Rising stars: Goru Nithya Sree and C.H. Bhargav.
How long does it take to capture the hearts of millions? Years? Decades, perhaps? Even a lifetime may not be enough. But, it took C.H. Bhargav and Goru Nithya Sree only about eight months. How did they achieve this? By speaking broken English, frankly. The duo hail from the coastal town of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. But their fans come from all over... Pakistan, the UK and Australia. Bhargav, 23, and Nithya, 15, owe their celebrity status to TikTok; Bhargav’s account, Funbucket, has more than five million followers.
One of their most famous videos is Potato Fry. In the video, Nithya refuses to eat the potato fries made by her mom. Bhargav puts the same fries in a McDonald’s box and gives them to her saying he got her French fries. She grabs the box with a smile. Not very funny? Well, it got 100 million views on TikTok and has been widely shared on other social media platforms. While the plots of the videos might appear downright silly, what makes them entertaining or unusual is the use of language. The dialogues are all in basic and crude English. And that, according to Bhargav, is their unique selling point.“I studied in Telugu medium schools,” he says. “I do not know English. This is why all the dialogues that I write for my videos make people laugh. I am scared to learn English because I may lose my audience and novelty if I mouth dialogues in great English like a Hollywood star.”
Bhargav and Nithya, both aspiring actors, decided to collaborate earlier this year and made 25 videos in eight months. “I sometimes do not even understand the jokes in my own video,” says Nithya, a class nine student. “I ask Bhargav ‘why are we even doing such a video’. But they become a hit soon after they are uploaded.” She has earned a nickname, too—the “Oh my God” girl, as she keeps repeating it in every video. “It happened accidentally,” she says. “I used that dialogue in a few videos, with a funny expression. When I stopped using that dialogue, viewers demanded that I use it.”
Nithya’s favourite video is Face Wash, and it is the one with the highest views (122 million). In it, Bhargav puts up a stall selling face wash at cheap rates. When Nithya goes to avail the offer, Bhargav splashes water on her face, wipes it and demands payment. According to Bhargav, who is the writer and director, each short video takes between 60 to 90 minutes to shoot. “I take inspiration from what I observe in daily life and on the streets,” he says.
Bhargav is on a high. He says that he has more fans abroad than in India. “In the first few days after I opened my Twitter account, I got hundreds of messages,” he says. “Almost all of them from abroad. Some of the women who proposed marriage were also not from India. This was all very surprising for me.”
There are videos making fun of Bhargav’s content. And he does not mind. He loves the fact that meme creators go on overdrive the moment he releases a video. Though there is no dearth of trolling and abusive comments online, Bhargav says that he goes to sleep with a smile knowing well that people have had a laugh at his expense, and recognise him. “I come from a very poor family. My father works in a theatre and my mom does a menial job,” he says. “When they see people talking about me or showing them my videos, I can see that I have made them proud.” Bhargav wants to establish himself on the silver screen.
Nithya has already acted in a critically acclaimed movie, Care of Kancharapalem. “I want to grow up to be a very popular actress,” says Nithya. For now, both Nithya and Bhargav are busy with endorsements, thanks to their growing status as social media influencers.