Popularity of YouTube in India is only the Beginning | Anisha Dixit ‘Rickshawali’

“We grow and people watch us because we talk about daily, normal things.”

Anisha Dixit, popularly known as ‘rickshawali’ says that being who she is today, a YouTuber and Blogger, is something she didn’t choose but that which choose her. She talks about how she had arrived in Bombay with the intention of working as an actress in Bollywood.

Experiencing an Indian culture shock was what inspired her craft. She talks about how when she rode a rickshaw for the first time, the experience thrilled her so much that she embraced the concept of it for the funny content that she creates.

“I uploaded my first video on a rickshaw on YouTube and got 10 views!” Her fun side is at its peak as she talks about why she chose youtube videos as her medium of expression.

This ultimately inspired her to create more videos and put them up on YouTube. She says how there wasn’t a set business plan. She just did it for the fun bit.

“With time, with every video, I started realizing what to change, what to make better.” Eventually, she was hooked to making videos and became very popular!

Analyzing the popularity of her videos, she explains that this is because she picks up issues that we Indians face in our daily lives. While there is a huge absence of it on other channels of popular media that the Indian audience subscribes to.

“Neither in TV nor in movies, you see content that talks about that and talks about girls or boys, how they are today and what they want to see.”

Hence the popularity of youtube and youtube content creators, she says. This is because they talk about things that are done on a daily basis; while she intentionally makes it funny for the purpose of entertainment. She says that because of the simplicity, people connect with her content and that of most YouTubers today.

“We are connecting with the audience because we are just normal people.”

She is very positive about her work, talking about the growing popularity of YouTube in India, saying that ‘it will explode’. She attributes it to the mass population and the internet accessibility to all.

“It’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

And other than the possibility of YouTube ever shutting down, it is here to continue in the long run, she says.

“As creators, we are just a few. There are still so many more stories.”

She talks about how most of the population are yet to understand the magnificent possibility YouTube does hold in expression. It is only recently that many places, especially in rural India, people have received access to the internet. They are just beginning to understand technology and mediums like Youtube.

“Once they understand that it is possible and you can just open your phone and start making content, this will become even bigger,”

Unlike the United States, India’s is brimming with possibilities now, she is hopeful. This because people are just learning and there are a lot more people with stories and voices that harbors the capacity to make an impact.

Talking about dreams, she lights up when she says she always wanted to become an actor.

“Now I have created for myself a niche where there are offers.” She says that people do approach her with offers for acting. But the idea is to strike a healthy balance.

“But I would never give up on YouTube or creating my own content. Because A, that’s where I was born, and that’s why I am here, because of the audience.”

And she will hence treat it as her number 1 platform. “YouTube is my home and will always remain so.”