YouTube sensation and influencer Prajakta Koli, popularly known for videos she creates for her channel ‘MostlySane’, says that at no point would she want her viewers to put on their headphones or pause her videos if someone older walked into the room. The 27-year-old has become a top YouTuber with over 5.74 million subscribers as on October 1, 2020…writes Siddhi Jain.
In a candid interview with IANSlife, Koli shares more about her process of content creation and lockdown inspiration for her channel. Read excerpts:
Q: What kind of content do you think works best with Indian viewers? Walking the tightrope between dumbing-down content and refining your content with time, how do you find a common denominator?
A: Any piece of content that people can relate and identify to is what works the best. It is not something you will get your pulse on from the moment you start creating content, however through trial and error you will eventually get an understanding of content and how people will react to it. Audience behaviour is extremely dynamic in our country and you will never really know what is going to work for sure. Over time however, you get a fair idea of what direction works best for your target audience.
Q: While we’re at it, please share how you shape your content keeping in mind the region, since everyone from Mumbaikars to the Indian diaspora watches you?
A: I keep a diary with me where I add things that I find funny or humorous in everyday life situations and keep building on those ideas. When I usually script my videos I ensure I add instances and situations that happen to every family and not something that is region specific. Also, the language of delivery plays a very important role when making content.
Q: If you had to name the three must-have ingredients in a Prajakta Koli video.
A: One thing I ensure is that I create content that you can watch with your family. At no point would I want my viewers to put on their headphones or pause it if their parents or someone elder walked into the room. Second, I like my videos to be as relatable as possible. And third, is to try and make new ideas come to life every week.
Q: You’re diversifying your mediums, and your audience is loving that. What are your plans ahead?
A: I have been someone who has always made plans and stuck with it, but when my plan A didn’t work out and I took a leap of faith and started creating content I decided to go with the flow and take on each day as it comes. But there definitely will be more acting and writing in the future.
Q: The pandemic brought with it many hardships, but also a lot of content inspiration. Please share about both in your work’s context.
A: When the lockdown started my biggest fear was how will I still keep putting out content as I was so used to working with my team and relied on them heavily. Luckily things worked out and I was able to maintain my weekly release schedule. With the lockdown I got more time to think about new content and implement them which people loved so I am thankful in a way that the lockdown happened and I could churn out more content pieces than I would have otherwise.
Q: How has your audience changed during the lockdown, since most YouTubers registered a manifold increase in views.
A: Well, the audiences haven’t diversified that much since the lockdown; it is just the audience behaviour has changed wherein the viewers have started consuming more content on the internet than compared to pre-lockdown.
Q: Your thoughts on malpractices like buying views on YouTube, which must be a fair platform.
A: Major platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube allow you to boost your posts and videos to reach a wider audience, this is legitimate and doesn’t violate any norms of social media, any other means of getting views should not be encouraged or indulged in.
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