Salman Khan has become the latest Bollywood star to be bnitten by the Twitter bug. While Shammi Kapoor was the first major star to embrace the internet, today the who's who of Bollywood keeps in touch with their fans through social networking sites.
Here's a who's who list of Bollywood following Hollywood biggies on Twitter.
Superstar Shah Rukh Khan is following Shakira on Twitter.
Priyanka Chopra is following singers like Eminem and Mariah Carey.
Bengali beauty Bipasha Basu follows Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher.
Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt follows Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe)
Lara Dutta follows Actor Hugh Jackman
Bollywood's current heartthrob Imran Khan follows Bob Saget.
Producer director Karan Johar follows Paris Hilton.
Sonam Kapoor is following Leonardo DiCaprio.
Shahid Kapoor is following Justin Timberlake.
Aamir Khan was the latest Bollywood star to join the micro-blogging site.
Here's a look at other Bollywood stars who are already on Twitter.
Just before Aamir, it was Big B who joined micro blogging site Twitter. Big B informed his fans via his blog : "Yipee. . I am on Twitter. . And you can follow me on . . @srbachchan . .love as always . ."
Big B wrote to his son and by now Twitter veteran Abhishek in his first tweet: "@juniorbachchan hey baby !! I made it on twitter !!! Yeeaaaaaahhhh !! ... sorry.. just got carried away .. safe onward flight and love."
Among Bollywood stars, Salman Khan is a hot favourite on Twitter. Apparently it was his younger brother Arbaaz Khan who got him on the micro-blogging site. Arbaaz is producing the Salman starrer Dabbang. Salman Khan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BeingSalmanKhan
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is also on social networking site Twitter.
Within 18 hours of his joining, SRK had over 20,000 followers and currently he has over 250,000 followers.
Shah Rukh Khan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/iamsrk
The Twitter bug has bitten Bollywood hard. While Shammi Kapoor was the first major star to embrace the internet with his Kapoor family website in the 1990s, today the who's who of Bollywood keep in touch with their fans through social networking services, particularly Twitter.
At the forefront of the twittering celebrities is Priyanka Chopra with almost 111,912 followers till date.
Priyanka Chopra on Twitter: http://twitter.com/priyankachopra
High on the success of Kaminey, Shahid Kapur is also busy tweeting. He has about 134,830 followers and the count is fast growing.
Shahid Kapur on Twitter: http://twitter.com/shahidkapoor
Abhishek Bachchan's Twitter handle is "juniorbachchan".
Abhishek Bachchan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/juniorbachchan
Mallika Sherawat has moved to Hollywood and therefore her Twitter id is "MallikaLA", the LA stands for Los Angeles. Ms Sherawat is one of the most active amongst the Indian twitterati.
Mallika Sherawat on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MallikaLA
Imran Khan who is still looking for his second big hit, is already a big hit on Twitter.
Imran Khan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/1mrankhan
Sonam Kapoor is choosy about the roles that she signs, but she lets her hair down while tweeting. Sonam has some 36,899 followers.
Sonam Kapoor on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sonamakapoor
Can Bollywood's Khiladi be far away from where all the action is? No. Therefore Akshay Kumar is also tweeting albeit a bit irregularly. Akki has close to 15,785 followers on the social networking website.
Akshay Kumar on Twitter: http://twitter.com/akshaykumar
The man who made India proud at the Oscar Awards keeps his fans in tune with what he is up to via Twitter. Unlike other Bollywood celebrities, AR Rahman is not very interactive on Twitter and his Twitter page is just a series of shared links. The Mozart of Madras has about 28,999 fans following him.
AR Rahman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arrahman
Karan Johar with over 53,999 followers is one of the most followed Bollywood celebrities on Twitter. Karan regularly announces the presence of other Bollywood stars on Twitter.
Karan Johar on Twitter: http://twitter.com/kjohar25
Gul Panag is a self-confessed Twitter addict, so much so that she even opened a Twitter account for her dog Milo on the website. Gul has a community of over 34,299 users.
Gul Panag on Twitter: http://twitter.com/gulpanag
Apparently miffed with all the fake Preity Zinta Twitter accounts, the dimpled beauty has chosen the handle "realpreityzinta" as her Twitter avatar. The bubbly actress has over 20,870 followers.
Preity Zinta on Twitter: http://twitter.com/realpreityzinta
Lara Dutta's bio on Twitter reads "Actor and grandmother to seven very hyper boxer pups!" and the former Miss Universe keeps her 20,795 followers abreast of all that's happening with her pups and her life.
Lara Dutta on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DuttaLara
Celina Jaitly has become an ambassadress for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community in India and she takes forward her cause via Twitter. The "Army brat" has about 9,632 followers on Twitter.
Celina Jaitly on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CelinaJaitly
Neha Dhupia's Bollywood career might not be what she would have expected it to be, but she's also quite popular on the microblogging website with over 8,376 followers.
Neha Dhupia on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Neha_Dhupia
Maverick filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma is known to spew venom on his blog and on even on the few updates that he has posted on Twitter he didn't exactly restrain himself. RGV is followed by 6,985 people.
Ram Gopal Varma on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rgvzoomin
Even after the success of Wanted, Ayesha Takia doesn't seem to have big plans towards reviving her career in Bollywood, though she has taken to Twitter with some sincerity. Ayesha has over 6,610 followers.
Ayesha Takia Azmi on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ayeshatakia
Lisa Ray is nowadays tweeing regularly about her battle with cancer. The Indo-Canadian actress has over 8,131 followers on the microblogging website.
Lisa Rani Ray on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Lisaraniray
Genelia D'Souza, who is trying to make her mark in Bollywood is also chatting with her fans on Twitter. Genelia has over 19,586 followers.
Genelia D'Souza on Twitter: http://twitter.com/geneliad
Bollywood debutante Jacqueline Fernandez is also on Twitter. She has close to 3,092 followers.
Jacqueline Fernandez on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jacquie_furr
Though he has earned for himself the "Serial Kisser" tag, Emraan Hashmi isn't exactly pecking at lips on Twitter, instead he talks about his life and films to his 6,188 fans on the website.
Emraan Hashmi on Twitter: http://twitter.com/emraanhashmi
With over 780 tweets and 28,861 followers Riteish Deshmukh is quite busy tweeting.
Riteish Deshmukh on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Riteishd
Model-turned-actor Dino Morea also tweets about his childhood crushes while updating his over 13,330 fans with what he is up to.
Dino Morea on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DinoMorea9
Shreya Ghoshal has come a long way from her Sa Re Ga Ma days and nowadays she is "quite enjoying twitter" alongwith her 16,870 followers.
Shreya Ghoshal on Twitter: http://twitter.com/shreyaghoshal
Vivek Oberoi made a promising beginning in Bollywood and then started to falter. Now not trying to take any chances he is making use of all avenues to connect with the fans. On Twitter Vivek has over 12,057 followers.
Vivek Oberoi on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vivek_oberoi
Filmmaker, author and activist Mahesh Bhatt is also quite active on Twitter with over 590 tweets and close to 8,868 followers.
Mahesh Bhatt on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MaheshNBhatt
When Jugal Hansraj realised that acting his not exactly his cup of tea, he turned a director. Currently he is busy promoting his forthcoming film Pyaar Impossible on the microblogging site. Jugal is slowly slowly adding to his followers count that currently stands at about 2,840.
Jugal Hansraj on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jugalhansraj
Anupam Kher is an irregular twitterer but he does post something interesting from time to time for his 8,014 followers.
Anupam Kher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AnupamPkher
Sonu Nigam calls himself a "A Student of life" and his now learning the ways of social networking. Sonu's got over 3,089 followers and counting.
Sonu Nigam on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sonuniigaam
Madhur Bhandarkar tries to portray reality in his films and now fans can interact with him for real via Twitter. Madhur has over 3,195 followers.
Madhur Bhandarkar on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mbhandarkar
Konkona Sen Sharma has made a mark for herself in parallel cinema as well as mainstream Bollywood. Her 17,479 followers know of her ails and celebrations right there on Twitter.
Konkona Sen Sharma on Twitter: http://twitter.com/konkonas
Without any significant success in Bollywood Rahul Khanna calls himself a "Bollywood struggler". Rahul shares humourous tweets with his 8,163 followers.
Rahul Khanna on Twitter: http://twitter.com/R_Khanna
Uday Chopra is desperately trying to revive a career that never whent anywhere in the first place. Uday with over 930 tweets and 17,870 followers is finally gaining recognition somewhere.
Uday Chopra on Twitter: http://twitter.com/udaychopra
We cannot exactly call Fardeen Khan an actor and he isn't much of a twitterer either with only five tweets. Fardeen has over 3,348 followers.
Fardeen Khan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/khanff
A comprehensive list of Bollywood celebrities on Twitter may be found at: http://twitter.com/NDTVMovies/bollywood-celebs
