Janhvi Kapoor, Vaani Kapoor, Neha Sharma are Indian members of Raya, the ‘dating app for celebs’ used by Ben Affleck, Channing Tatum

Having made inroads in India, Raya has attracted celebrities such as Janhvi Kapoor, Vaani Kapoor, Neha Sharma, Sonal Chauhan, Anushka Ranjan, Lisa Mishra and a major filmmaker who wishes to remain anonymous. Invite-only Raya offers exclusivity and privacy that celebrities wouldn’t find on regular dating apps such as Tinder. The app, famously ‘not for everyone’, follows a rigid code of silence where exposing names of other members, taking screenshots of other profiles or even tweeting about it can get you thrown out. The app is meant to facilitate friendship and networking as much as dating.

Actor Sonakshi Sinha in a recent interview with Brut was asked what her dating bio would be. She scoffed at the mere idea. “I don’t have a dating app bio,” she laughed. The interviewer swiftly moved on to his next question, but Sonakshi was clearly distracted by the possibility. She interrupted, “Imagine that. Imagine what would that be like, even. The amount of DMs I get on Instagram, in thousands. I can’t imagine what my dating app would look like.”

For celebrities such as Sonakshi Sinha, who has over 21 million followers on Instagram, certain things are ironically out of reach. For instance, many actors will often admit that part of the devil’s bargain of becoming a celebrity is sacrificing all forms of privacy. Once they’ve crossed a certain threshold of fame, their every move will be documented with the diligence of a weatherman tracking an incoming storm.

But Raya, despite essentially being a virtual VIP section of the hottest club in town—or, ‘the Soho House of dating apps,’ as one person told the NYT in 2018—offers one thing that the rich and famous desire more than anything else. Confidentiality. Launched in 2015 by Daniel Gendelman, the by-invite-only app isn’t advertised, but grows through word of mouth. As an added layer of exclusivity, it’s available only on iOS devices. Of course.

Society has largely become accustomed to the concept of social silos and closed circles. Even non-celebrities, for instance, are willing to wait a couple of decades to get membership at the Delhi Golf Club. But on Raya, only about 8 per cent of applications are accepted. One person even offered $10,000 in cash to be admitted, while others, the Times said, presented elaborate resumes.

“I tried to solve a big problem for a small amount of people,” Gendelman told the Times, having emerged from the woodwork after having successfully maintained secrecy about not just Raya’s membership, but the app itself. He conceived it, unsurprisingly, after a striking out on Tinder. But his vision, he said, was to create somewhat of a digital Davos.

Not just movie stars and musicians, the app also welcomes athletes, journalists, and, as Gendelman insisted, people who aren’t famous at all. The app, he told the Times, is ‘for passionate people anywhere in the world who have something they want to share with other members, and can do it in a respectful way.’ It costs about as much as one month’s Netflix subscription in the US, and requires aspiring members to apply via their Instagram accounts. Raya even requires members to create a musical montage of photos, which it displays, according to a 2021 New Yorker article, in an interface that is reminiscent of iMessage and AirBnb.

A screenshot of the Raya interface, as displayed on the App Store. (Photo: App Store)

But that’s where the connections to regular platforms end. Omertà is what defines, and ultimately sustains the app. Every application is vetted by a pool of existing members, in a process that can sometimes last years. Decisions are made on the basis of digital impressions and referrals, or, as Gendelman told the Times, even if the applicant happens to be ‘rad’.

Misbehaviour of any kind isn’t tolerated, and results in the applicant being booted out with a tacit response: “Our decision is final.” The woman who outed Affleck suffered a similar fate, as did an ‘aggressive’ man she matched with, she told the New Yorker.

Groucho Marx, at the insistence of his friends, agreed to become a member of an exclusive club. Having decided that it wasn’t for him, he famously wrote in a letter of resignation, “I don’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.” Raya is the antithesis of this idea. It remains to be seen how it’ll work in a country where celebrities spend entire careers trying to be relatable.