It bears the hallmark of the Hyderabadi not taking himself seriously, a description put forward by none other than humourist and Padmashree award winner Mujtaba Hussain. And what better idiom to this tongue-in-cheek humour than Dakhni? City YouTubers — The Baigan Vines — have done just that, all the while garnering appreciation from viewers and now recognition from YouTube: two Silver Play Buttons.
“It was exciting. While we began late in 2014, we became active on YouTube in mid-2015. We got the first Silver Play Button in January, but the second one came only in the last week of November. YouTube sent us an email after we saw an increase in subscribers which hit the 1 lakh mark,” says Aamer bin Ishaq.
Serious business
What started as playful meme making in 2014 for founders Aamer bin Ishaq, his brother Mohammed bin Ishaq, Ossama Tipu and Farhan, soon turned humour into serious business.
The Silver Play Button is given to channels which have more than a lakh subscribers. The Baigan Vines have two such channels. Aamer says that on the one hand, The Baigan Vines Official focuses on more humourous content, The Baigan Vines Extras tends to gravitate towards more serious issues. The Silver Play Button has been given to each channel. “We have over 3.6 lakh subscribers on The Baigan Vines Official channel and over 1.5 lakh subscribers on The Baigan Vines Extras,” he says.
Youth connect
With a strong youth connect, their latest offering is a take on engineering students and their extravagant dreams which turn sour with each passing year. As their dreams crumble, they realise that they were building castles in the air. Only they use a Dakhni equivalent. “ Chabootre pe bithaake bade bade khaabaan dikhadiya na!” quips the computer engineer to the mechanical engineer even as the civil engineer retorts, “ Super car, rocketaan idharich banaate, konsi woh pichhe kar ke chhorte so? Hotwheels?”
Like many contemporary YouTubers across the country, The Baigan Vines too have monetised their brand of humour. “We have several sponsors. However, despite several offers, and unlike many YouTubers, we have not signed any deal with any multi-channel network as we feel that this would affect our creative process. All of our content is ours,” Aamer says.
Apart from Hyderabadis, the channel has a strong following among the Hyderabadi diaspora in West Asian countries, USA, Canada and Europe. “Whenever NRI see us, they say that watching our videos removes their homesickness. That means a lot,” Aamer says.
