A good dose of humour is welcome in these grim times. Meet US-based content creator Jagadi Vedula whose Instagram (dubidi_dhibide) videos are gaining a lot of attention with their gentle, funny and satirical comments on current times, her comical expressions and videos bringing in a breath of fresh air in the time of the pandemic.
Jagadi Vedula | Photo Credit: By arrangement
A former software professional, Vedula’s different avatars range from that of a middle-aged movie buff taking a fun quiz to guess Telugu movies from English words; an old woman discovering a video call or the dalgona coffee during lockdown; A pani puri video made (with friends living in the USA) on the #dontrushchallenge on social media.
A spoof on Nithyananda Swamy | Photo Credit: By arrangement
Born and brought up in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, Vedula came to Hyderabad after her wedding in 2007. She worked as an IT recruiter in Hyderabad before relocating to the U.S. in 2013.
Vedula lives with her husband and daughter in San Jose, California, from where she connects with us through an email.
Jandhyala as inspiration
Taking the fun film quiz | Photo Credit: By arrangement
About her videos, she says, “Anyone can be an artist, but a great artist is known by the way his works make others feel. I work to make people happy and bring a smile on their faces; I believe it is one of the difficult arts.”
Having watched almost all movies by Jandhyala, it is no surprise that she considers the (late) filmmaker as her inspiration. She feels today’s Telugu movies lack that kind of humour; that why she decided to recreate it using the Dubsmash app. “Jandhayala’s movies have pure, sarcastic comedy. My favourite artistes from his films are Brahmanandam, ‘Sutti’ Veerabhadra Rao and Srilakshmi. I come from the East Godavari district where most people are crazy about movies. I use the unique slang of the region and cultural references to my advantage and make a mark.”
Singing Samajavara gamana song from Ala Vaikunthapuramulo in her own style | Photo Credit: By arrangement
Since she went on a non-work permit visa to the U.S., she had plenty of time to watch movies and television series. Bored with her daily routine, one day she decided to pamper herself and applied a facial mask. In the 20 minutes that she waited for the mask to dry, an idea struck her and she made a Dubsmash video, inspired by the horror-comedy Telugu movie Prema Katha Chitram. She recalls, “My friends and family members found it funny and encouraged me to make more.”
Narrating the story behind her the Instagram handle ‘dubidi_dhibide’ and the user name ‘Animuthyam’, she says, “I searched for names of Brahmanandam garu’s characters in Jandhyala’s movies but picked ‘Animuthyam’ from the Ravi Teja-starrer Power as the unique name suits the content that I create. ‘Dubidi dhibide” is from a famous dialogue of actor Balakrishna. I started with Dubsmashes, so I comically translated into Telugu and named it as “dubidi_dhibide” (DUB idi, dhibide-Mashing).”
One-woman team
Her Instagram handle with 17.2 K followers completed three years in May this year. It is a feather in her cap as she is a one-woman team conceptualising, planning, shooting (with iPhone) and editing content with various software and apps. “The journey was not easy,” she says “People who have been following me since the early days are still there to give feedback. I rejected messages from random marketing agencies to buy followers. I want my audience to genuinely enjoy the content that I create instead of some robotic audience staying on the page just for numbers.”
Being a content creator keeps her on her toes. “I have to be creative, entertaining with clean humour. Sometimes it takes hours to produce one minute of entertainment but when followers tell me they laughed a lot, the efforts are worth it.”
Satirical twists
Current happenings have inspired her to create videos with satirical comedy. “ I have to ensure my content does not go overboard or hurt anyone’s feelings. My characters are Animutyam (pearl) and also gender neutral. I personally like the old woman and Swamiji characters. My followers love when I imitate Brahmanandam, Srilakshmi, Garikapati Narasimharao and Nithyananda. The one video that I worked hard on and am proud of is last year’s Halloween video — a horror/thriller concept shot along with a friend (Indu) at night.”
She fondly recalls the morning when she got a ‘loved and laughed out watching your content’ message by actor Sai Dharam Tej. She was about to turn off her alarm when she saw a notification ‘Jetpanja started following you’ “I couldn’t believe it and even asked if it was a fake account or if his account had got hacked?”, she recalls, adding, “He (Sai Dharam Tej) is so humble; he replied asking me to check the blue tick badge. He is the first celebrity from the Telugu film industry who has been following my page for the past two years.”
Her timeline is filled with ‘happy and loved it’ messages. “My followers send so much love and positive feedback; they often share that my content is their stress buster and my videos bring happiness.”
Besides interactive and funny games, Vedula writes poems ‘Kapithvams’ on her followers. “I never dreamt of becoming a content creator or people’s entertainer. I will go with the flow and continue what I am doing now”