Lockdown diaries: Stars turn hosts of digital shows

New Delhi, April 27  Fun chat shows to informative sessions, actors like Kartik Aaryan, Sunny Leone, Shruti Haasan and Rashami Desai are flaunting their hosting skills in the digital space to while away their lockdown hours, and fans are loving it.

Kartik’s talk show on YouTube, “Koki Poochega”, is surely among the most popular efforts. On the show, he interacts with frontline warriors in the COVID-19 battle, including doctors and health workers, and also with survivors of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Kartik’s trademark humorous style, at the same time engaging and informative, has already won the show a huge fan base, including Bollywood stars such as Alia Bhatt and Janhvi Kapoor, who have heaped praises on Kartik’s effort on social media.

In his first episode of “Koki Poochega”, Kartik interviewed India’s first COVID-19 survivor Sumiti Singh. The interaction gave an insight into what a person with symptoms of the virus should do and not do.

Shruti, who has been sharing recipes along with hair and skin care tips on social media, also goes live on Instagram for interactions with select guests.

Ways to stay strong, maintain mental balance and keeping patience have been some of the topics of discussion.

“I have a close group of women who are my friends, but I also have larger circle of women whom I have been interacting with that have been inspiring me. They are from different walks of life,” said Shruti.

“I thought it would be lovely to interact with them on various topics and I like that they are from different places, different topics and different professions,” she added.

Sunny Leone has also started her chat show on Instagram.

Titled “Lockdown with Sunny”, it sees Sunny in conversation with several celebrities, including Daboo Ratnani and Mandana Karimi.

“It was my idea to just have fun with our fans and people on Insta. It is all about light hearted conversations with funny things and details about the guest,” Sunny said.

“Bigg Boss 13” contestant Rashami Desai has also started her own digital show titled “The RDShhow”.

“It’s not your regular chat show. It’s being made with an intent to educate people on different fields of career. I’ll be inviting eminent personalities from various fields as guests on my show. We’ll be discussing each field, with its possible career opportunities and the skills required to be successful in those particular fields,” said Rashami.

Also making good use of the digital platform, actor Karanvir Bohra has started a fun-filled and informative live series titled “Lockdown with KV”.

“The idea right now is to keep people engaged, talking and importantly listening and watching good content to keep their minds diverted from the ongoing stressful situation,” he said.

“So that’s what my second live series ‘Lockdown with KV’ is aiming at. The first main idea which is to just talk to people from different walks of life and understand their lives and routines and importantly coping skills during these trying and testing times,” added the actor, who had earlier brought in his celebrity friends for a 21-question series on Instagram.

Actress-producer Dia Mirza’s digital session, “#DownToEarthWithDee”, features celebrity guests who share a common love for nature. The session is held every Wednesday.

Dia’s first conversation with filmmaker Zoya Akhtar dwelt on a number of things, from their shared love for nature to how they are both dealing with the lockdown.

“I hope these conversations on ‘#DownToEarthWithDee’ every Wednesday will help all those seeking ways to live in better harmony with nature despite living in cities. I hope they find some magic, inspiration and solutions in our conversations,” Dia said.

Joining the list is actress Urvashi Dholakia, who has a digital chat show called “Trending Now”.

Through the course of the show, Urvashi will be seen chatting up with personalities from diverse fields.

She has interviewed celebrities like Tony Kakkar, Sriti Jha and Sumona Chakravarti.