Malavika’s Mumbaistan: An Orry-fice or an Orry-cal for our age?

He has been called everything: ‘the breakthrough star of the year’, ‘a social media sensation’, ‘a marketing genius’ and even ‘a pus-filled carbuncle on the collective a#@* of society!’; has been featured in a series of AI- generated images with the likes of Tagore, Newton and Chaplin and has been initiated into the ultimate Valhalla of dubious celebrityhood- making his entrance into the portals of Big Boss -17 as a wild card recently.

He evokes curiosity, outrage, jealousy and admiration and yet, love him, hate him, but you can’t ignore the fact that Orhan Awatramani, the SoBo lad with 774K insta followers, and an inexhaustible conveyor belt of pictures, in which he’s wrapped like a bewitching piece of Orry-gami around every conceivable A -list celebrity on the Planet, seems to be everything everywhere all at once, on everyone’s lips and on everyone’s gram.

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Of course, the main question on every one’s mind is ‘Who is Orry, where did he come from and what does he do?’. But those that ask, are missing the point completely. Because in our selfie -and -social media -obsessed lives, when everyone from the very highest in the land, to the girl next door, appears to be in a frantic frenzy of ‘fastest finger first’ to broadcast their every waking moment of existence to the rest of humanity, the question to be asked is in fact: Why didn’t Orry happen sooner?

After all, it is almost half a century ago that the world was introduced to the phrase ‘In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes’, the expression misattributed to Andy Warhol, to describe the short-lived media publicity or celebrity of an individual. And it was almost twenty years ago that Paris Hilton acquainted us with the phenomena of ‘being famous for being famous’.

Since then, so much has happened: The Kardarshians, smart phones, social media influencers and an unrelenting 24x7 news cycle. In these circumstances, Orry, who claims to earn 20/30 lakhs for just posting his pix with sundry celebs is not only an idea whose time has come, but an Orry-cal for our age: A savvy Millennial, with a staggering amount of confidence, connections, chutzpah and designer threads, at the very pivot of showbiz, stardom, entertainment and pop culture.

And like the proverbial Pied Piper, he marshals his influence and agency, attracting a breath -taking assemblage of star kids, biz tycoons, global glamour girls and heavyweight celebs, in what appears to be his never ending star studded Orry-ent Express.

Indeed in these circumstances, it is not ours to ask ‘Who is Orry and what does he do?’ but ‘Why did an Orry take so long to emerge in our midst?’

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Ever since the shackles of India’s economy were opened in the mid- Nineties and a wave of consumerism and ‘catching -up with the rest of the world’ was embraced by a newly -empowered middle class, India has been inching towards Pop and page three culture and its consequences.

Ask any gallerist and they will tell you that rather than look at the works of art on display at art fairs and exhibitions, visitors are more interested in clicking their selfies with them; at restaurants, The food on the table is not tasted as much as shot; and on prime time discussions on TV, serious debate and considered opinions have taken a back seat to sound bites and sensationalism.

In such a scenario, someone with charisma and smarts who instinctively ‘gets’ how to capture public imagination and work the social media machine is at a natural advantage. Those who critique Orry for his sudden fame and fortune would do well to understand the method behind the seeming madness of it all.

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In today’s ADHD, rapid -fire, nano-second, news cycle explosion, where breaking news is a constant leitmotif and no one has the time or the attention span to delve too deep into one’s past, lineage, provenance or cast, what matters is the image more than the truth, the myth more than the man.

Today, you can be whoever you want to be, as long as you remember to take a pretty picture, show off your best angle and use the right filters. So, how long before Orry launches a series of merchandise (‘Orry Dolls’ for those who can’t get to pose with him at parties?), or a slew of restaurants bearing his name, or even a talk show where he ‘Orry -ents ‘his audience into his special brand of stardom and how to achieve it?

After all, it can be argued that he is already more famous than most of the celebs he poses with at parties.

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A telling moment occurred during Orry’s recent Big Boss visitation. In an exchange with Salman Khan, the superstar was heard asking the whippersnapper that hoary old question on everyone’s mind: What does he really do?

After enigmatically replying that he ‘did a lot’ : (“I rise with the sun and sleep with the moon,”) Orry revealed that he employed ‘Five managers’ to handle his ever-growing enterprise of celebrityhood.

It was a moment of unexpected poignancy. For once the famous cultivated swagger slipped from Khan’s personna and you could see the incredulousness of someone who’d had to work his body and brawn unrelentingly for over 3 decades to achieve his success.

Undoubtedly for us in India, Orry is an Orry-ginal.