‘You're the traffic’: Nikhil Kamath's old video on Bengaluru goes viral as ‘outsiders’ debate intensifies

Nikhil Kamath has often expressed that Bengaluru is his favorite city.

An old video of Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath stating that “migrants need to know you're not stuck in traffic, you are the traffic" in Bengaluru is going viral on social media, amid the debate around “outsiders” in the city.

Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath. (Mint file)

The video clip is part of a longer episode from Nikhil Kamath's podcast, “WTF is with Nikhil Kamath,” where he and his team explore Bengaluru from his perspective, a city he has always called home.

In the clip, Nikhil is seen discussing Bengaluru’s traffic with his team Bilal and Meghna. When Bilal begins complaining about the city's traffic, Nikhil responds by pointing out that traffic is an issue in every major city, including Delhi and Mumbai. He adds that Bengaluru's rapid growth has made the traffic problem difficult to solve, and compared to 30 years ago, the city is vastly different. He highlights the significant influx of migrants, jokingly pointing at Bilal, himself a migrant, for sitting and complaining about the traffic they contribute to.

Nikhil Kamath has often expressed that Bengaluru is his favorite city for numerous reasons. He completed his schooling in Bengaluru before dropping out to co-found Zerodha-India's biggest stock broker.

Watch the video here:

On Sunday, an Instagram influencer got in trouble after she claimed that North Indians had built Bengaluru and that the city could not survive without migrants. Several Kannada celebrities asked the influencer to leave Bengaluru as an experiment and slammed her for trying to gain social media fame by defaming the tech capital.

Sharma also said that Bengaluru would lose its charm if the migrants started going back. “The charm of Bengaluru will be entirely lost if migrants go back. The Kannadigas must understand that before asking us to leave,” she added.

Popular Kannada actor Chaithra Achar wrote, “If you can actually leave, just as an experiment, and see how Bangalore becomes empty, we are ready to live with that emptiness and dancers less pubs. We can live with it. Really. Forget all other North Indians. You leave ma'am, enough for now.”