Youth Icons 2009
NSG commandoes pip SRK and Dhoni to the post when it comes to deciding who young India wants to emulate in 2009, finds a Times Life survey. Anuradha Varma reports
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
THERE was a time when a hero dropped his shirt or towel, it made headlines. Today, young India responds far more to action and self-made achievers from ordinary backgrounds.
So reveals a survey conducted by Times Life, among 200 youth between the ages 18 and 25, across 10 major cities. The biggest surprise that popped up was the unquestioned thumbs up given to the NSG commandoes, who topped our list of Youth Icons 2009, by a thumping majority. Limping behind, by a large margin, was actor Shah Rukh Khan, closely followed by cricketing captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Actors Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar and John Abraham figured at numbers 4, 7 and 8 and Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra at No. 5. Surprisingly, only two women — corporate icon Chanda Kochchar and actor Kareena Kapoor — made it to the Times Life list of top 10 icons.
The commandoes showed the world during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks what it took to go in there and do their job, guns blazing. Sample some reactions from readers: "They made me feel patriotic," "They helped me believe again," and simply, "They are achievers". As 20-year-old Pallavi Ganju puts it, "The others are style icons, the NSG commandoes are youth icons."
While Dhoni won votes for performing well and steering his team to success, SRK won brownie points for his selfmade stature. Remarks Karan Bajaj, Keep off the Grass author and management consultant, "Shah Rukh, Sachin Tendulkar, Indira Nooyi are inspiring because they started from humble backgrounds like 'ours', had a 'street-fighting' credo, and reached the pinnacle of their fields."
While Khan, 43, continues to inspire the youth for "having made it without a godfather", Dhoni, the boy from Ranchi, has reflected in the past, "I feel we're tougher than players from metros. In Ranchi, there were no good gyms or high-profile coaches, so we had to learn the hard way."
Substance definitely scored over style among the youth, who totalled 76 per cent in combined votes for the success quotient and a go-getter spirit. About 44 per cent asserted that being a brand ambassador for the country counted in becoming an icon, which explains the presence of young politico Rahul Gandhi, Abhinav Bindra and Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga among the top 10.
Says MTV spokesperson Vaibhav Vishal, "Celebrities work at various levels — Sachin for his a c h i e ve m e n t s , Dhoni for his determination, Aamir for his sincerity, Yuvraj for his positive abrasiveness, SRK for his charisma, A. R. Rahman for his creativity. An icon is anyone, celebrity or otherwise, who is in control, questions conventional wisdom, dreams big, works hard, and still has lots of fun."
Psychologist Seema Hingorrany says it's the small-towner who is being toasted for "being more grounded, sincere and hardworking. I met two students who were inspired to make a documentary after the success of Mangesh Hadawale's Marathi film Tingya. 'If he can do it, so can we', they felt." Hadawale, who saw his first film Maine Pyar Kiya at the age of 13 on a black and white TV set in his village and made his film on a budget of Rs 27 lakh, is now taking it to the Oscars as an independent entry. He says, "I have had several icons, starting from my father. During my struggle, I often thought of Nelson Mandela and Gandhi."
Hadawale also figures among the eight youth icons, drawn from regular spheres by the channel MTV. The list includes Sarathbabu, the son of an anganwadi worker, an IIM grad who chose to set up his catering business. Says Sarathbabu, "I started without any capital. I believe you can start from wherever you are and reach where you want to go."
Subhiksha founder-owner R. Subramanian, an IIT and IIM alumnus, who chose to go on his own, says, "This is the new romantic story — the story of chasing money and making it — and after all, once you have money everything else comes in."
The feeling is of "I can be him". And icons have always been important as each generation looks for leaders it can look up to. Advertising, too, seems to reflect the trend. Alyque Padamsee, chairman of the London Institute of Personality Development, points out Tata Tea's Jaago Re ad as a case in point. He adds, "The 'Y' generation, unlike the 'X' generation, has a social conscience. The youth today wants only hard action. Politicians should either put up or shut up!"
Young India has decided… it's power to the people!
TOP 10
YOUTH ICONS
1 NSG 23.52%
2 Shah Rukh Khan 17.15%
3 Mahendra Singh Dhoni 16.17%
4 Aamir Khan 10.78%
5 Abhinav Bindra 7.84%
6 Rahul Gandhi 6.86%
7 Akshay Kumar 3.43%
8 John Abraham 2.94%
9 Aravind Adiga 1.96%
10 Chanda Kochchar, Kareena Kapoor, Yuvraj Singh 1.47%
11 Others 7.88%
print edition of Times Of India
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