Thimphu: Actress Richa Chadha who, along with the “Udta Punjab” director Abhishek Chaubey, attended the Mountain Echoes 2019 here, says strategic posts on social media by celebrities create a lot of “bio-envy”.
During an interactive session with students from India and Bhutan at the Royal University of Bhutan, Richa and Abhishek were asked how social media impacts our lives and if art can change that.
“I think social media creates a lot of bio-envy. My social media team asks me to share pictures of what I am eating, what car I am riding and the kind of lifestyle I am having as an actress because that is called flexing on social media. It is a strategy and it creates bio-envy. It is a lost battle,” said Richa.
“It is clear that five per cent of the people in the world will be having that life and the rest 95 percent are being repeatedly told that what they have is not good enough,” said the actress.
Therefore, the actress avers, people should not live with the idea that money and success offer happiness.
“Money and happiness get intertwined and it goes on and on. The whole idea of having more and showing off continues,” she explained.
Citing an example, Richa said: “Culturally if we look at our parent’s generation, when someone had an expensive car, they would rather park the car at a distance and walk into the venue while meeting other people who did not have something so luxurious – because showing off was not a part of our culture. I think we have to reorient (to such a mindset) sooner than later because the practice of showing off is causing a lot of problems.”
Abhishek added: “It is the primary responsibility of art to bring us closer to ourselves, and if art is successful, it does that every time. I think as artistes and storytellers if we can manage to do that, we are doing the right thing.”
Mountain Echoes is a festival of arts, literature and culture that completed a decade this year. It is organised by India Bhutan Foundation and graced by The Royal patron Her Majesty the Royal Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck.
With the idea to celebrate young minds and create a platform to exchange thoughts and make conversation, the festival has arranged sessions with people from the fields of literature, entertainment, storytelling, photography, and education. Prominent guests include Ananth Padmanabham, mentalist Karan Singh, and international filmmakers like Zuki Juno Tobgye, Xyza Cruz Bacani among others.