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“MY DAD SAID I SHOULD QUIT COLLEGE AND PURSUE THIS [CONTENT CREATION] INSTEAD, BUT MY MOTHER WANTS ME TO FINISH MY DEGREE” —TANEESHA MIRWANI, CONTENT CREATOR
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Photos shot exclusively by Subi Samuel Costumes & styling by Reza Shariffi
Imagine earning enough money via a beloved hobby to sustain yourself! That’s what three 20-year-olds, born and brought up in Mumbai, have done, thanks to their hobby of making and uploading videos on social media. Unlike the mostly millennial content creators we’re used to however, these three are Gen Z-ers. And they have a very different take on online earnings and influence than their immediate generational predecessors do. It’s a difference that stems from the fact that social media is a strict part of their everyday lives, rather than something apart from it that needs to be exploited for earnings. It’s a difference that’s as refreshing as it is real.
Meet Dev Raiyani, Taneesha Mirwani, and Leisha Patidar, the Gen Z-ers who keep the virtual world real.
WHEN INSTAGRAM WAS TRENDING…
“I started posting when Instagram was a new thing in India; all my friends were on it. It was like a party! I had no intention of getting into the content creation space,” says Dev Raiyani, who has 366K followers on Instagram, where he puts up humorous posts and also focusses on dance and music.
Currently pursuing computer science at college in Los Angeles, after finishing school at Jamnabai Narsee School in Mumbai, Dev enjoys making videos that give viewers a peek into his life. The 20-year-old has been doing this on various platforms for over eight years—he and his best friend began by uploading videos on the now discontinued app Vine, and by the age of 12, Dev had his own YouTube channel. When his YouTube video titled ‘Expectations vs Reality’ went viral, Dev got his first taste of fame.
“No one used to talk to me in school. But after that video went viral, everyone spoke to me. I loved the attention I got from class seven to 10,” Dev recalls. “And then, it went to my head. My mum was the one who kept me grounded every time I acted too cocky.”
Today, Dev’s videos of himself hanging out with his friends give you squad goals, because they aren’t flashy or about going out and partying. In fact, they have the same kind of chill vibe as Taneesha Mirwani’s BTS (behind the scenes) videos.
“I’m just on social media to have fun,” says Taneesha, who has 392K Instagram followers. Taneesha shot to fame during the lockdown in 2020 for her South Bombay character sketches.
“I got into it out of boredom and realised this was something I could do regularly on social media,” says the creator, who juggles her life between Mumbai and the US where she studies advertising at Boston University. Though she was making videos when she was 13 years old, on platforms like Musical.ly and TikTok (before the latter was banned in India), it’s only in this past year that her relatable Reels have found a massive audience. What works is their innocent, no-filter feel.
Meanwhile, Leisha Patidar, who has grabbed eyeballs for her fashion and beauty content on Instagram (where she has 794K followers), a platform she signed up for when she was in class 11, is completely in the glam zone. Whether it’s make-up or transition videos, her choice of music with each Reel is spot-on! The n ext-gen Komal Pandey, some would say. But, as she herself points out, her skin tone appeals to a wider Indian audience.
“I was always particular about my makeup and wanted to get into Bollywood. But my mom didn’t let me. So, I took up content creation. I only became serious about it after crossing 400K followers about a year and a half ago,” explains Leisha, who is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Management Leadership degree at RD National & WA Science College, Mumbai.
Stuck with her entire family of around 80 people in a haveli in Jaipur for six months during the 2020 lockdown, Leisha began posting GetReadyWithMe videos where creators show their make-up routine/ outfit transitions. She began with make-up tutorials, but when her transition video to a Padmaavat song got 200K likes and 4M views, she was encouraged to continue.