Saloni Gaur: Meet The Creator Of Internet's Favourite Nazma Aapi

Her videos are both funny and packed with on-point social commentary. In a short span, this 20-year-old, who is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from DU has amassed 122,000 followers on Instagram and 115,000 or so on Twitter. To give you some perspective, it was only in November last year that Saloni Gaur got her first viral video. Since then she has gained a dedicated fan following.

So what sets Gaur apart? For starters, her content is original, topical and witty and she serves it with a plethora of relatable characters that you may have come across in your life. Saloni talks to SheThePeople.TV in her signature style about what goes into cooking up characters such as Nazma Aapi, Kangana Run-Out, Sasu Maa, Adarsh Bahu, and DU wali didi, and how humour can be used to put your point across effectively. The conversation which went back and forth in Hindi and English has been transcribed and edited. Some snippets.

Tell us about your growing up years. Since when have you been doing mimicry?

We are a nuclear family, I have my dadi, parents and a brother who is five years older than me. Since it was just the two of us, my brother used to play cricket with me on the terrace, because my grandfather wouldn’t allow us to step out of the house. Besides, there were no other kids in our colony. We used to watch cricket on television and then play all day. Since we were not allowed to go outside, we used to search for sources of entertainment within our house. We would read comics and we watched The Great Indian Laughter Challenge a lot. That was when the affinity towards comedy developed.

But in schools, they usually don’t encourage comedy. There used to be extempore and debates, but we never had competitions for stand up comedy. So I never thought that I could do stand up comedy, but I used to mimic. I started with my relatives. Whenever we would go to meet them, I had little interest in talking to them, but I used to listen to everything and observe them. My dadi never went to any of these places, so when we would come back I would mimic all these people to her. In school, we had this teacher who had very peculiar manner of speaking, and I started mimicking her. My friends told me that I was good at it. So I started mimicking my friends, and then one day, my English communications teacher got to know that I do all these things. I would then do mimicry for the entire class during that period, even mimicking our principal.

After I watched Fashion, I started mimicking Kangana Ranaut. Back then I used to only mimic Kangana and Sonam. But now I am trying to do an impression of Sara Ali Khan as well.

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How did social media happen then?

I didn’t have a phone when I was in school, everybody else did. They used to chat on WhatsApp, on the other hand, even my parents didn’t have a phone. My brother did, since he was living in Delhi. He started creating these YouTube videos when he went to live in Delhi for his CA preparation and one of his videos went viral. So the first video I ever saw of a YouTube content creator was that of my brother (Shubham Gaur). Before that, I had only heard the names of content creators like Bhuvan Bam, Ashish Chanchlani etc, from my friends. I didn’t even know that you could post videos on Instagram. All I knew was that Instagram was for photos.

The first-ever video that I made was about those irritating WhatsApp birthday stories that people would start putting up a month before their friend’s birthday.

But then in 2017, my parents got me a phone right before I was leaving for Delhi. So I didn’t get much time to explore it, but I downloaded Instagram and other social networking apps anyways, and initially I didn’t even like them. I guess since I got everything at once, I was overwhelmed. So I uninstalled all the apps. But I gradually warmed up to them. Then in December that year, I began making videos. Initially, I made them with a character called Pinky Dogra, who used to rant about whatever I would see in the Delhi Metro. The first-ever video that I made was about those irritating WhatsApp birthday stories that people would start putting up a month before their friend’s birthday. Back then I had a private account and only my friends saw it, but they really enjoyed it. I haven’t stopped making videos ever since.

Is there a thought process that goes into coming up with characters like Nazma Aapi, Kangana Run-Out, and your latest, Adarsh Bahu?

I have been doing Nazma Aapi videos for a long time, but it went viral suddenly, and when people saw it they wanted me to put Nazma Aapi’s videos solely, and I did that for some time. If you see, my first video that went viral was on pollution and after that, I made six-seven videos back to back with her character. But at some point, I began to feel that if I continue to do just this then people will start finding them monotonous.

So, I decided to do videos with characters that I used to do previously. For instance, this Adarsh Bahu character, I used to do earlier with the name Tumour Bharadwaj. It was a spoof of a character from a serial that my mother used to watch when I was in school. I would come back from my math tuition, drained and exhausted, in need of some refreshment, only to find it playing on the television. However, my mother would never hand over the remote to me, and would say either you watch this or sit down to study again. So ever since then it has been in the back of my head that one day I’ll make a spoof out of this character. Now I have redeveloped Tumour Bharadwaj into Adarsh Bahu who is very sanskaari, but she speaks on things like dowry which we know are still prevalent in our society.

The character of Sasu maa is based on a lot of such women who lived in our colony. As I said, I would rarely step out of the house while growing up, so most of my characters find inspiration from those around me.

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There is a lot of social commentary in your videos. Since you are pursuing a degree in political science, does that play a part in how you write the scripts for your videos?

Kind of. I am pursuing a BA, so I have both economics and political science as subjects. Aristotle once said, “Man is a political animal.” (It should have been human.) Politics is everywhere and everything is influenced by it. It finds its way into everything one way or the other. I try to be aware of all that is happening around us and always I had these thoughts that now get channelled into my videos. Especially in videos featuring Nazma Aapi, the character speaks about her kids and husband, but she speaks on current issues.

The first video of yours that went viral last November was on air pollution, and then the entire CAA-NRC issue happened, and now since February things have changed completely. Since last two months, nearly it has all been about coronavirus and then the lockdown. You had to switch gears so frequently in your content. Was it easy? Or did you struggle with the pace at which these events unfolded?

No matter what you speak on, it takes a lot of effort. So it wasn’t like I had gotten comfortable speaking on those issues and the jokes just came to me randomly. I always try to make everything funny. Besides, how long could I have spoken on just one issue? Perhaps one day I will stop speaking on these topics out of exhaustion.

Trolls are basically keyboard warriors. Their job is to find faults in what others post, even if they like your content, so I always ignore them.

Earlier it used to just be Nazma Aapi, but now as the situation has changed, I have gotten more characters into the picture. So in a way, it is good that things have changed and I change my content accordingly.

Being on social media means that there is no escape from trolling. How do you handle trolls? Do you give it back to them or let it go? For instance, recently a person wrote under your Dalgona Coffee video that you hadn’t said anything about Tablighi Jamat incident and you posted the link of your video on the stone-pelting incident in response.

I always let it go and I usually don’t reply to comments on Twitter, because it spoils everyone’s feed, as they’ll just see these replies on their timeline. Trolls are basically keyboard warriors. Their job is to find faults in what others post, even if they like your content, so I always ignore them. But when the Tablighi Jamat incident happened, a lot of people said that she won’t speak on this because she is biased. Jo cheeze galat hai, wo hai, no matter what the circumstances. But even when you condemn such incidences some people fail to take notice and go on to troll you because they simply do not want to hear, all they want to do is spread hate.

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You have to churn out videos at a very high speed since most of what you speak on is topical. But there is also this danger of falling into the trap of fake news. So how thoroughly do you research on whatever subject that you decide to speak on and ensure that it isn’t fake news?

I don’t believe in the news that comes via WhatsApp, for starters. I don’t even watch much news on television. I read a lot of newspapers. The reason being, whenever an incident happens, it appears on our news channels almost instantly. But the newspapers get more time to follow it up thoroughly. Whenever I am making a video about a sensitive issue, I try my best to crosscheck all the facts.

Having said that, I am a human being too and therefore prone to making mistakes, or spreading fake news. If that ever happens, I won’t hesitate to apologise. I try to be as conscious as I can. So far such a thing has never happened, and I hope it doesn’t in the future as well.

I believe that when you use humour to explain certain things to people, they’ll always understand. Even if they don’t understand, they’ll try and listen to you.

Is making comedy videos a stress-buster for you, under current circumstances? Or has the immense popularity that you have gained in the past few months and the resulting expectations from people made the process more stressful?

That’s true. People do expect me to make videos on a lot of issues. But in the end, it is my choice. I will only speak on things that I am comfortable with, or whatever gets me thinking. I always try to ensure that my videos are a little informative apart from being funny. So far I haven’t ever done a purely informational video, there are other people to do that. If I struggle to put in punches, then I avoid that topic. However, if it is a crucial issue then I have always spoken about it. I believe that when you use humour to explain certain things to people, they’ll always understand. Even if they don’t understand, they’ll try and listen to you. Besides, there is no better stress-buster than humour. Although I don’t take stress at all because of pressure and expectations. My studies are my priority and that is where my main focus is.

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What does the future hold for Saloni? Do you have a vision for the content and the audience base that you have created? Or are you taking it one day at a time right now?

Right now, I am taking it one day at a time. So far there are no plans to expand what I am doing. I am making one-minute videos on YouTube because I don’t have a tripod or a laptop. I am still doing it with my phone. It is hard to hold my phone for a longer duration. Perhaps when I get back to Delhi, I’ll make longer videos.

Picture Credit: Saloni Gaur