Why the fuss — we ask the man himself. "It could be vanity — the way I look. On my social media, I promote positivity. I love my life, my girlfriend, travelling, animals, martial arts. I try to put a positive spin on negative things. When they see me, they see that. Having said that, if they are looking up to me I am lucky, but, I am not above them. If they want to take a picture with me, I am thankful and of course I will give them my time," he says, in between bites of some five-star pani puri at the Taj Mahal Palace. When we tell him it's actually street food, he seems stunned. He is also incredulous that the journey from Colaba to Lower Parel [five miles] could take over an hour in the evening traffic.

Bateman joined Instagram in 2013 and while he says he has had a lucky strike, strategy played a role too in his popularity. "The algorithm at that time was such that the more likes you got on your videos, the better chance you had to be on Instagram's popular page. Of course, they didn't tell you that, it's something I figured out while observing patterns." Having had three world titles in martial arts, he would post multiple videos of the bo staff, that was his forte. "I treated my page like a channel and filtered out stuff people were not interested in — what I ate, for instance. And, it snowballed from there. Now, of course it's very different. People want to see more of the stuff relate to my personal life, and know me better as a person. It's funny how it has evolved," Bateman says, adding, "I remember when I first shared a picture of my girlfriend, girls went like, 'forget this, unfollow'. And that's fine with me. I never got into it to get followers; I got lucky along the way.

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Sometimes, it is a bit of a concern that people are only following me to look at me aesthetically." While the world has tagged him as an Instagram phenomenon, he doesn't want to be classified as just that. "I am an entrepreneur, a martial artist, an actor and I am very opinionated. I have hardly revealed that side of myself to my fans. I understand if they only see pictures of me with my dog, they'll think of me as this vapid airhead. It's a vicious cycle."

So, off late, there has been a lot more of the real Nick Bateman on his page. His fans have been told that he is about to become a father. "My son Chase is three weeks away. And soon my posts are going to be a lot about my life as a father. It's hard for me not to talk about something that I am so passionate about."

Nick Bateman

How to be 'Insta' famous
'Instagram has now become so saturated that the only way to break clutter is to collaborate with your followers. I have never done that, but, now, it's the smart thing to do. Also, never spread hatred or be disrespectful. Have no shame about who you are, love it and totally own it. People love to see confidence'

Who does Nick Bateman follow
'I recently followed Will Smith, I find his content funny and love that he is so motivating towards his children. I also follow Connor McGregor, UFC champion, who I am a huge fan of. And I follow a lot of animal pages, as I am a huge animal lover'

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