Book Title: Booming Digital Stars: 11 Inspiring Adventures from India’s Creator Economy
Author(s): Harsh Pamnani and Manish Pandey
Publisher: Westland Business
Number of Pages: 264
ISBN: 978-9360459475
Date Published: Aug. 26, 2024
Price: INR 300
Book Excerpt
BHUVAN BAM
| From Restaurant Singer to High-Value Digital Star |
‘Work hard in silence; let your success be your noise.’
— Frank Ocean
When you think of Indian cinema, which name comes to mind first? Amitabh Bachchan, perhaps? He is generally regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of Indian cinema. And when you think of the Indian start-up ecosystem, which name comes to mind? Flipkart, maybe? It is generally thought to be India’s biggest and most successful start-up story. And when you consider Indian YouTubers, which name springs to mind? Certainly, Bhuvan Bam’s acknowledged as one of India’s greatest YouTube sensations.
Bhuvan was the first Indian to hit 2 million subscribers on YouTube. As impressive as that is, he was also the first Indian to cross 10 million subscribers on YouTube. As of April 2024, over 56 million people follow him on various social media channels. Bhuvan’s life is a classic rags-to-riches story. A youngster ofeighteen, he would sing gigs at Delhi’s Moti Mahal Deluxe restaurant, for a meagre monthly earning of `3,000. While hispockets were practically empty, he was full of hope and aspiration.
By the age of twenty-five, he was a self-made millionaire.
The winner of dozens of awards such as Global Entertainerof the Year, at the World Bloggers Awards in Cannes, France,Most Popular Channel on YouTube, at the WebTVAsia Awardsheld in South Korea, Bhuvan also appeared on Forbes India’s30 Under 30 list. He was the first Indian YouTuber to attendthe annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos,Switzerland.
Bhuvan’s achievements did not end there. He appeared in the short film, Plus Minus, which earned him a Filmfare Award. In December 2018, he began a digital series on YouTube calledTitu Talks, that featured Shah Rukh Khan as his first guest. By February 2021, he had released seven music videos, including Heer Ranjha, which became the #1 hit song across charts on iTunes within an hour of its release.
Bhuvan is one of the few influencers in India associated with multiple famous brands, including Myntra, The Man Company, Tissot, Pizza Hut and Lenskart. Bhuvan also started one of India’s first creator-led merchandise brands, Youthiapa, and a production company, BBKi Vines Productions, which has produced Dhindora, the first Indian web series to cross half a billion views and Taaza Khabar, one of the most-watched Indian web series in 2023, and several other shows. He also served as the Hindi-language comment at or for the 2023 reboot of the Japanese game show Takeshi’s Castle.
But success was not instantaneous. When Bhuvan startedhis YouTube journey, his first four videos received only fifteenviews. However, in less than five years, Bhuvan had becomeIndia’s first digital content creator with 3 billion collectiveviews. Considering his humble beginnings, Bhuvan’s journey isthe stuff we dream of. But it is true.
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PRAJAKTA KOLI
| From Radio Intern to Comedy Queen |
Instead of letting your hardships and failures discourage or exhaust you, let them inspire you. Let them make
—Michelle Obama
you even hungrier to succeed.
In the dictionary, the word ‘failure’ comes before the word success’. Similarly in life, failure usually precedes success. Here are a few examples. Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first television anchor job. She ended up creating one of the highest-rated television talk shows in the world. Michael Jordan was rejected from his eighth-grade basketball team. He ended up becoming the greatest basketball player of all time. Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because he was not creative enough. He ended up creating the largest entertainment empire in the world. Steven Spielberg was rejected three times by a film school. He ended up becoming one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. They all fell, but they picked themselves up again and created history. This is a similar story.
By the age of eleven, Prajakta Koli had decided on her career plan. She wished to become India’s top radio jockey (RJ). She spent hours listening to FM channels and participating in extra-curricular activities aligned to her career goal. As a first step towards her dream, she started working as an intern at a radio station. However, the internship went nowhere. A year later, she got the opportunity to host her first radio show. It was a miserable failure. Her self-confidence took a beating. From loving radio, she began to hate it. Eventually, at the start of 2015, she quit her RJ career.
In February of the same year, Prajakta began her new journey as a YouTuber. Today, she is India’s top female comedy YouTuber. As of April 2024, she has 7.1 million subscribers on YouTube, 7.9 million followers on Instagram and 1.2 million on Facebook. Her popularity brought her collaborations with celebrities like Hrithik Roshan, Ayushmann Khurrana, Kajol, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Badshah. She has also acted in the short film, Khayali Pulao, the Netflix series Mismatched, and the Karan Johar-produced film Jug Jugg Jeeyo. Prajakta has also madea few music videos like Shameless (2017), No Offence (2018),and Yeh Diss Gaana Hain (2020). She has also collaborated with Michelle Obama (former US First Lady), on a YouTube original documentary on the education of girls.
Prajakta has many other achievements to her credit. She was the first YouTuber in the world to interview YouTube’s GlobalCEO, Susan Wojcicki. She is also the only one from India to have been invited by Marvel Comics to collaborate with the cast of the American superhero film Captain Marvel. In February 2019, she was included in the Forbes list of 30 under 30 and Entrepreneur India’s 35 under 35. In the same year, she was featured in Outlook Business Magazine’s list of Women of Worth and received Cosmopolitan’s YouTuber of the Year award. In 2020, Prajakta was featured on the cover of BW Businessworld in one of their lists of Most Influential Women.
Excerpted with permission from Booming Digital Stars: 11 Inspiring Adventures from India’s Creator Economy by Harsh Pamnani and Manish Pandey, published by Westland Business.
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