The story of Nepali Young YouTubers
There is an emerging trend of starting YouTube channels among the young netizens all over the world. Some simply start it as a fad and fail shortly, while some start with passion and interest and are able to go longer and influence a large mass of audience.
The 17-years-old uprising Nepali YouTuber Mandip Bakhunchhe has already been successful to gain more than 15 thousand subscribers and almost 1 million views on his YouTube Channel in a very short period of time. Mandip and his group of friends Somit Majhi, Sujan Chettri, Isha Thapa, Prabita Tamang, Anish Bade, Sujan Gurung, Bibesh Basu, and Kisan Siwakoti have been entertaining people from the YouTube channel for a year now.
Suweksha Shrestha of Glocal Khabar had a tête-à-tête with the amazing team of Super Mandip TV. Excerpts:
Glocal Khabar: How did you come up with the idea of creating and uploading funny videos on YouTube?
Mandip: Well, It all started in 2015. I was bored and thought of posting a funny video on Instagram, which was a troll of ‘Chihan Ki Pari’ and then instantly I got positive comments, my friends laughed, and some messaged me to post more of similar videos. And then I started posting funny Nepali vines and then posted all the vines’ compilation on YouTube. Thus happened the Super Mandip TV.
Which is your most viewed, liked and disliked videos on YouTube, and the most viral one on other Social Media?
Mandip: It is Man Vs Wild Parody. It is the most viewed and liked video, as well as most disliked. But if we look up to the ratio of likes to dislikes, it is 98:2. The most viral video was ‘Dikshya Sita Pani Puri‘ and ‘When girl gives you CHAPPAL‘ which have 1 lakh and 2 lakh views respectively on Facebook.’The Marriage Proposal‘ and ‘Types of Deusi Vailo Groups‘ were in top 20 trending videos on YouTube.
How did you use to shoot vines and videos? Did somebody teach you about the cinematography works?
Mandip: First of all I started making vines from a cell phone. My dad already had a DSLR, so I asked him but I didn’t know all of its function. Since Isha was my good friend and she told me about her brothers who were directors i.e. Mr. Anish Jung Thapa and Nimesh Shrestha. I requested to meet them and they shared to me the reason behind switching their profession into the entertainment sector. They also taught me all the camera functions and proper directions and angles. They inspired me from their works and experiences. And with that little knowledge, it helped me a lot while making videos.
How did you form the team?
Mandip: I was making a vine and then my neighbor Somit Majhi showed up and asked what I was doing. He had a great sense of humor so I thought instead of making vines alone if I could include him, it will be more productive. Then, we both started making Nepali Vines. Later, he introduced me to his childhood friend Sujan Chettri, who was on the verge of making YouTube funny videos as well. So, we three collaborated together. As, we were growing with lots of ideas we also needed helping hands so, I contacted my friend Anish Bade who would even show up at 4 a.m in the morning to help, my neighbor Bibesh Dai, Sujan Gurung, Kisan and while introducing female characters, I called up my friends Isha Thapa, and Prabita Tamang. Thus formed the team, and is going very well.
Who among you takes the most re-takes while shooting the videos?
Somit: It is Sujan. There was a scene in our recent video ‘Nakabandi‘ where he needed to fake a smile. It was just for a few seconds and he took 20 takes for that.
Mandip: But, if he is in a good mood and had a great talk with his girlfriend, he would make it up in a single take.
Somit: We usually get shock, when he makes it up in a single take. We need to check it time and again to confirm.
Being a team, don’t you people have some fights or tidbits?
Sujan: Well, we do have lots of little tidbits but it remains only for a minute. After that, we are all back to junglee monkeys.
Do you face any hateful comments?
Mandip: Well, we don’t have such haters who would bump into every video, dislike it and comment every hateful words in the comment section. But, we do have people who points out the technical problem every time. We accept that we have a lot of technical issues and we try our best to remove it.
Apart from Nepal, which other countries watch your videos?
Mandip: Well, we don’t really use subtitles because I feel really lazy to edit videos. So, basically, we have viewers from U.S.A, U.K and Japan. One of the Nepali girl from Japan also appreciated my efforts and she also said my videos really makes her laugh. I was really shocked when she asked me for my citizenship and phone number to transfer some amount of money as a gift. I was in dilemma should I give her my citizenship photocopy or not. So, she sent me all the residency certificates and her citizenship. And, then I realized she is not faking so I sent her Somit’s citizenship because I didn’t have one at that time. And after a day or two, we got a message that we have Nrs. 10,000 to be received from a bank. 🙂
Have your parents too supported and praised you for the videos?
Mandip: They didn’t know about my videos and vines in Instagram until I showed my mom ‘Dai janney ho†vine of Sujan. She kept on laughing and couldn’t control it. My dad knew that I uploaded videos and he also came to check sometime. One day, I wanted to see my total number of subscribers and took my dad’s cell phone. And, I was shocked to see that he had watched all of my videos, liked all of it and even subscribed me.
What do you prefer? To pursue a college degree or to pursue your interest?
Mandip: I was really a dumb child at school. My teachers were really fed up with me. At the time of SLC and District Level Examination (Grade 8), my teachers had lost hope that I will ever pass the exams. Books and me were never compatible. And, I found my interest in football and doing comedy. When my videos got really viral and then my school teachers messaged me saying ‘KEEP IT UP’. And, I was really blessed at that time. So, I prefer to pursue my interest because we might fail many times, people will criticize us, but we won’t stop to pursue what we really love to do.
What are your plans after +2?
Mandip: My dad was worried about my future and he asked the same question, ‘Chhora! Bachelor degree taw garchhas hola ni?‘ I replied him that I am still confused.
Somit and Sujan: We are still confused about it as we whole team are not good in studies. If we are able to get well-established, we will start our own film production company. Otherwise, let’s see what happens.
You can watch all their funny videos going to the YouTube Channel of Super Mandip TV here. You can say hi to Super Mandip at their Facebook page here.
