Known for his short comedy sketches of the moustache-wielding dad, and dupatta-clad mum and girlfriend, Ghadge’s videos on @saurabhghadge_vines have his characters—all played by him—engage in everyday, amusing banter. In one video titled, What She Says Vs What She Means, he is seen asking his visibly-disturbed girlfriend, “Are you okay?” When she impassively responds with, “Yes, yes, I am fine,” he goes back to watching a video on his phone, only to be rebuked: “You can’t even figure out that I am sad…You are so disappointing.” The girlfriend continues to rattle him with confusing statements, and he gives up: “Arre… Tu kya puzzle hai. Samajhta hi nahin mereko kaise tereko solve karu.” Ghadge gives the otherwise clichéd dialogues an edge, with his remarkable acting skills and comic timing. It’s a video, we admit to him, we’ve watched on loop.  

Ghadge, who is a resident of Mulund, and completed his Bachelor of Commerce from VG Vaze College in November last year, says he started out as a voracious consumer of digital content, before he even considered making videos himself. “When I was in school, the comedy company AIB [All India Bakchod] was a big deal. I’d follow all their work. But, I think it was Ashish Chanchlani and Bhuvan Bam, whose content, I was a huge fan of. Unko dekh ke, mazaa aata tha. They began inspiring me,” he says. On a whim, he started making similar videos to share with friends on WhatsApp. “One day, a friend challenged me to upload my video on social media. I accepted the dare. After that, I guess, it never stopped.”

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What began with 200 followers, and as a fun experiment, took a life of its own during the lockdown. Before that, Ghadge had just about 10k followers, which he says, was a decent number, but not enough to make it to the cream of the crop. “Our final exams were postponed, and I really had nothing to do, so I started fooling around on TikTok,” he recalls. He was just about enjoying using the video-sharing app, when it was banned by the Indian government in June 2020. When Instagram Reels launched a few days later, Ghadge immediately jumped on the bandwagon. “I upload videos almost every alternate day.”

While most of his videos are in Hindi, Ghadge splices them with Bambaiya lingo and Marathi slang that gives them a local feel. The character of the English-speaking girlfriend, with light facial hair and wig, covered by a white dupatta, he says, was inspired by the South Mumbai girls. “The ‘ya ya’, ‘Hi, baby’ types,” he jokes, even if stereotypically. “Of course, not all girls [from SoBo] are like that. But, I just combined all the traits that I found amusing, for my character. It’s strange, but once I wear the wig, I live the part… even if I am not in front of the camera, I start talking like that. I forget I am a guy.”

His favourite character, which he most enjoys playing, is that of the dad. “I think everyone relates to this character, because there are some traits that are typical to only Indian fathers. In fact, about 50 per cent of that character has been inspired by my own dad,” he adds. Sometimes, he is joined by school friend Sharavan Kshirsagar, and other local digital creators. Ghadge had a star-struck moment recently, when Chanchlani started following him. “He is one of the reasons why I am making content. So, imagine being appreciated by him!”

Staying relevant, he says, is not easy, especially because there is a glut of video creators online. “Constantly reinventing [my material], having my ears to the ground when it comes to trends, and sharing videos regularly have helped me. But, none of it works if the audience can’t relate to it.”