When Pop Cult Media (popcult.tribe) defined a term used derogatorily for a woman, on their Instagram page, giving it a positive spin, it unleashed a wave of introspection in young men who apologised for ever having used the term. Actor Parvathy even shared one young woman’s blog post of her painful experience with the word on her Instagram handle (as a story). The definition brought closure to the woman, and validated what the Pop Cult team set out to do – “change how words target minds.”
A month and a half, 68,000 followers, and 108 posts old Pop Cult (derived from popular culture) delivers a healthy dose of good humoured Malayali pop-culture to the Malayali and the non-Malayali alike in English. Created by Arya Prakash, Charles Andrews and Aashiq Bava, Pop Cult wanted to create digital content for the millennial Malayali consciously steering clear of the bigotry, biases and discrimination, “without being preachy”.
“Our research showed that 80% of the online content – trolls, memes and like – catered to men. Most of the digital content is stereotypical. We figured there was space to do it differently. We have been called a feminist page like it is a bad thing and accused of male bashing. If we are seen as feminists then it is our strength. But the truth is that we don’t mention gender (in the Pop Cult Dictionary). This is so because the default setting of most content is to mock women,” says Charles.
A quizzer and content creator for television, he and Arya had been toying with the idea of starting something along these lines for a while and it crystallised when Aashiq Bava, of Saina Video Vision, came into the picture suggesting that they could create content for the millennial Malayali. The team then set out to present Malayalam popular culture differently, making it accessible to non-Malayalis as well. While Hyderabad-based Arya creates the content with Charles, Aashiq is the financial backer (and chips in with ideas) and Kishan Bhas, the last one into the group, is the designer.
The Pop Cult Dictionary is probably the most popular element of the page. It turns on the head not only the means but also gives perspective to how we use certain slang terms.
“We have heard them all our life, we wanted to redefine the connotations of the words which define bigotry. There was no need to cherry pick the terms - feminichi , sadacharam , adakkam & othukkam ...they came naturally,” says Arya. The team discusses and brainstorms the words and definition before posting.
Cinema, especially Malayalam cinema of the 1990s, is another source of content. Tinderella, for instance, posts mock Tinder profiles/bio of iconic characters of Malayalam cinema like Girly Mathew (complete with the all seeing glasses) from Nokkatha Doorathu Kannumnattu , Harikrishnans of Harikrishnans , Krishnan PP of Bangalore Days among others. “We also have a take on how Instagram accounts of iconic movie characters would be like,” says Charles. So we have Unnikrishnan’s ( Vandanam ) post of the Gaadha Jam and Gaadha’s response to it, Ninja Appukkuttan ( Yodha ) too gets an Insta account. Then there is a ‘translator popcult bot’ and ‘kumbidiscope’ which pokes fun at daily forecast based on horoscopes.
Upping the fun quotient is Mangopeel News section which ‘broadcasts’ the most absurd possible news of the day, Arya and Charles says there are people who believe it, despite the name - mango peel (usually used to refer to something utterly useless). Buoyed by the response, they have many plans, which include more video content roping in actors and more.
The hate has been coming, with the ‘accusations’ ranging from being feminists to being men haters — nothing a good humoured Insta story can’t solve.
