Being CarryMinati – how Ajey Nagar became one of YouTube’s biggest sensations

(March 26, 2024) Some people love him, some hate him, others love to hate him. Whatever category you might be in, Ajey Nagar makes sure you just can’t ignore him. Best known by his stage name,  Nagar, who will turn 25 this year, is India’s most followed YouTube personality in 2024, with a whopping 41.6 million subscribers on his channel, CarryMinati and another 12.1 million on his livestream gaming page, CarryisLive. This month alone, CarryMinati ranked 36 in YouTube Entertainment and 84 worldwide. In 2019, he was named one of the Next Generation Leaders by TIME Magazine, and at the age of 20, was one of the youngest on the list.

CarryMinati is slapstick, very loud, and often downright silly, with his over-the-top takes on “cringe-worthy” videos he finds on Facebook and TikTok. Behind the camera, though, Nagar is an astute and savvy creator. Born and raised in Faridabad, Nagar always steps out of the house in a black hoodie, even in peak summertime, to avoid being recognised by his legion of fans. “I can’t go to malls or restaurants,” he told TIME.

Ajey Nagar, aka CarryMinati

In 2019, CarryMinati found worldwide fame when he dissed Swedish YouTuber Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie), another controversial star of content. At the time, PewDiePie was locked in a subscriber race with T-Series and released a video that mocked an Indian man speaking broken English. CarryMinati came to the rescue on January 1, 2019, with a Hindi rap video called ByePewDiePie, where he says, “one day, India will rule the world.” These days, the Global Indian produces videos only in Hindi, targetting a large chunk of India’s 462 million YouTube users (India has the world’s largest YouTube audience, with the US a far second at 239 million).

The CarryMinati method

Ajay Nagar began making video content when he was eight years old. And the more he did it, the surer he was that it would be his life. When he completed 10th grade, his mother hoped he would prepare to study medicine, “but I knew I couldn’t do it,” Nagar told the Hindustan Times. “I said, ‘Buy me a PC’, and chose arts,” he added. It was a big move for Nagar, who comes from an established, and highly educated family. His mother is a doctor, his father a lawyer and his grandfather (late Shri Gajraj Bahadur Nagar) was a Cabinet Minister in the Haryana government.

When he started out, he ran many different channels, but around 2016, focussed his attention on one of them, where he felt he had found a niche. Back then, he was just a school kid playing video games and trying to make his friends laugh by mimicking and roasting celebrities – at the time, it was Bobby Deol. Deol went by CarryDeol and would inspire Nagar’s own online name, CarryMinati.

However, the process has remained the same, even though his team has grown. The first, and most time-consuming step, Nagar says, is to find the content. And it could take more than three or four days at times. “Then comes the scripting part, it is the most fun part. I lock myself up in my room for two days and focus on the script.” Then comes the shooting and editing, which takes another four days. Viewers send him ideas too, his inbox is always full with links to cringe videos. In 2018, after his team “worked day and night, to get him an opportunity,” CarryMinati interviewed Tom Cruise and the team of Mission Impossible 6, and that video has received 33 million views to date.

“My expectations were nothing. I only wanted 50k subscribers, a room to play my games in and to make enough money to be able to buy new games and create content,” he said. His channel grew beyond his wildest dreams, though, and time and time again, Nagar, who has also matured over the years, has re-evaluated and re-strategised his offerings. He’s always the over-the-top goofy kid, though but these days, he does have to be careful of what he says, given his massive reach.

Being Ajey Nagar

In front of the camera, CarryMinati is brash and unapologetic. Behind the scenes, Ajey Nagar struggles with the weight of his fame, and of catering to expectations. “I struggle with that, as I do with getting out of the house. I have the fear that once I am outdoors, I will be judged, or that even if I eat, I will ahve 10 people staring at me.” He has also admitted that he struggles to walk up to strangers, even at a party, and make conversation, and is happy when they come up to him. That said, relating to people is a crucial part of what he does, because that’s the source of  his content. It’s also essential to him having some normality in his life. “Honestly, there has been a time when I sat down and started feeling bad about myself thinking, ‘Oh, poor me, I’ve missed out on so many things’. The love of my friends, late night rides on scooties and eating junk food at the nearby 24×7. But take a look at my life, it’s not bad at all,” he said in an interview.

There’s also the struggle of expectations and insecurities. “When I’m working on my videos there are moments when I scrutinize my jokes, especially if I like them because I’m worried about whether the audience will find them funny or not,” Nagar says. And it’s a valid concern, because with his outspoken ways and his incredible reach, controversy follows him around. Just the other day, he found himself in hot water for his supposed mocking of cricketer Virat Kohli for not having an IPL trophy in his collection. RCB supporters were furious and the YouTuber went on to issue a quick clarification, saying it was merely a promotional skit where he was doing a parody of RCB fans. However, in a profession like this one, learning to deal with criticism comes with the job description.  “I take criticism seriously, but only if it has value to it. Otherwise, I just really don’t have the time,” says Carry, adding, “The amount of criticism I receive, I criticise myself 10 times more for the same thing,” he told Hindustan Times.

Tips for aspiring creators

Learn by observation, CarryMinati advises. “Don’t observe it like an audience, rather do it as if it’s your job. Observe the little things, then you will understand how someone does that stuff, then your mind will open up.” When you’re watching a video, he says, try and think about what went into making it – from the thought process to the methods of shooting. And, he adds, it’s very slow going. Nobody is going to make a million subscribers in 100 days. “The main thing,” he says, “is to keep doing it.” Evolving and changing with the times is also crucial. Change and uncertainty are the only constants, and Nagar is always prepared for eventualities. “Evolve the content, figure out what works and figure new things in life. And be yourself because nobody can be you.”

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