#FitnessChallenge Becomes The New Viral Trend: Hope Alteast This One Will Make a Difference

It is just a matter of few minutes for anything to go viral on social media and when it involves celebrities, the virality goes even further. When Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh challenged one of the most sought-after cricketers Virat Kohli for a fitness challenge, it took only a day to have #FitnessChallenge trending all over social media. In fact, now the leading TV news channels are also focusing on the videos of celebrities and other politicians including our PM Narendra Modi who have been challenged. Now everyone is showing their fitness levels and mantras boasting of the fact that how fit Indians are. With PM Modi accepting the fitness challenge given by Virat Kohli, there are other challenges being thrown at him with political agendas by the opposition. The exact fodder needed for a viral trend and making headlines has been served.

But this is not the first time such a challenge has gone viral. Not too long ago, we had celebrities posing with sanitary napkins in a bid to promote 'sanitary health' or was it for Akshay Kumar's movie Padman? Yes, it did see women get more comfortable to talk about menstruation but has the scenario changed for real or was it just till the movie release? Post the release, we saw more of movie collection reports than posing with the pads post. PadMan Challenge Could Have Been Better: Dear Akshay Kumar, Here's What You Could Have Done Instead

Look at some of the stars who participated in the Padman challenge:

To rewind a few years back, in 2014, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge became a hot trend. The idea was launched by the ALS Foundation to raise money and awareness for fighting ALS or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a motor neurone or Lou Gehrig’s disease.  The challenge asked the person to douse a bucket of ice water on one’s head and make a donation for the research. This one snowballed from Hollywood stars to Bollywood, making it an instant trend. Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Sonakshi Sinha, Riteish Deshmukh were among the many who participated. Since it had worldwide participation, some of the purposes of creating awareness was solved. Around 17 million tags about the #IceBucketChallenge were seen on social media.

Check video of Bollywood Stars doing the #IceBucketChallenge:

In the same year, on October 2, PM Narendra Modi who has been the flag-bearer of Swach Bharat Abhiyaan launched a mass cleanliness drive and started the 'cleanliness challenge.' He asked Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar, politician Sashi Tharoor, yoga teacher Baba Ramdev, actors like Priyanka Chopra, Salman Khan etc. to take part in the cleanliness challenge. A campaign that is still seeking success 4 years later.

These are just some examples but the point is the effectiveness of these social messages for which they are launched in the first place. Some of the questions that come to my mind are, the actors who are participating in the fitness challenge, anyway make headlines for their gym appearances and workout sessions. In a profession that demands fitness as a primary factor, does showcasing it on social media once again count? PM Modi has been promoting Yoga for a long time. Will using the hashtag #HumFitTohIndiaFit get us fit? Would there be a #PadmanChallenge despite having the movie release lined up?

Today, all the news channels have videos playing of Bollywood celebrities, politicians (who are taking the challenge in their office premises), sportsmen who are showing off their fitness levels. The focus goes away from the main 'news' of the day and all compliments of how fit people are and why fitness is a must plaster on the screens. These videos may be replayed for 2 more days, but what happens later? Honestly, scrolling through the timelines on social media is the only 'thumb exercise' we do regularly and effortlessly.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 24, 2018 05:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).