Mallika, Priyanka, Sonam: Hottest Twitter celebs!

Twitter can be a jungle you'll get lost in if you don't happen to know anyone there. Here are some celebrities you can follow for starters, before you find your own group!

It's very easy to get lost on Twitter.

Unlike Facebook, where you often know the people you're connecting with, Twitter is a jungle.

Unlike Facebook, Twitter can be unfriendly and cold.

Sometimes it can get lonely, especially when noone responds to your tweets. The key to getting responses to your tweets is to find like-minded people who can talk to you and help you get more followers.

Also read: De-friending, RTing, Hashtag: Hep online lingo!

A good way to get started is by simply importing your contacts from the e-mail you've synced with your Twitter handle.

Eventually, Twitter will keep updating the list of tweeple/twitterati you must follow, depending upon the list of the people you follow currently.

With Twitter, it has also become possible to reach out to celebrities and top businessmen at the click of a button.

Of course, it isn't always easy to evoke a response from these folks. If you're lucky, you're lucky. But for the most part it's just fun, sometimes even educative, to read some of their tweets.

It isn't possible to give a definitive list of twitterati you should follow because individual interests vary.

In the following pages, however, we bring you some of the most popular twitterati in India and across the world. They tweet all year round and not just when their movies are up for release! It could be a good list to start with.

Clearly, the man is the biggest superstar in India for a reason. Meticulous, articulate and absolutely humble, it is no surprise that Amitabh Bachchan has 714,679 followers at last count.

There is a number before each of his tweets, indicating the number of days he has been tweeting. For instance, his last few tweets have T344 written before them, which means they've been posted on Day 344.

Over the recent years, Bachchan has used the new media to reach out to his fans and make his voice heard without having journalists edit his words or sound bites.

Bachchan's tweets are eloquent and insightful. He quotes everyone from his father the late Pt Harivanshrai Bachchan to Rupert Murdoch.

Sometimes, when he's in the mood, he even tweets in Devnagri!

Bachchan, however, doesn't always respond to a lot of tweets. There are a few of his favourites to whom he writes at regular intervals. But he does sporadically pick tweets mentioning him and makes sure to write back to his fans.

If edgy, racy and weird is your idea of a great twitterati, go for Gaga.

The American pop star with 9,429,504 followers at last count posts pictures of her working out, performing and her latest music album covers and loves to call her followers 'monsters'.

Gaga's profile describes her as 'mother monster' and her pics -- on her profile and the ones she posts -- are almost always racy.

There! You need another reason to follow her?

The son of the superstar has half the number of followers his dad does. However, that doesn't stop Abhishek Bachchan from tweeting like a maniac!

He may not be as eloquent as his father -- as far as we know he doesn't tweet in Devnagri -- but he surely makes it a point to interact with his followers.

In many ways, Abhishek Bachchan is the new age star who's on his iPhone and loves the online adulation and respects it.

Unlike his father's, Abhishek's tweets are short and more conversational. And while he does come across as being amiable and chilled out, he doesn't seem to think twice before taking up cudgels for something he believes in.

Gul Panag is a nerd in the body of a bikini model with the wit of a stand-up comedian.

The model-turned-actress who recently married her sweetheart, Rishi Attari, in one of the most unusual marriage ceremonies we've seen in India, is a must-follow.

Gul has a little less than 160,000 followers and tweets at the rate of five tweets a minute about everything and anything under the sun -- from fitness to corruption and the dipping male-female ratio in India.

Unlike many twitterati we follow, Gul is informed and sure of what she says. It's very rarely that you'll see her bite her tongue -- actually, we don't remember her putting her foot in her mouth at all on Twitter -- and she won't think twice before taking on anyone telling her what to do.

Total fun. Follow her!

Speaking of beauties with brains, Mandira Bedi is another twitterati you must follow if you like cricket.

The star, who has come a long way from her Shanti days, is often furiously tweeting during the cricket matches.

While the television audiences sorely missed her during the World Cup and continue to do so during the IPL, folks on Twitter are happily chatting with her and following her tweets about everyone from Sachin to Shah Rukh.

Quite like Abhishek Bachchan, Mandira Bedi also ensures that she interacts with followers -- over 62k at last count -- who write to her.

Recently, when her husband Raj Kaushal managed to put his foot in his mouth by tweeting about a cable of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai snapping, she stood up and defended him.

Though Bedi rarely speaks about her soon-to-be-born baby, she did mention in passing we can expect the good news in the next 10 weeks.

We're waiting!

Anand Mahindra is one of the few Indian corporate leaders to take to the new media.

Often tweeting from his iPhone or iPad (sometimes from a Blackberry too), Mahindra uses Twitter not just to talk and share photos, but also to understand what his customers feel.

If a tourist tweets about his/her visit to a Mahindra Resort, Anand Mahindra makes sure to mention it in his timeline. If someone points out an issue they've been facing with any of his products, Anand Mahindra pulls up the concerned head right before all his followers.

Prompt, sophisticated and efficient, Mahindra sure does a great job as the face of new India Inc.

Call her dumb or a spoilt rich brat, but Paris Hilton on Twitter can be quite a lot of fun.

The socialite, who's been making a living by doing televisions shows and tweeting is the twitterati to follow if you like inane, mindless updates with pictures of blondes on beaches.

After being sacked from the hit CBS show Two and a Half Men, the guy may just have lost everything that anyone would give an eye and tooth for.

On the flipside, though, Charlie Sheen has become an unlikely leader in the virtual world.

Days after he lost the job, he registered an account on Twitter.

Even before he posted his first tweet, he had over 200,000 followers and in just 25 hours and 17 minutes, Charlie Sheen had over a million.

The sheer speed at which his followers shot up hasn't gone unnoticed. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognised this rather unique achievement -- more than a million followers in record time!

Sheen tweets like a man on death row, his tweets making you wonder what the hell he's been smoking.

If edgy is up your alley, you'll probably find Ram Gopal Varma a hoot.

The Bollywood director tweets sporadically, doesn't always respond to messeges and retweets rarely. And yet his tweets are fun, even entertaining if you get his dark humour.

Get a load of this recent gem: 'I am on my way to Shirdi Baba to pray for Sai Baba.'

And another one: 'I have no idea who Anna Hazaare (sic) is as I don't keep track of anyone expect for film people nd (sic) gangsters.'

We say follow him even if you think RGV's just a megalomaniac snob, just so you can diss him! It's not like he'll notice your tweets any way -- unless of course, you're a critic who's just panned his movie!

Unless you're living in a hole in the wall, you probably know who Justin Beiber is -- yup, that 17-year-old Canadian pop singer who makes girls twice his age weak in the knees.

Beiber, who's just been on a tour of Israel, managed to get the reception he's used to -- hundreds of young girls wanting to marry him!

The young Canadian, who is close on the heels of Gaga with 8,904,585 followers (and counting) tweets about his travels, his music, his tours and the folks he hangs out with.

Not a bad idea if you think he's cute and want to know more about him!

Priyanka Chopra's tweets reflect a lot of what she is -- forthcoming, but almost always guarded. She reaches out to her fans who write to her, but stays away from speaking about her personal life.

There has, as far as we know, not been any mention of her relationship with Shahid Kapoor and her break-up or the IT raid.

However, she wasted no time in shooting back at a newspaper report that claim she'd been dropped from Dostana 2.

Piggy Chops claimed she was never part of it to begin with and lashed out against the media for sensationalising a non-issue.

One of the most tech savvy women in Bollywood -- unless you count Gul Panag as a Bollywood girl -- Priyanka even has a separate handle called Team Priyanka, which her publicity managers handle.

Admit it, you grew up watching her gyrate in those red skin-tights and lusted after her all through your teenage years -- till of course, Britney Spears started spending more time in rehab than on stage.

Spears is your typical diva who's taken to Twitter essentially to keep her fans posted about her travels, new releases and the like.

If you ask us, we quite liked her bio: It's Britney, Bitch!

Makes you wonder if Zuckerberg stole the line from her.

Follow her for old times' sake and of course, if her open flirting with Rihanna turns you on!

Mallika Sherawat would like to believe that her presence on Twitter boosted the site's popularity in India. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't, but Sherawat was indeed one of the first Indian actresses to take to Twitter.

The actress has 229,953 followers but unlike many of the folks in this list, she also follows a heck of a lot of people -- 82,113 to be precise.

Mallika's twitter updates reflect a lot of who she is or at least who she is in public -- sassy and in your face.

Take her response to a tweet from someone who wants to be an actor. 'Can you help?' he asks. To which Mallika promptly responds: 'Try therapy ;) jk!'

However, maintaining her public and online persona seems to have helped Mallika quite a bit. James Andrews, a social media strategist who handles Jane Fonda among other clients recently tweeted: @MallikaLA is my new example for my celebrity clients on how they should be engaging on Twitter. Great job!'

What can we say? The pro has the last word!

Twitter is perhaps best suited to Salman Khan. One look at his timeline and you'll notice that he has never responded to any of his followers.

If he's up to it, Khan will RT something that tickles his fancy. But for the most part he'll do what he loves doing best -- engage in a monologue.

Sometimes he posts pictures and asks questions, but we doubt what his followers say matters to him, because we've never once seen him engage them.

But you have to admit it -- the guy is a superstar. He recently posted his latest pictures, flexing his muscles having got into shape for his next film, Bodyguard -- and boy did he rock!

We don't find Sonam Kapoor as prolific at Mallika Sherawat on Twitter, but she does make it a point to respond to her followers who write to her.

Her tweets are usually short but fun to read. Occasionally, when she is miffed enough she'll even hit back, which is real fun because that's when you see a side of Sonam you haven't before.

When Shobhaa De slammed her movie I Hate Luv Storys, she tweeted something that we'd have never expected her to say: 'Guys pls don't take Shobhaa De seriously. She's a fossil who's getting no action and going through menopause'.

Sooner rather than later, though, Sonam apologised sounding more like the person we've all seen: 'Mrs de I owe you an apology for getting personal. I'm ashamed for my momentary lapse in judgement. And apologetic...Every writer and journalist and audience are entitled to their opinion and I respect that'.

Salman Khan may not really fit into Shobhaa De's perception of a good actor but she has something in common with him.

Quite like the brash star, Shobhaa loves monologues. She rarely responds to her followers. But unlike the Khan, she doesn't post a lot of pictures either.

Like many of us, Ms De has also had her moments where she's had to bite her tongue -- recently she tweeted that Kalam had passed away but immediately deleted her post when she discovered her blunder.

The reason we love Ms De is because she doesn't engage in small talk. You'll rarely find her tweeting about irrelevant things.

She will, however, offer perspective on every single burning issue from Anna Hazare to World Cup cricket.

Follow her!

Lately, Karan Johar has been a little slow on his twitter updates. KJo, who used to tweet quite a bit earlier, looks like he might be suffering Twitter fatigue -- in fact ,for a brief period he even went off Twitter citing that very reason.

But then again, there are those moments of pure, unadulterated Karan bitchiness that make it worthwhile following him

Take that instance when Ram Gopal Varma decided to take a dig at him and tweeted: 'Rc has no loving families...it only has warring families. So all those who liked kabhi khushi kabhi gum better stay away from Rakta charitra'.

Johar decided to give his 'Twitter sabbatical' a break and shot right back: 'Apparently Rakhtcharitra (sic) is not for people who liked K3G!! Didn't know planet pluto had multiplexes!! Aliens can't wait to see it!'

Be it waking up without an alarm, hitting the gym or wanting to excuse herself from a night out with hubby Shoaib Malik, Sania Mirza tweets about e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

But unlike some compulsive tweeters we know, we quite enjoy Sania's tweets -- they're cute, funny and almost childlike.

What's more, she even makes it a point to write back to tweeple who mention her in their tweets. No wonder she has 214,488 followers and counting!

We suppose it also helps to have a cherubic snap as your profile picture!

So there we go -- a list of eighteen twitterati to get you started on the microblogging site. Happy tweeting!