Seven students from Nightingale Higher Secondary School in Kupondole talk about the world of celebrities. Prince Nepali, Annie Amatya, Payal Kaur, Shweta Thapa and Ashana Shrestha are students of management from grade 12 while Alisha Basnet and Bibek Kunwar are students of management from grade 11.[break]
Bijay Rai/Republica
L to R: Prince Nepali, Alisha Basnet, Payal Kaur, Annie Amatya, Shweta Thapa, Bibek Kunwar and Ashana Shrestha.
Do you follow celebrities, both national and international?
Prince: A bit. I read about them when I’m reading the newspaper.
Bibek: I sometimes check out websites that give me information about celebrities of Hollywood.
Alisha: Well, if I’m flipping channels on TV and come across channels like Zoom, then I watch what’s going on in Bollywood. Other than that, not really.
Ashana: I follow celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood. I watch YouTube videos about them or made by them, read news articles or read information about them when I come across such news on Facebook.
Shweta and Annie: Sometimes, yes.
Payal: I’m mostly interested about celebrities from Bollywood. I sometimes check out their updates.
Who, according to you, is a celebrity?
Alisha: Someone who’s very popular and about whom you hear a lot of news!
Annie: People from showbiz who are very famous.
Ashana, Bibek and Prince: Personalities who have a lot of fan following and have been able to impress other people.
What would you say, are the qualities that any celebrity must have?
Shweta: I think celebrities need to have fashion sense.
Prince: Dedication is one quality that all celebrities must have. They need to be hard working and giving their 100 per cent at whatever they do.
Bibek: I also think that celebrities should be hard working and that they should work hard especially to keep their fans happy. On top of that, they also should have their own original styles.
Alisha: Passion. Celebrities need to be passionate about what they are doing.
Ashana: I think celebs should have the capability to not let down their old fans and keep creating new ones.
Payal: They should portray a personality which is different and unique and of course, be hard working.
Who is your favorite celebrity and why?
Ashana: Will Smith. I think he’s brilliant. He acts well and also has a good body. Plus, the movies that he does are fun and interesting to watch.
Shweta: I like Taylor Swift because she’s beautiful and also has a nice voice. At such a young age, she has been able to achieve so much and become popular.
Annie: I’m a fan of Linkin Park. The band has struggled but they have created good music. Their music videos are also well made. From Kollywood, I like Anmol KC, the actor from the movie Hostel. I think he has a nice personality and he acts well.
Payal: I love the way Katrina Kaif walks and maintains her fashionable style.
Bibek: I like Yama Buddha because of his contribution to Nepali rap music. He’s recently started the Raw Barz episodes which have created a lot of interest amongst teenagers, regarding rap.
Alisha: Ranbir Kapoor is my favorite celebrity, because he’s the chocolate hero of Bollywood. He does good movies as well.
Prince: I admire Madan Krishna Shrestha and Hari Bansha Acharya for the personalities they are. I’ve watched a lot of their movies and TV serials and I love how realistic they are. Music wise, I’m a fan of The Beatles.
Are there any celebrities that you are not fond of?
Alisha: I don’t know why but I don’t like Priyanka Chopra. I find her weird.
Annie: I don’t like Justin Bieber because I think he pulls a lot of publicity stunts.
Would you like to live the celebrity life?
Annie: I want to be popular but not in a way that I can’t even live my personal life, the way I want to.
Payal: No, I wouldn’t want to, because I feel that celebrities have no personal life. Everything they do becomes public and I don’t like that kind of a life.
Shweta: Of course I want to be popular. And, I wouldn’t mind sharing parts of my personal life, as a celebrity, with my fans. I think they should know about what’s going on with me, if I’m a celebrity.
Alisha: I guess, everyone wants to be popular. However, I wouldn’t want to be one of those people who’ll do anything and everything to be popular.
Prince: Yes, I’d like to live that life. I’m currently involved with an instrumental band and I want to be popular through it. I think with the case of bands and groups, the focus is more on the band than on a particular individual. So maintaining a personal life shouldn’t be too much of a problem to me.
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