Priya Varrier winks past Zuckerberg
dubai — Move over Zuckerberg, the wink-girl has more followers than your four-million mark. Priya Prakash Varrier, the budding Malayalam actress who became an overnight sensation with her 30-second wink in the song Manikya Malaraya Poovi, has overtaken Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg with 4.5 million followers on Instagram.
What started as a mere wink going viral won’t stop for now. Within days, she became the third celebrity around the world to garner more than 600k followers on Instagram in a day. The two other celebrities to boast owning this title are television star Kylie Jenner and famed footballer Cristiano Ronaldo with 806k and 650k followers, respectively.
Sushant Yattam, head of marketing & audience development at Qyuki Digital Media, sees the euphoria around Priya similar to 2012’s Kolaveri Di song by Tamil actor Dhanush.
“The main reason behind Priya Varrier becoming viral over social media is Indian Internet
stars like All India Bakchod, Zakir Khan picking up the content and spinning memes around it,” he explains.
“With the age of Internet influencers, she is here for the long haul, though her acting/work will speak for her sustainability in the industry. Dhanush has nicely leveraged his Internet fame and made in-roads to Bollywood. Currently, she has to focus on engaging with her newly famed audience.”
Priya is already promoting an international mobile brand and running a contest on her Instagram page. The video uploaded on February 20 has already garnered 1,821,855 views.
She could well be the next gen social media influencer for the most desired TG by all brands — the youth. A Mumbai-based social media observer opined, “Viral stars are important for promoting brands digitally but not everybody can sustain the momentum. Priya has achieved overnight success but being an influencer in the long run requires work. Let’s hope she is more than one-hit wonder.”