes my mining tool to search for a sneaker head. The brands benefit a lot by collaborating with the celeb. About 20-30 percent of revenue in a celeb’s life in a year is from social media deals, which is a huge pie.”
It's not required for a celebrity to be the brand ambassador in order to perform a post; arrangements are also made for specific postings, according to another insider who works closely with celebrities but wishes to stay anonymous.
To develop her yoga app, Shilpa Shetty Kundra collaborated with Digi Osmosis founder Manish Kumar, who has also worked with Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment. While money may not directly play a large role in a celebrity's life as shown in their social media posts, in his opinion, the long-term consequences are overwhelming.