How Priya Varrier's wink made her Google's Most Searched Celebrity

The national obsession over Priya Varrier's wink has propelled her to become the most searched celebrity on Google, dethroning Sunny Leone. The eighteen-year-old, who will be making her debut in the Malayalam film, Oru Adaar Love, shot to instant fame, when a clip from the song Manikya Malaraya Poovi went viral a few days ago. Varrier isn't the first person to become an internet sensation due to a viral clip. But it is certainly the first time, a wink has floored an entire country.

A wink wink situation

With a wink Priya has been able to achieve what most Bollywood actors and models failed to do. Film producers dream about this kind of viral free publicity. It helped the teenager become India's most googled celebrity.

Considering that Leone has held that title, ever since she came to work in Bollywood, Varrier' achievement is astounding. Both the debutante and her film, will benefit from the country’s fixation with that one wink.  The girl must already be swimming in offers of films and advertisements. But our films and media love to beat any fresh trend or viral gesture to death. Hence, I am sure we have not seen the last of that wink. But what was it about that one wink that drove boys to the brink of madness?

Many have credited Varrier’s varied range of expression for the connect that she has found with boys. In a couple of minutes, she has managed to give more expressions, than many A-list Bollywood actresses fail to give in an entire feature film. Boys cannot stop gushing over her smile. While for some, it is the switch she makes from playfully mischievous to coy in one scene that makes their hearts flutter.

Some also claim that it is the premise of the song, that has worked for Varrier.

School romance with a dash of fashionable haircuts and make up

Another common feedback, I’ve come across is how this ‘girl winks at boy and they smile in glee’ interaction brings  the nostalgic days of school life back. Well, I don’t know what kind of school kids go to these days. But I have always found depiction of school and college life in movies outlandish and glamorised to an extent, that it becomes a punishable offense, for raising false hopes in teens.

So, I find it hard to relate with a song set in school, where boys have elaborate pompadour haircuts and stubbles. Varrier herself is wearing makeup, complete with oodles of eyeliner and a fancy haircut. It is songs and characters like these, which put ideas of bubbly romances in young heads. Steering them away from the reality that is coconut oil-laden braids, crew cut hair and nagging PTM encounters.

It also concerns me a wee bit that boys and men are going nuts for a winking school girl.

The fact that Priya Varrier has dethroned Sunny Leone- who is certainly not desired by men for her acting skills, further reaffirms my belief that this national infatuation is unhealthy and misplaced to an extent.

If the girl has the potential which she has displayed in that one winking scene, she deserves more than being reduced to wallpapers and memes.

Pic credits: newsbugz.com

Also Read: India’s Newest Sweetheart: Who Is Priya Prakash Varrier?

Yamini Pustake Bhalerao is a writer with the SheThePeople team, in the Opinions section.  The views expressed are the author’s own