Deepika Padukone Photo: Maoyan

Bollywood A-list actress Deepika Padukone joined the popular social media platform TikTok on Saturday, just a week before her latest film Chhapaak hits theaters in India and the US. Within just a few days of her debut, she gained 3.7 million followers on the short video platform.  

Used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, particularly teenagers, this Beijing-developed app allows users to post and share short, creative and sometimes funny videos. While not many hotshot Bollywood stars have opened TikTok accounts yet, Padukone’s entrance into the community will possibly boost the platform’s profile when it comes to film marketing in Bollywood, reported Indian news site Exchange4media on Wednesday.  

The article pointed out that back in 2018 other Bollywood films also turned to TikTok for promotion such as Zero, The Sky is Pink, Housefull 4 and Made in China. 

“The platform is increasingly important as it has a very strong reach, engagement and influence over the youth of the country, which makes for a large part of movie audiences. TikTok also has a large audience that is otherwise not easily reachable on other social platforms, and hence makes it even more important for production houses,” the article quoted Apaksh Gupta, founder of India-based social media marketing company One Impression, as saying. 

In China, where the app is known as Douyin, the platform announced on Friday it is teaming up with renowned Chinese film directors Wong Kar-wai, Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou and Feng Xiaogang to encourage ordinary people to direct and shoot their own short videos and capture their wonderful family moments during the upcoming Spring Festival, the most important time of the year. Four brand new types of filters imitating the director’s film style were released on Monday on the app.   

Furthermore, Zhang’s latest unreleased work Jianrupanshi (Lit: solid as a rock) also has a promotional clip specially made for TikTok that was screened at the TikTok short videos festival held in Beijing in July. 

Global Times