Content is king for these young creators ruling over social media

Had Parth Bajaj taken up a job after completing his engineering, he would have been a employee with a modest to good salary in some tech firm. But just two years into college he knew that coding was not his calling. “I would discover offbeat places in Nagpur and post pictures on Snapchat,” says Parth.
That was in 2016. Two years later after completing his degree in engineering, he launched his own page on Instagram named ‘Nagpur Ka Tadka’ where he posted pictures of different eateries and the food they served.
Over the last four years, Parth switched his profile from a food blogger to baker and began posting recipes on Instagram.“I taught myself to bake and made macroons, artisanal breads and cakes and got featured in the cookery section of Femina,” says Parth who now has 2.5lakh followers on Instagram and a handle that goes by his name.
His post on macroon fridge fetched 50million views. With no formal training in culinary skills, Parth has evolved from a food blogger to someone who conducts baking workshops. “I hosted a programme “Nagpur Ka Zayka’ on YouTube but didn’t get much viewership,” he says and adds that it was only when he did segments on five best places for biryani, best poha places and a vlog on best samosas and matka roti in Nagpur that he began to get traction.
“These vlogs garnered more than 1lakh view and attracted bloggers from across the country,” he says.
Ruchika Asatkar, took to Instagram with a page named ‘Nagpur Chowpati’ in 2018 right after finishing her engineering. “My friends and I would post pictures of food joints till I saw food pages on Instagram covering eateries. That’s when I decided to post about the street food of Nagpur,” says Ruchika whose posts are on food, fashion, and humour. Her first post on a popular samosa shop in Dharampeth got her 100 views. Today she has over 1.5 lakh subscribers. “Most of what I do is impromptu. My pizza pull post in which I showed how long the cheese on a pizza can stretch got five million views,” she says and adds that today more than subscribers, social media is all about views. “Since the time reels were introduced on Instagram I’m also doing funny and comic posts,” says Ruchika who has since named her handle after herself.
Anandya Ray, a nutritionist took to YouTube in 2017 with a segment on nutrition. “It got seven views of which four were my family members. This made me decide that I had to put out good content to attract attention.”
Ray set up a studio and bought sophisticated equipment to shoot his vlogs which are about fitness, nutrition and grooming. “Indian men do not pay much attention to personal grooming. My vlogs were about caring for beard, dressing up stylishly and how to pick up the right shoes or perfumes,” he says.
Today he has a following of 2.8lakh subscribers but it happened only after his videos on use of wax for hair styling, and side effects of steroids went viral.
The city has over 200 content creators who are all doing their own thing and garnering views globally. “Though the space may look crowded it is never too late to join,” says Parth.
“The idea is to keep evolving and moving on to the next thing,” says Ruchika, who during the lockdown started off with cookery videos using simple recipes, the first one being besan chila and next was ten types of Maggie.
Parth turned into a full fledged baker during lockdown and baked artisanal breads on orders.
The new entrants too have garnered more than 10,000 followers in a short span of one year. “This is a very competitive space and a blogger has to constantly up her act to find new followers,” says Varsha Bhojwani whose content is about food and lifestyle.
The popularity of these vloggers has got them collaborations with international brands. Fighting shy of being termed as influencers, they prefer to call themselves content creators. “Content can be a blog, a picture or a video. The idea is to be original, engaging and high on quality and not just to earn money by garnering views. There are so many niches which are still waiting to be tapped,” says Parth.
“Money comes as we are asked to endorse products, review restaurants and conduct workshops,” adds Ruchika. For Anandya, it came in the form of sponsorships of gym wear brands, watch companies and grooming products.
The pitfalls are aplenty too as sometimes unknowingly they end up endorsing brands or places which are way below the mark. “Now we are careful and do due diligence before taking up a collaboration,” Ananda says.
The pressure to keep posting content every day and multiple times can be taxing yet they don’t feel it. “To get more followers one has to be consistent,” says Varsha. Zillions of content consumers who keep scrolling even on the move ensure steady viewership for all kinds of content.
Vloggers with a following of upwards of one lakh now have their own teams of cinematographers and editors. The food vloggers shoot their content in their own studios.
For 19-year-old Sanskar Dewani, with 7,000 followers, it’s still a one man show. “I vlog about my life and how my day goes so I shoot with my DSLR, edit it and post it everyday,” says Sanskar who also posts travel vlogs on YouTube and has 7,000 subscribers. “In Nagpur, the culture of viewing local content is still not much,” says Sanskar who has since stopped posting vlogs on himself.
Still in their early twenties, these content creators are basking in self-created glory. They bought their first vehicle and flat from money earned through social media platforms. All of them agree that more than the money, the power which they wield is what they cherish and respect the most.