This year too, Bigg Boss 19 on Colors
TV has an interesting cast. We can notice an increasing trend of bringing in
Youtubers and Social Media influencers as participants on TV screen, perhaps in
the expectation that each one of them would help promote the TV show on their
digital channels, giving the show easy and free publicity. It is not a bad
strategy. But where this strategy fails is when most of these social media
influencers turn out to be introverts and not much happening, unlike how they
appear in their online content. In the current season of Bigg Boss, we can see
how Awez Darbar, Mridul Tiwari and Praneet More are not impressing the host
Salman who criticizes them every weekend.
I heard in the show that Mridul
Tiwari is a very popular Youtuber. But on the TV show, he just plays the “gentleman”,
keeps silent amidst chaos, just tries to be friends with everyone, has been
more comfortable with a set of people who have taken dominant role themselves
leaving him in a hopeless situation where he faces threat of elimination any
weekend, just like Awez.
I searched for his youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@TheMriDul
and found that he has nearly 2 million subscribers! I watched a couple of his
videos, including one on Raksha Bandhan and other about Exams, and eureka
moment! I loved his content!
I noticed that Mridul’s youtube
videos perfectly capture the nerve of common man’s life in India. The content
is funny, acting by all actors/actresses in his videos is excellent, camera work, background sound, direction,
everything is perfect. Then instantly it came to my mind why Bollywood is
missing to earn money these days, ever since they upped their “premium game” by
showing mostly Westernized lifestyle and ignoring the real life in India. Mridul’s
youtube videos show how Youtube is winning and Bollywood is losing in India.
So far I was skeptical about
Youtubers whom I thought were overhyped, but after seeing the content created
by Mridul, which are btw of about 30 minutes length each, which is the time of
a typical episode of a TV series too, I am tending to change my opinion. All these
actors who act in Mridul’s videos are extremely talented and deserve accolades
just like regular TV and film artists get. Given the lack of resources they
have and still the mind-blowing creativity they unleash, they are as big artists in their own world,
as are the best actors, writers and directors in the film industry.
It is high time Bollywood and Indian
film industry should stop aping Western films and put their feet on the ground,
showing content rooted in the real life of real people in our country. When they do that, there won’t be any complaints about lower footfalls and fading movie businesses. They
need to realize the fact that Youtube is the biggest competitor of Bollywood now.
- Rahul
