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What's an Internet action star doing in a romantic comedy?

Ramon Bautista

Ramon Bautista doesn’t mince words in describing himself. He unabashedly refers to himself as the “Internet Action Star,” with 574,339 Twitter followers to prove it.

His pieces of advice on love is immortalized in the self-help book “Bakit Hindi Ka Crush ng Crush Mo?” which has sold 100,000 copies in one year. Star Cinema not only adopted it as the title of its new Kim Chiu-Xian Lim romantic comedy. The bosses behind the film outfit, which is marking its 20th year, decided to carry Bautista’s upfront, tongue-in-cheek style by making a film adaptation of his book.  It also took in Bautista as part of the cast.

This is not the UP film professor’s first crack in the movies.

He has appeared in indie films and in the 2012 comedy-action-horror film “Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles.” 

“Bakit  Hindi Ka Crush ng Crush Mo” is his first time to work with a giant film company.

Up close, something in Bautista transcends the physical. The guy may not have classic matinee idol looks, but he has the wit, humor and deadpan style of cracking jokes that give him star quality.

Make that internet star quality. 

“Artistahin”  
        
“Artistahin ang lahi namin,” he announces to the press. “'Yung nanay ko,  nasa ‘Iron Man.’  Siya yung tumatakbo nung may nagpasabog.”

Before you can ask him if he’s telling the truth, Bautista adds, “Nung tinanong ko ang nanay ko kung saan siya don (sa mga tumatakbo), sabi niya, basta, isa diyan.”

You end up laughing, you couldn’t care less if he’s spreading fact or fiction.

Kim, Xian and Kean Cipriano are just as amused.

Kim, who didn’t believe at first that Bautista is a UP professor until one of his students told her that students line up to enroll in his film class, is impressed.

“May sense siya kausap. Ang dami kong natututunan sa kanya. Matatawa ka kasi hindi mo alam kung seryoso o hindi ang sinasabi nya.”

“Noong nag-shooting kami at nagkausap, nagapatawa siya. Ang lalim pala nya!” Xian chimes in.

Proud fan


Kean is a proud fan.

“Binasa ko ang libro nya. Sinabi niya doon na pag ma-in love ka, malaking  possibility na masasakatan ka. At walang ibang makakatulong sa ‘yo para maka move on o ma-in love kundi sarili mo lang. Kailangan magtira ka sa sarili mo.”

It is this dictum of self-love that makes Bautista’s blog so uplifting and popular.

“Simply put, the best revenge is to live an awesome life,” he writes in his blog.

He also believes that “There's more to life than love.”

But the guy himself is unattached.

“I’m single and ready to mingle,” he describes himself.

How can he come up with all these pieces of advice that have become hits among young people like his students?

“Nagka-love life na ako,” he admits.

He also takes a cue from others who have loved and lost, and from good old common sense.

The teacher in Bautista comes out when he tells his followers, “Pag na-reject ka, it’s not the end of the world. There’s more to life than a love life. Kasama yung sakit sa buong process.”

Xian echoes Bautista’s words.

“Only you can make your own happiness.”

Xian, Kim and their co-stars will show just how this is done – at least on screen – when “Bakit Hindi Ka Crush ng Crush Mo” opens in theaters nationwide starting Wednesday, July 31.