“WHEN SOMEONE SAYS MY CONTENT ISN’T ENJOYABLE, THAT AFFECTS ME!”

—AJEY NAGAR, SOCIAL MEDIA STAR

But he cannot possibly let the criticism of using crass and abusive language get to him. “There is a lot of local and cultural context and differences that I don’t expect everyone to understand and accept,” he admits. “But when someone says that my content wasn’t enjoyable in the first place, that affects me more.”

He is conscious of the fact that the content he puts out, particularly some of his expletiveladen roasts, will never fly in front of his parents. He does acknowledge them as his “censor board” but is grateful that they understand the distinction between performance and reality.

“People assuming I’m rude in real life is akin to expecting the actor playing Spider-man to actually throw webs about,” Ajey says. “My parents understand that it’s performance. And I hope people who question my intent also realise that it’s all scripted, rehearsed, performed.”

And yet, for how long can he sustain his characteristic hyperactive delivery brimming with relentless satire, double entendres and an all-round penchant for toying with the sanitised boundaries of cancel culture?

“Of course, you reach a saturation level if you only keep doing the same thing,” he says. “But I’ve surrounded myself with sketches, music, scripted short-form videos and other multimedia, and this is proof enough that I’d like to push my own boundaries, even though the audience wants what it wants.”

PULLING TOGETHER

In the face of the criticism that his content receives, Ajey remains concerned with understanding why people love him.

“Their reasons for love have nothing to do with my videos or the abuse or the jokes but everything to do with the bond that I establish,” he says. It’s the same bond that he derives from the gaming community that he says is brimming with introverts like him.

“When we are playing a game together, all our breathing is synchronised,” he pauses, gathering his words. “For us, as a bunch of introverts, that is a safe space in the privacy of our rooms.”

In the past, Ajey was considered too young to be an artist and hardly taken seriously.

“People would take me for granted because of my age,” he says. “I’ve given this craft 10 years, so how’s my success any less valid compared to someone who ventured into this field at 30 and later became successful?”

Although he will make his acting debut alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgn in the thriller-drama Runway 34, in the role of a social media sensation, the idea of pushing boundaries, he hopes, will stretch well into the future.

It’s the 4 am “twisted and dark stories” that he hopes will be adapted into series and movies someday. “I’ll tell you the first two stories I’ve written so far that are really dark and quite unlike what I’ve done so far, this is off the record, so in the first one…”

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