Bhopal — June 2020 was an unforgettable month for Veer Sharma, an Indore-based social media influencer. When the Indian government banned the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, the 29-year-old lost his 7 million followers overnight.
“He cried for days after TikTok got banned in India,” said Veer Sharma’s sister Preeti Mishra (39). “He didn’t leave home for almost a month. He lost fame and money overnight,” she added.
Exactly three years later, in June 2023, Veer shared a photo and a reel on Instagram of his meeting with the then Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
In the reel, Sharma and his partner Parul Ahirwar, show footage of them walking up to Chouhan in his office in Bhopal and Sharma touching Chouhan’s feet. At Sharma's insistence, the chief minister humorously refers to Ahirwar as khebdi, – a local slang term for someone with protruding front teeth – and the room bursts into laughter. Ahirwar and Sharma use this phrase in their reels.
The video received nearly nine lakh likes, with over 4,500 comments. Many praised Chouhan for being a “people’s CM”, while others took potshots at him saying it’s a sign of his “bad days”.
Sharma came to Bhopal on June 29, 2023 with 14 other influencers after Malay Dixit, Indore incharge of BJP’s IT cell called him offering to travel in the newly inaugurated Vande Bharat trains.
When they arrived at the state capital, they were invited to the chief minister’s house for a meeting where Sharma was briefed about BJP’s social media outreach ahead of assembly election to publicize various welfare schemes of the government and asked to make short videos or reels. Around 30 influencers sat in that room, all from Madhya Pradesh.
With the help of these influencers, the BJP devised the plan to reach out to over 50 lakh young voters aged between 18 to 25.
Many disagreed to liquidate their hard-earned social currency for BJP’s agenda or promotion, but Sharma was hooked, and saw it as a way to expand his reach, get likes, and comments.
They walked to Chouhan’s office and made their first video. The video with the chief minister created a buzz in the political circles to rope in Sharma and Ahirwar.
“We were flooded with the calls from political offices who wanted us to promote them in the elections,” said Sharma. “We made videos over government schemes like Mukhyamantri Seekho Kamao Yojana, PM Awas Yojana and also made promotional videos for Indore-based BJP leaders like Kailash Vijayvargiya, his son Aakash, MLA Ramesh Mandole, Minister Tulsi Silawat and others.”
The duo claimed that they even got offer from the Congress party leaders who were willing to pay double than what the BJP was offering for making promotional videos or reels, but they relented saying, “Since we are admirer of PM Narendra Modi and the BJP, we turned down the offer and made many videos supporting the policies and works of the BJP leaders.”
The duo made at least eight videos promoting the works of BJP MLA from Indore Ramesh Mandola.
“Since I admire him personally, I promoted him on videos and he won with a record margin,” said Sharma.
The BJP candidate won with a margin of 1,07,000 votes in the 2023 assembly polls – highest victory margin in the history of Madhya Pradesh’s assembly elections.
Sharma says that social media gave them fame and money, but with political associations, power and acceptance in the society grew way more than he expected. “I was popular among fans before making a video with CM Chouhan. But never got respect for what a society offers to an artist. The political associations give me power and respect. From just a TikTok star, I became respected across all the class of the society.”
Their popularity not only grew in Indore or its vicinity but in Delhi as well. In the recently concluded India - Afghanistan T20 match at Indore’s Holkar stadium, Sharma and Ahirwar were watching the match sitting next to Union Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Sharma, who hadn’t studied beyond 10th grade, sold newspapers for two years before he went on to become a dance teacher at a private institution in 2016. The job helped him support his ailing mother, Manorama Sharma, who was an Anganwadi worker in Indore.
His father, Nandakishor Sharma (80), who was a mill worker, lost his job when the Madhya Pradesh government shut down Indore’s Hukum Chand Mill – one of the biggest mills of Madhya Pradesh – in 1991-92.
His mother tried to support the family by opting for an Aganwadi worker job at Nehru Nagar locality – a low-income neighborhood – where they used to live. His elder brother Abhishek Sharma (35) also started selling Papads for months before taking up the job of office boy in a company.
It was his Indore-based friend Robin Jindal (28) who introduced him to TikTok and its potential. “After the dance class, I used to make funny videos with Robin till late at night,” said Sharma.
The money started flowing in within a year after he joined TikTok. Sharma says he was making a lakh every month.
He had the life of a small town celebrity. He started getting invites to parties and was asked to be chief guests at local events. He would often visit Mumbai to shoot promotional videos and advertisements, featuring Bollywood celebs like Akshay Kumar, Honey Singh, Adnan Sami, among others.
“TikTok hadn’t monetized its content then. But when my videos began to reach millions, an ad agency gave me a lucrative offer of 3,500 rupees for one lakh views.”
Almost a month after the TikTok ban, when Sharma was drowned in obscurity, he received a call from the Moj App – an Indian version of TikTok, which was launched after the TikTok ban.
Meanwhile, in a quest for a female partner, Sharma and Robin met with Parul Ahirwar (27), a budding share broker in Indore, who hails from the Betul district of Madhya Pradesh, which is 270-km south of Indore.
The trio made a few funny videos that clocked views in millions. But that friendship didn’t last long, and Robin parted ways after a rift with other team members. But Sharma and Ahirwar became a team and with his learning from TikTok, they amassed 8 million followers each on Moj App within a span of two years. Money began to flow and this time with a great force.
Ahirwar quit her two year-long share broker job to become a full-time content creator after one of the advertising companies roped her in for making promotional videos.
“My mother calls me her son,” she bragged. “I wanted to become a doctor but our parent’s separation shattered that dream. Hence, I took up the job and began to look after the family.”
Ahirwar says she wanted to make funny videos but never imagined that she would become a full-time content creator and mint lakhs from it.
The money helped the duo maintain a lavish lifestyle like film or TV stars. Sharma bought a Mercedes car, a Harley Davidson bike, and a three-story building in Indore city. Ahirwar purchased Mahindra’s Thar, a luxurious home and helped her sister Rashmi set up a tattoo making studio.
Sharma’s popularity is not only limited to TikTok or Moj App users, but among snobbish government officials and cops.
He received a call from the Moj app asking him to go to Dubai to make promotional videos for their client within five days. “But I didn’t have a passport and it was impossible to get one in such a short time,” he recalled. “I went to the Bhopal passport office where officials not only recognised me but also clicked selfies, and within three days, the passport was in my hand. I was no less than a miracle.”
Since then, Sharma and Ahirwar made many trips to Dubai, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and other locations to make promotional videos and promote business in Dubai among the Indian buyers.
With the rise of social media marketing in India, the demand for influencers has grown like movie stars. With the increasing accessibility of smartphones and affordable data plans, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube have become an integral part of daily life for millions of Indians, explained Abhijeet Gautam, founder of BlueWhistle social media advertising company.
He added that people are not just consuming content; they are actively participating by creating and sharing their own stories online. This shift has led to a surge in user-generated content that resonates with diverse audiences across the country.
According to a Forbes report, at the beginning of 2023, there were 398.0 million users in India who were 18 years of age or older, or 40.2 percent of the country’s entire population. In general, 67.5% of all internet users in India in January 2023 (regardless of age) used at least one social networking platform.
Furthermore, businesses have recognized the potential of social media as a powerful online marketing tool to reach their target customers effectively. “By leveraging influencers’ popularity and credibility on these platforms, brands can tap into vast digital audiences and drive engagement like never before,” said Abhijeet.
Influencers have the power to sway their followers’ purchasing behavior, thinking, and even beliefs. This means an influencer can manipulate them into buying unnecessary products, adopting inimical values, and becoming obsessively materialistic.
This has changed the face of marketing as we know it.
Brands—from legacy to startups— include a significant chunk of their budget for influencer marketing to reach the masses. On the other hand, the audience is constantly evolving too, making it even tougher for content creators to predict what works and what doesn’t. These digital creators must produce content that is ‘engaging’ enough to ‘reach’ the masses.
According to a Deccan Herald report, which quotes an independent survey, 34 % of respondents buy products or services after watching influencers' posts, reels, and videos on popular social media platforms, including Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
Their popularity on social media Apps like Instagram, Moj, YouTube, and SnapChat, with over three crore followers (of both), opened gates for many advertising agencies who offered them to promote products of international companies like Maruti, iPhone, Samsung, Pepsi, Cocacola, Colgate and many others.
Despite the ban, Sharma and Ahirwar maintain their TikTok accounts but can only use it on foreign lands.
“We have quit our jobs, but we work full-time as content creators working almost 8-10 hours daily,” says Ahirwar, adding that they make two videos everyday for their audience.
Unlike Sharma, many influences from Bundelkhand like Himalaya Yadav, who is popular as Hariya Bhaiya Bundeli Star and Makhan and Lakhan from Teen Panch YouTube channel of Rewa (Vindhya region) refused to make promotional videos for the BJP fearing that political affiliation can erode the trust they have earned among his fans and followers.
“Our audience do not belong to any specific political ideology. Hence, pushing content of a particular party as a campaign will harm our reputation and authenticity,” said Kamta Prasad, co-founder of Teen Paanch.
Meanwhile, Sharma and Ahirwar maintain healthy relations with the politicians. “We can only support one party. Working for the other may lead to the conflict which may affect our job and growth,” pointed out Ahirwar.
With parliamentary elections round the corner, the duo are willing to campaign for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On the other hand, they are swamped with offers from OTT platforms, advertising agencies, reality shows and a few offers from south indian movie industry.
“People used to laugh at him when he made videos. They make fun of him pressuring to take up some ‘serious’ job instead of making videos. But the rise of social media has turned the world upside down,” Sharma’s sister told Decode. “If there was no social media, we don’t know what would happen to our family,” she added.
Note: This is a part of Decode series ‘Viral For Votes’, where we track content creators who are involved in the election campaign.