‘No gender bias for good content’

HYDERABAD :  Is social media biased towards girls, giving them more engagement than boys? Is this medium all about competition, but not collaboration? Three Telugu youngsters KC Ram, Koppolu Ankith and G Arya Praveen seem to love challenging these norms. Not only have they garnered a good following in Instagram, they also bond well with the #brocode vibe with their fresh Instagram Reels.  

These Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) students, loved the time their first video went viral online. “Our first trio video that went viral was in TikTok in 2020. We named ourselves ARA, based on the first letters of our names. We never plan our videos with the intention of making them go viral. We just do what catches our fancy, have fun in the process and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, we go with the flow and have fun,” says Ram.

Ankith, who hails from Padmarao Nagar in Secunderabad, (@_itsankith with 51K followers in Instagram), adds, “In fact, we proudly share our blooper videos as they are actually funnier than the regular, perfect videos. We rarely plan our content. We just do it for fun and we hardly take three takes and post it.”

Says G Arya Praveen (@_its_aryapraveen), “Hyderabad is my Horcrux. Although I am currently in Vizag, some part of my soul still lives there and I hope to be back soon, although I also love the City of Destiny.” Arya calls himself a writer by passion and hopes to pen a crime thriller in future. “I am going to play the antagonist for sure because these two will not,” he says about plans of working in short films or OTT series.  “A few short filmmakers have approached me for script writing, dubbing and dialogues. I hope three of us can make a debut in 2021.”

There is a general misconception that girls have more followers than boys even if the latter are talented? What’s their take on this? Ram (@_mr.ransy_2_3) says that gender does not play a role if the content is good. “Buoyed by the response, likes and shares we get on our videos, we are planning a web series on YouTube soon.” Incidentally, the young boys turn pink when they confess they have more girl fans than boys, which they think is natural. “Most of the comments on our reels are by girls,” they say in unison.

KC Ram, Koppolu Ankith and G Arya Praveen, popular for their videos on social media, talk about how their first viral video was a blooper, but genuine and funny, thus giving them a shot in the arm to do more content. The trio believes their #brocode vibe really goes well with their audiences, especially the girls 

— Manju Latha Kalanidhi kalanidhi@newindianexpress.com @mkalanidhi