Doordarshan News taps Bollywood characters to encourage voter participation
2 min read 30 Apr 2019, 10:20 AM ISTThe official Twitter handle of Doordarshan News has been posting photos of characters from popular Hindi films with hashtag #MakeYourMark and urging voters to come out and exercise their voting rights
PremiumNew Delhi: From Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron to Chak De India, from Guide to Jab We Met, the national broadcaster, Doordarshan, is running a unique campaign on social media to encourage voter participation in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
The official Twitter handle of Doordarshan News has been posting photos of characters from popular Hindi films with hashtag #MakeYourMark and urging voters to come out and exercise their voting rights.
“Vote Bhi Do Yaaron" says one of the modified posters of the iconic comedy film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron shared by Doordarshan News on its Twitter page on 27 April. “Like we live, breathe, go on vacations, voting is also a part of every citizen's life. Go Vote!," the post added.
Another tweet posted on Monday, has a photograph of Kareena Kapoor's chatty character in Jab We Met with the slogan “Bachpan se hi mujhe vote dene ka bada shouk hai" (I have been very interested in voting since I was a kid). While sharing the post, the Twitter handle of Doordarshan News said : “Many of us wanted to get our finger inked during elections since our childhood. Let's keep our dreams alive. Go and cast your vote."
The fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections took place on Monday and the overall turnout in the first four phases has been marginally more than the turnout of 2014 general elections. Three more phases of polling remain and the Election Commission (EC) has been running a number of campaigns to urge more voters to come out and vote including a selfie series.
Other than Doordarshan News, Press Information Bureau (PIB) too is running an interesting campaign on social media by using Game of Thrones references. Incidentally, the posts are being put out on the day when episodes of the series get released.
One such post was shared on 15 April with photos from the series using slogans like “A very small man can cast a very long shadow" and “Not all heroes hold weapons, some just vote". PIB shared the images with a post saying: “No matter how big or small one is, every vote has equal power. This #LokSabhaElections , become a true hero. Go OuT and vote..."
Some more related posts were shared by Doordarshan News which used tropes of Bollywood characters to encourage a higher voter turnout including those from Raees, Zanjeer, Guide, Darr, Chak De India, Sholay and Andaaz Apna Apna making use of its famous one liner “Teja main hoon, mark idhar hai" while showing indelible ink.
