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Delhi cartoonist speaks on becoming MiD DAY Twitter Indian of the Year after trumping Shashi Tharoor and Priyanka Chopra

Since the launch of the MiD DAY Twitter Indian of the Year award on December 29, we had received an encouraging 6,000 votes by the time the polling closed last afternoon.

Saad Akhtar (30), creator of the comic strip Fly You Fools won after he bagged 34 per cent of the votes.

He trumped heavyweight External Affairs Minister Shashi Tharoor by a thin two per cent margin. Actress Priyanka Chopra stood third with 10 per cent of the votes.

Delhiite Akhtar's sarcasm prompted author Chetan Bhagat to block him, leading to the creation of the now infamous #chetanblocks tag. Akhtar has created over 100 comics in the last two years.

Tweet victory: Saad Akhtar

On beating famous personalities like Priyanka Chopra and Shashi Tharoor, Akhtar said, "I voted for Tharoor myself.
 
It would have been no shame losing to him. Good of MiD DAY to include non-celebrities in the poll too. Proves that Twitter is the great leveller."

Adman Prahlad Kakkar agrees. "Social media like Twitter reflect our changing times. The lines are always blurred between celebrity and non-celebrity.

A celebrity is only a celebrity based on content. If their Tweets are not interactive or not interesting, it doesn't matter how many fans they've got in real life.

Content is the key and the person that's got better stuff will have a better hold," said Kakkar.

40,697
Number of SRK followers at 4.30 am

3 Sawaal

Saad Akhtar Creator of comic strip, Fly You Fools 'Feels great' 1. When did you start Tweeting? I opened a Twitter account a year ago to post new comic updates. Then, it got addictive like crack! 2. How does it feel to have trumped other giants in Twitterverse? Feels great! It was more of a surprise that it would have been had I won the Miss World/Universe participant. I really wasn't expecting this.   3. When the #Chetanblocks tag began, did you think the issue would become so big? I was merely pulling his leg. Others took it to the heights you speak of. I guess Chetan has as many haters as he has fans. They merely made themselves known.