India’s first legit youtube star began his journey as a restaurant singer. Four years later, he is hobnobbing with Bollywood’s best . How did he do it? The 25-year old reveals a few secrets behind his success.
Four years ago, Bhuvan Bam was a college kid who had a night job as a singer at a Mughlai restaurant in Delhi. Today, he is India’s first legit YouTube superstar helped by sheer luck, “and also a lot of hard work!”
Bhuvan Bam is one of the first generation youtube stars in India and probably the fastest rising who has got 12 million followers on youtube in just four years! (Jacket, Unit by Rajat Suri; trousers, Brooks Brothers; shirt, Zara; shoes Hush Puppies; Art direction: Amit Malik; Make-up and hair: Artistry by Anjali Jain ; Styling by Avneet Chadha; Location courtesy: The Leela Palace, New Delhi)(Avneet Chadha)
“You can’t compare 10 years of YouTube with 150 years of Bollywood. Give us three years; YouTube will give Bollywood tough competition!”
His meteoric rise has become a reference point but looking back Bhuvan credits his success on the lack of strategy; Shirt and shoes, Unit by Rajat Suri; coat, waistcoat and trousers, Arrow; tie, Sacoor Brothers; pocket Square, Kenzo; watch, Tissot (Avneet Chadha)
“I want to be the Dharma productions of YouTube. Also, I want to develop the BB universe, complete with origin stories... ”
Filmmaker Karan Johar recently put out a post with the “immensely talented” Bhuvan and SRK has featured in one of his episodes According to Bhuvan, reaching the 1 million follower mark was more special than reaching the 10 million, and it is because he never thought he will even make it to a 1000 views (Avneet Chadha)
“I still shoot with the front camera of my phone and without a tripod, which means that I have one free hand to act!”
Bhuvan believes that while working on a trending topic, one needs to wait for at least a week before picking it up to avoid misrepresentation; Shirt and trousers, Zara; stole, Gucci; shoes, Hush Puppies; watch, Tissot (Avneet Chadha)
“The main source of income for a YouTuber is brand endorsements. But one must be discerning when picking them…”
This Marathi manus is a one-man army who scripts, acts as multiple characters, shoots, edits from a small room of his Delhi home; Shirt, Brooks Brothers; trousers, Zara; tie, Gucci; shoes, Unit by Rajat Suri; watch, Tissot (Avneet Chadha)
“I didn’t start out to make money. I started because I had a joke that I wanted to share”
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Ananya Ghosh is an assistant editor with Hindustan Times Brunch. She has 10 years of experience as a journalist having worked as a copy editor/feature writer in various publications....view detail
