On February 11, Zeenat Aman, the veteran Bollywood actress joined the social media website, Instagram with a simple portrait of herself and a two-line caption saying hello to the gram.
Actresses joining Instagram is no less of an event. The app almost broke the day Jennifer Aniston, of F.R.I.E.N.D.S fame, joined and garnered over a million followers in less than a day. A similar frenzy was witnessed much closer to home when Kareena Kapoor Khan joined the app. However, Aman’s arrival was neither much anticipated nor relatable for the GenZ, which constitutes a majority on the site.
However, with her insightful captions, nostalgic throwbacks, fan stories, and takes from her shoots in the 70s when much wasn’t public information, Aman quickly emerged as an Instagram darling.
According to Qurouz, an influencer marketing platform, Aman has emerged with the highest engagement rate in comparison to other most followed actresses and celebrities on the gram. With 16.6 per cent, Aman is way ahead of others. She is followed by Kareena Kapoor who has about 10 million followers but an engagement rate of only 5.6 per cent, whereas Jennifer Aniston has about 40 million followers and an engagement rate of about 4.9 per cent.
Engagement rate refers to the percentage of a user’s followers that engage with the posted content by liking, sharing, and commenting on the posts. Hence, an indicator of an active audience.
It is widely believed that one way to increase engagement, or simply views, is to post reels, or short format videos with trending music. Such videos are then pushed further by Instagram’s algorithm. However, of the 32 posts on Zeenat Aman’s grid, only two are short videos and both don’t have any trending music at all, instead, both are her original videos, with one even a recitation of a famous poem by the late Caribbean poet, Derek Walcott.
So, what’s working for Zeenat Aman?
One way to answer this question is to pose another related question: how is Aman’s profile better than the rest? The answer is simple, her posts are authentic, well written and express the actress in her most unapologetic form without taking recourse to plastic models, such as trendy music, etc.
Aman’s Instagram is not crowded with any sponsored or partnership posts, given the fact that the actress wouldn’t have any dearth of offers, given her stature. It means she is consciously keeping her feed clean and trustworthy. She has jokingly explained how she signed up for the site and credits her sons for it. And, we are thankful that she did.
It’s not every day that you see a silver-haired woman be herself, share stories from days of her youth, and still set fashion goals on the app.
For instance, one of her posts was about her contemporary, Parveen Babi. Aman started by acknowledging that how audiences have always gotten confused between the two but she never saw the similarities. Much was spoken about their rivalry back in the day but she clarified that it was all baseless as the two popular actresses were always warm to each other. The post further spoke about the importance of mental health and how it was sad to know that any news regarding the actresses were always about their work or love life and never acknowledged their struggles. “Parveen was much more than who she dated or said when she was unwell….she never truly got the chance to say her piece," the veteran actress had written.
The post has garnered over 82,000 likes and resonated with many. As seen in the comment section of the post, many young actors or even common users have thanked Aman for articulating it all so well. In fact, the comment section has been restricted now, after a flood of these wishes emerged.
Though Zeenat Aman, is a lady of all seasons, it is her Instagram that has helped her be the centre of attention once again. Seen walking at one of the shows at the recent fashion week, Aman is also now the face of many brands. However, she still continues to post her throwbacks with other prominent celebrities or movie sets, her kids, and has kept it spicy and unapologetic, just the way the internet loves her.