In 2019, Time magazine called Ajey Nagar aka CarryMinati a ‘Next Generation Leader’. The popular YouTuber, who started his career as a gamer, has diversified into various fields, including acting and music. He recently crossed 30 million subscribers on YouTube.
In an interview, he spoke about the potential of the gaming industry in India and the role he sees for himself. Excerpts:
When did you discover YouTube?
I was around 10-years-old...and I was instantly drawn towards the potentiality of it. I thought about pursuing it as a full-fledged career when I was 13. It was an intuitive calling for me. It honestly scares me sometimes when I look back and see how I dropped out to pursue the digital medium that wasn’t as evolved as it is today. It was all very organic and let’s just say, I was a curious kid. Initially, I used to upload only gameplay videos, and as time passed by, I started experimenting with my content.
From then to now, what has changed?
Now it's more polished and a bit restricted due to the new guidelines of YouTube. It takes a lot more time - sometimes months - to create a video because I need to make sure I am producing something special every time, as opposed to earlier where it took me a day or two.
You started out as a gamer, and today, the gaming industry is regarded as one of the fastest-growing industries. How do you see the future of gaming in India?
Gaming has broken out of niche corners of the world and will only continue to become more mainstream. Mixed reality will be the big winner, with future games that combine virtual and augmented reality technology. The gaming industry is poised to be this century's dominant form of entertainment.
In India, it’s the mobile gaming industry that has established its dominance as smartphones are easily accessible these days. I feel once the youth become financially independent, they would be happy to invest in PC and console gaming as well and that is when the gaming community as a whole would grow by leaps and bounds.
A lot of big guns from the business community have understood the potential of gaming industry in India and they’re backing it to do well, so hopefully, in the coming years, you’d see more and more individuals taking up gaming as a full-time profession and they’d be respected by the society.
YouTube videos, singing, gaming, and now even acting, why did you decide to diversify?
I have never related well with tags... I would say I’m diverse and like to multi-task and experiment.
I dedicate 10 hours in a day for content creation... Acting and music is a medium where I can showcase my art to a more varied audience. Sometimes I can dedicate more time to music and sometimes more time to acting, so it all depends on my headspace as content creation is my true vision.
What next for CarryMinati? Where do you go from here?
After the success of ‘Uncanny Roaches’, I plan to invest in an animated web series with my business partner Deepak Char. My recent video ‘Cancel Culture’ where I tried an English sketch for the first time got a lot of love from the audience, so that motivated me to incorporate more English sketches in my content...
Experimental content is the king of new age media today, and the algorithm loves you the most when content speaks to the audience and breaks stereotypes.