When it comes to embodying members of a family from Bihar, no one is better than Astuti Anand. The 24-year-old content creator regularly shares videos that capture the point of view of her mother or the disgruntled neighbourhood aunty. She also has the impressive ability to pick up characters from school like the student who constantly snitches or the extra strict teacher who gives surprise tests. One can say that Anand’s short skits are relatable to most people who grew up with middle-class upbringing. However, Anand was not always sure of her acting or comedy calibre.
Anand was studying physiotherapy at LPU (Lovely Professional University) in Punjab when the pandemic struck and her classes were pushed online. One day she was notified of an online event organised by her university. Anand signed up for the stand-up comedy competition and got the third spot. This gave her a much-needed boost of confidence and inspired her to share skits on Instagram. Slowly but steadily her following grew. Today, she has 14 lakh followers on Instagram and 7.6 lakh subscribers on YouTube. Her videos routinely get lakhs of views.
Talking to Indian Express about her creative inspirations, she said, “I go down memory lane for content. I think about my school life. To be honest, I am the characters I play. I am not a maid or an aunt. I am nothing. My mother calls me twice a day and she has so much panchayat (gossip) to share. She talks to me daily for an hour. Either she will talk about her in-laws, her mother’s family, or about herself, or that Papa did this today.”
She added, “I never stop thinking. If I ever need any other ideas, I go out. I go out on the road, sit and observe what people are doing. So, I get a lot of concepts like that.”
Despite earning a massive following Anand’s family was not sure if she should pursue content creation full-time but ever since she began earning, her family became convinced that there is a future in content creation. Sharing videos with thousands of people also comes with a fair share of negative comments.
Anand told Indian Express that initially, she used to “cry the whole day” over a few negative comments but now she has learned to brush the negativity aside. Talking about her next big move, Anand said, “My mom loves TV serials and I want to work in a serial someday. Things are in talks and something big may happen by September this year.”
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