When Shraddha Kapoor, the most followed Indian woman on Instagram (she has 94.1 million besotted fans—a number that beats Angelina Jolie and Donald Trump’s combined following), says she doesn’t have a social media strategy, you are bound to think she’s bullshitting. “I post what I feel like. I don’t share everything, but what I do share is me,” she says pointedly.
It’s true, as far as celebrities go, she is almost universally relatable. Take her feed, for instance: She’s steaming her face in sweatpants with a towel wrapped around her head. She’s goofing around in Harry Potter glasses. She’s coddling her Yorkshire terrier Small, toy poodle Smoosh, and Lhasa Apso Shyloh (who has almost thrice as many followers as me). And then she appears in designer couture and on the red carpet, a jaw-droppingly glam reminder that she is in fact a legit celebrity and a Bollywood star.
So, who is the real Shraddha Kapoor? The bare faced actor, popping paani puris, grabbing coffee, watching Schitt’s Creek and posting from her bedroom we routinely see on Instagram? Or a consciously cultivated digital persona? "I’ve fully cultivated it. I’m actually a monster on the loose. Half-bhootni, half-human in real life," she quips, breaking into a big laugh. Kapoor swears there’s no “magic formula”. Her feed is an actual representation of her, contradictions and all. She is at once, the carefree millennial who cherishes the everyday joys of life, and the star who can transform into a paparazzo muse at a moment’s notice. The Nod’s Sheree Gomes Gupta chats with the star to find out.
