JOIN USAnother new year is round the corner and plans and ideas galore. And YouTubers are not left behind in their intentions of welcoming 2017 with a bang. Rightfully called the ‘new movie stars’, famous YouTube personalities, and even the not-so-famous ones, are busy chalking out plans to create new videographical offerings for their fans and followers. And with the past few years having seen a rapid increase in the number of talented youngsters taking to this platform to showcase their talent, it seems as if the coming year will only see a continuation of this trend that has levelled the playing field when it comes to taking a shot at fame.
As is the nature of the web, no topic has been left out in this field. Food, fashion, travel, health, arts — you name it and you will get it; not in dry text but in interesting and fun videos.
For example, there is ‘Naati Factory’ that was started by Vinay and Vikas Pampapathi. The software engineers came up with an innovative idea of turning movie trailers and clips into funny spoof videos. “We initially started with some edited videos, for example a mash up of ‘Ugraam’ to laud Virat Kohli,” says Pratith Shetty, one of the members of the ever expanding team.
“After the release of spoof of ‘Ulidavaru Kandanthe’, named as ‘Kudidhavaru Kandanthe’, the number of likes on our Facebook page increased from 3000 to 10,000 plus,” says Vinay. “A parody version of the movie ‘Lucia’ actually went viral and even reached the director of the movie himself, Pawan Kumar. He shared the video on his page and captioned it as ‘hilarious’. Even the lead actress Shraddha Srinath has shared the video,” adds Vikas. Right now, their page has more than 29000 plus likes.
“We are planning to do a rewind video for the new year. All the important news items from January to December will be put in a video format; just to give an inkling of what this year has been like,” says Pratith.
This site has been around for quite some time and quite a few celebrities, ranging from Justin Bieber, Esmee Denters and Carly Rae Jepsen to our very own Vidya Iyer and ‘All India Bakchod’ owe their success stories to it. More and more youngsters are opening their own YouTube channels in a low-cost effort to self promote themselves and follow their passion.
“We are a couple of photography buffs with a special interest for discovering the lesser-known places in and around the city,” says Sreeshanth, a professional who has started a channel called ‘Fuze HD Plus’ with his friends, Gireesh and Sunil. “It is better to document our travels in a video format as it makes for more engaging content and receives a wider audience. We usually upload 2 videos a month and watching the number of likes crossing 1000 has been quite thrilling.”
Naveen Richards, standup comedian of the ‘themboxershorts’ fame, initially didn’t find YouTube all that wonderful because, in his own words, “anyone can be on YouTube but not everyone can be on TV.” “But once I did get to be on television, I grew pretty tired of the entire thing. Getting approvals, discussing the matter, getting the money — it was all a very painful process. YouTube was a much more easier and simpler process compared to that.”
Asked about the comments he gets on the site, Naveen says, “You don’t have to take everything written there to your heart.
If a majority of the comments are positive, it means you are doing something write. And if people are taking the trouble to sit and write comments on your work, whether good or bad, it means they must really feel something. Even I watch videos, but I don’t comment on them.”
At the heart of promoting yourself is the fact that you are just telling your story.