When Chennai-based Mohammed Irfan (28) started his YouTube channel ‘Irrfan View’ in 2015, he had to take a loan to buy a cell phone to shoot his videos. He didn’t have a fancy camera or laptop, but wanted to make vlogs in Tamil with a focus on food and was inspired by big YouTubers like KC Neistat. Since then, Irrfan has come a long way with more than 3 million followers. He now posts videos of himself traveling in Emirates First Class and having lunch with Tamil stars like Vijay Sethupathi. He is also part of a growing league of regional YouTubers from India who have witnessed a manifold increase in their subscriber base over the years.
“When I started there was not a lot of audience for the content I uploaded. After 2018, ideas picked up. Especially after the arrival of Jio and more people getting cheap internet. indianexpress.com,
Some other regional creators also pointed out this jump in their user base after 2018. In fact, as India’s internet consumption and penetration continues to grow, mobile data prices have come down especially after Jio’s entry since 2016. A recent report by Bain & Company states that long-form videos (LFVs) are viewed by nearly 400 million users and 1.5x growth seen from 2018 to 2020,
Now the creators have more confidence in running their channel with regional language content. “When I started in 2017, YouTube was not that popular. People who had smartphones, their net speed was not very good,” recalls 26-year-old Sandy Saha from Kolkata. But the growth he has seen in the last three years convinced him that it is possible to run a channel with only Bengali content.
According to Indrani Biswas, who runs the channel ‘Wonder Munna’, which has over 3 million followers, regional content is a must if one wants to reach out to the masses. “The regional market may seem like a very small place. But if you want to connect with the audience, you can’t do it with only Hindi or English content,” she says.
Starting the channel ‘Niha Sisters’ for Niharika (22) and Nivedita Manne (21), sisters of Sangareddy from Telangana, was a leap of faith they took a year ago. They have already crossed over 6,00,000 followers, yet another sign that audiences want content in their own language.
When the two started out, they focused on copying the content of Telugu’s Bigg Boss Season 2. We got a great response in just 24 hours; 10k-20k views for an opening video, which is rare. After the end of the season, we started creating content with related stories so that people can connect with them,” says Niharika. The sisters have decided to make sure that their content includes both Andhra and Telangana content, and is getting a good response from both the states.
But the search for regional content isn’t limited to audiences who speak the same language some people have experienced. Hyderabad-based producer Harsh Sai (23) is hoping to expand his audience beyond his regular Telugu audience. Sai – who has more than 5.5 million followers – mostly posts videos of himself in grand gestures and helping others. The latest video involves him opening a petrol pump and helping a poor family.
“My videos are being dubbed in all five languages in India. I have a channel in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam apart from Telugu,” he says. In Sai’s case, it’s almost like a filmmaking approach. “We are spending so much on production, everything is over budget. To create a minute of content on YouTube, I am sometimes spending an average of two lakhs, which can be more in some cases,” Sai explains. He insists that his videos are not meant to impress the audience, but to encourage them to do something good themselves.
However, regional creators have other challenges to fight. Cost per 1000 impressions (CPM) for Indian creators is low compared to other countries – CPM is the amount of advertising revenue that YouTubers can earn per thousand views on their videos.
According to Irfan, while the CPM rates have improved over the years, especially since they started, he expects it to improve even more in the future. “Of course, having a huge audience makes a big difference. A better CPM is the only way I can make these videos. Emirates Video cost me a huge amount of money. If I didn’t earn enough, I couldn’t make them,” he said. Said further.
And so is the social acceptance. It was initially not easy for the audience to accept a woman doing comedy in Bengali for ‘Wonder Munna’. He used to get a lot of negative comments, ridiculed for his work, and told him not to play a boy. “But it has improved since 2017. The kind of comments I used to get have changed now.”
In Sandy’s case, being an LGBTQ+ creator meant getting a lot of homophobic comments right from the start. “I was initially sad that people were abusing me for my sexuality, my gender or my dress. Friends also asked me not to upload the video. Earlier people were not really accepting my stuff. But things are changing day by day, people are starting to understand that it is our sexuality, our choice,” said Saha, adding that the negativity in her experience has subsided to some extent.