One of the most followed Youtubers in India, Ashish Chanchlani gets candid with Social Ketchup Ed, Mrinil Mathur Rajwani about his content creation journey.
Although content creation has grown to become a legitimate career for many artists and influencers in today’s time, this can only be credited to these YouTubers who spend years on the platform developing and sharing content. They didn't witness an overnight success and instead had to go through a lot of trouble to get to where they are today. Among all of these amazing YouTubers who stand as an example of hard work proving that content creation is as difficult as any other career is Ashish Chanchlani. The boy who made a small city like Ulhasnagar familiar to the world, Ashish made us fall in love with the creator community.
From donating via COVID-19 relief funds to becoming India’s second most followed YouTuber, Ashish’s year has been a rollercoaster, both personally and professionally. Creators like him understand the power of social media and the greater good of society. We had the opportunity to feature the creator for the December 2020 edition of the Social Ketchup Magazine and as we celebrate his birthday today, check out parts from his not-so-quick chat where he gave us a recap about how the year went for him, his projects, mental health, and a lot more.
Do you self-police while creating content? Do you have some rules for yourself or do you draw a line while creating comedy? What is your mantra?
"I do self-police myself and my team. In the past, it has happened that I made a video and it affected some people. I made a video on Vegetarians Vs Non-Vegetarians. And I have people from both sides in my life and I respect both. I was showing a video on how Non-vegetarians are a little aggressive towards vegetarians when they go out to eat. But people misunderstood this. They thought I am promoting non-vegetarian food and that I am showing vegetarians in a bad light. But that was not the case. It was such a small thing, but someone wrote to me that if you meet me somewhere, I’ll shoot you. I was like you are killing me for making jokes about killing animals. It makes no sense. After that, I thought I’ll lower it down, but then I realized whatever I’ll do I am going to offend someone. But I made a rule from the beginning, I am never ever going to touch religion and politics."
After creating content for so many years, do you still face trolling and negative comments? Do they affect you? How do you handle it?
"I believe whatever you do, there will be a section you will not like. Because they have made a picture about you in their mind and you are the villain in that. It is not your fault. Everyone faces trolling. If people can hate Sachin Tendulkar, then we are just Keede Makode. Earlier, I wasn’t able to handle it and got affected. Then I realized when I meet these people, they click photos and selfies with me. So I think when they see us on their screen, they make a negative picture about us in their minds, but when they meet us they realize that we are like them. It has happened a lot many times, that those who were my haters, met me and now they are very big fans."
Which moment made you realize that you have arrived? Was there any special moment of your journey, that makes you feel like it's all worth it?
"There are many such moments. And one among them is when my parents go out, people come to them to get pictures clicked and say you are Ashish Chanchlani’s mom dad? They feel very proud. My dad is in the cinema business. He is the exhibitor but used to meet fewer celebrities and I always wanted to meet them. So I wanted to fulfill this dream and make him meet a Bollywood star. That happened last year and I introduced him to Akshay Kumar as we both are his fans."
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