It’s not Orry’s fault. It’s ours

Mereko darr lagta hai ameeron se baat karne meinrdquo documentarian and creators Kavya Karnatac tells Orry who she recently interviewed for her channel KK Create He innocently asks her ldquoWhyrdquo And she says because they may not have seen many things ldquolike casterdquo And he says ldquoOh I get casted all the timerdquo And she laughsA laugh she will repeat many times during this unnecessary interaction Because really what else is there to doThis exchange above starts off the podcast mdash in a way setting up Orry as the representative of the elite and Kavya standing up for the middle class the people who roam around in the gandagi bindaas And Orry like the social media guru he is gives advice on how to hang with beautiful people in their beautiful homes ldquoJust be confident in yourself No one is going to bite yourdquo Then they debate what sells ldquonegativityrdquo says Orry ldquohyper positivityrdquo says Kavya Orryrsquos example for this was that he didnrsquot shake the hands of a girl who looked like a ldquonose diggerrdquo instead fistbumping her And then calls her negative for sharing that in a Reel she went on to make ldquoHuman beings like nothing better than seeing others sufferingrdquo He then says ldquoBoys shouldnrsquot wear makeuprdquo And she laughs againItrsquos a long podcast that talks of his family his interactions with the police and the hate he has got from the trans community and why exactly he is famous In Orryrsquos defence he handles everything with the confidence he preached Sometimes he feels he is misunderstood and sometimes he feels like he should be allowed his opinion based on his understanding of things You can disagree with him but he is coherent and straight about what he believes As far as his fame goes he says ldquoLook at my body of work Virality ends I am still hererdquo He doesnrsquot care about what you me or the trolls think But all this we knew about Orry Whatrsquos newIn the last section of the podcast he talks about the money he makes and thatrsquos where it gets truly disturbing Last month he made Rs 76 lakh on one brand Reel He says because he is very ldquospecificrdquo he canrsquot be anyone else He is the ldquobrandrdquomdash he is the one that the ldquoone per centrdquo the celebrities the elite consume He also wonrsquot say no to any kind of brand because as he says ldquoI love attention and I want to be lovedrdquo You can also pay to spend time with him ldquoFor Rs 15 lakh to Rs 25 lakh you can buy me for lunch buy me for dinner mdash itrsquos an experience you can buyrdquoWhatrsquos disturbing for me is not that he makes money Thatrsquos great for him Whatrsquos disturbing to me is that people are paying Rs 76 lakh to Orry for a Reel Really Hello brands canrsquot that Rs 76 lakh be used on some sort of social development And if you are paying Rs 15Rs 20 lakh to Orry to be his friend why not pay a few thousand to a therapist to ask Why do you need Orry as a friend Why do you need that validation that comes from having Orry as a friendWith Kavya I just have one issue mdash she didnrsquot really ask him a question about the damage social media this kind of virality this kind of validation and this kind of social media personality do to the whole idea of self She smiled she laughed she indulged and she nudged around the difficult questions But thatrsquos her cross to bearI would also ask what this podcast accomplished beyond the viral reels and views What was the need for this podcast at this time after Orry has been around for a long time Why did we need to hear Orry say the same things he has been saying for a while Itrsquos just adding to the clutter and the chaos of social media which is already rife with brain rotAll I took from it Orry says he is a ldquopoor rich kidrdquo mdash raised to save not spend He saves everythingI will try and do that too Orry Thank youSee you next weekRanting and raving about all thatrsquos trending on social media Aastha Atray Banan is an author creator podcaster and the Editor of your favourite weekend read Sunday midday She posts ataasthaatray on InstagramSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper