His story appears to be an overnight success, but even overnight successes are born after a thousand nights soaked in sweat. The rise of the YouTuber Ajey Nagar a.k.a. Carry Minati has truly been a magical sight to behold. Today, his channel is a closely-knit family of 35 million and counting.

Ajey had flunked his class 12th after it dawned upon him that education was not his cup of tea. He leaped straight into YouTube, with his big break coming after his tie-up with Bhuvan Bum, who is another coveted name in the game. Ajey didn’t look back thereafter.

The world of YouTube is a culminating point of ideas, stories, news nuggets, motivation, and an entire package of videos for anyone and everyone. But at its core, YouTube consists of an audience that seeks content that is relatable and that sparks their interests.

Carry did exactly that. He cut straight to the heart of India’s young tribe and made a mark with straight-up relatable videos. When everyone thought he had reached his inflection point, his popularity soared again with his ‘Diss-tracks’ and rant videos. Although slang and strong language run through his content –on a broader view, he gives people what they seek.

One of the game-changing points in Carry’s career came when he waged war on TikTok in his video “YouTube Vs TikTok – The end”. The video brought a great upsurge in both the golden nuggets of YouTube: Likes and subscribers. He had set a new record for the number of subscribers that flowed in a week – odds are they were over 10 million.

However, in a strange twist of events, the video was taken down by YouTube. Allegedly, several individuals from TikTok and others reported the video as crude ‘Verbal abuse’. The reason cited by YouTube was that the video violated its Terms of Service. The particular dialogue that stemmed the controversy is still in the dark. It was unjustified, to say the least.

This is where the plot begins. Carry, among many other notable YouTubers has been active in the Bollywood collaboration sphere. This is a win-win for both the parties, while the viewers get a slice of their own pie of entertainment. However, there is also a flip side that is often overlooked. Let’s have a sneak peek.

In an interview with Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ajey clearly had to bear the brunt of being a YouTuber and not a flashy Bollywood celebrity. Being an anchor, it is a bare minimum to know who you’re interviewing. Kareena, however, dismissed Carry as “she finally knew who he actually was” and that “she had only heard of him before”. Ajey still took it all in good humor, and let it be.

In a later incident, Bollywood zeroed out a way to correct its own image by approaching Carry Minati to use his reputed song “Yalgaar” in a recently released film. Any sane person could tell they were riding on Ajey’s concrete follower base. Runway 34 also featured his cameo.

The pieces of the puzzle fit in with ease. The intentions of Bollywood are certainly beyond what meets the eye. First, they rope in new and impressionable YouTubers to leverage their reach. Second, they promote their own movies and rinse their tainted image in front of a larger, more intellectual audience. Third, their derogatory behaviour with some YouTube stars says more than their perfectly scripted words.

YouTubers like Carry Minati don’t have followers – they have a family. As long as they have that by their shoulder, along with a passion and purpose, they are a force to reckon. If the cost is more than the benefit, it is better to pass the investment. That’s the rule of finance, and that’s the rule of life. Head to Peepoye’s comprehensive take on the story!

After all, as Sherlock Holmes put it, “It’s elementary, my dear Watson.”