Make-up didi, Pammi Aunty and Vicky Malhotra — comedians behind these current favourite funny characters talk about the power of social media, and their own rising popularity. Mallika Dua Mallika Dua wants to look “wow like a Roadie”, but make-up didi just can’t nail the smoky eyes (smau-kee eyez). With the onset of monsoon, Dua obviously wants “beach looks” but make-up didi manages to ruin the “aqua (aquea-a) feel” as well. And when she wants to look like a strawberry, make-up didi turns her into a kaju. Usually, these conversations end with Dua in tears, while all of social media has a big laugh. Some remember her as the girl from that video on Sarojini Nagar stereotypes, which went viral in January, while few know her as the boisterous Lily Khosla from a 2014 play, Birdy Nam Nam. And over the last few weeks, her make-up didi shenanigans have sealed her position as the reigning queen of humour. Shot in her room, Dua makes the most of Snapchat filters to create memorable characters such as the soft-spoken Komal and her French-bearded lover, Shashi, as well as all the make-up fails. “We all spend a lot of time in parlours, right? Because this is Delhi and everyone’s only getting married. So I have met a lot of characters — from your aunties to little girls to the hotties. When I saw the Snapchat filters, I made a series of 10-second videos,” says Dua. When she put the “smoky eyes” video on Instagram, Dua was bombarded with notifications. Her Instagram following has reached 10,000-plus from a mere 500 last year. Apart from the nerdy Komal-Shashi pairing, another recurring character in Dua’s videos is her father — senior journalist Vinod Dua. “I get my sense of humour from him, and Papaji and I do a lot of nautanki. When I want them in a video — be it a Dubsmash or a Snapchat — my parents always agree. You don’t need props or a set or even a team with these apps. A lot of ideas get killed in the womb, but with these apps now, you can immediately execute them,” she adds. Four years of studying acting at Franklin & Marshall College in the US, three years in the advertising sector, and a childhood spent debating and singing — Dua has gathered nuances and pronunciations to further her acting. “I played a von trapp child in a school play, and in college, I was the lead in an adaptation of a Girish Karnad play. People refer to me as a comedian now, which is great, but I am not just that. Though, comedy is my favourite, and also a way to get quick validation,” says Dua, who got signed up by Mumbai-based talent and event management company, Only Much Louder, last month. She will soon move to Mumbai, and launch her own YouTube channel by early next month. The channel will store her old videos as well as new web series, sketches and vlogs. “I am open to television, films, ads, theatre, sketches, web-series — everything. I hope the industry makes space for me. Actors waali look toh hai nahi meri (I don’t look like an actor) but if I have to work out a little, then why not,” she says. A firecracker online, Dua is milder in person — soft-spoken like Komal, with fears and insecurities in place. “I am scared of stand-up comedy but I want to give it a shot. Also, I don’t want to become irrelevant — I fear that. And, the biggest fear is what will happen to my hair in Mumbai. They can’t stand that weather, yaar,” says Dua, often breaking into the accent her characters have. Ssumier S Pascricha One boring night in May this year, while fiddling with his phone, actor Ssumier S Pascricha came across a filter on Snapchat that makes you look like you’re wearing a towel around your head, with oversized pink sunglasses and a beauty mask on your face. This reminded the 36-year-old of the time he spent growing up in a Punjabi household in Delhi’s Kamla Nagar. Just to recall those days, Pascricha made 10-second-long videos of himself with that filter, talking in Punjabi, imparting wisdom as Pammi aunty, albeit with humour. In the last two weeks, Pammi aunty has garnered quite a fan following on social media. “The response on Snapchat was amazing, my friends loved it. So I put it up on Facebook. Even there, people commented and shared. And suddenly, Snapchat replaced that filter with something else, and I realised how attached I had grown to Pammi aunty,” says Pascricha, over the phone from Mumbai. A quick run to the market meant buying hair rollers, facepack, pink sunglasses and a purple towel to create the filter that made him Pammi aunty. “If people use these apps creatively, you can make a business out of it,” says Pascricha about Snapchat. A bitchy gossip queen, Pammi aunty has an opinion about everything — from the hype around the Euro Cup to Brexit, and she shares them uninhibitedly with her friend, Sarla behenji. “Haye haaye, behenji, tuhadi matt maari gayi hai? Tussi TV ni vekhde? EU-sheu da inna syaapa chalda pya hai, behenji. London EU toh vakhra ho gaya hai. tussi 10 din vekho, jahaaj utrega na, London toh Model Town de saare bachche vaapas aa jaange. Behenji, na karna uthe rishta (Have you lost your mind? Don’t you watch TV? There is so much going on with EU. London has seperated from EU. Just wait for 10 days, the first plane that lands from London will be full of Model Town kids. Don’t get your child married there),” she advises Sarla behenji. “So, Pammi aunty uses news to address her personal problems. Even though hers is not an intellectual commentary, she is intelligent. In the future, I see her addressing social issues via humour,” says Pascricha. This is not his first fling with fame; he acted in Sasural Simar Ka, one of India’s most watched daily soaps. He quit a year ago and has been pursuing photography ever since. A trained Kuchipudi dancer and Carnatic vocalist too, Pascricha has dabbled in hospitality business and also has an MBA degree from Australia. “I come from a Punjabi business family, and while I have always been fond of acting and music, I was told that aise ghar nahi chalte (you can’t run a house like this,” he says. A tweet from senior actor Rishi Kapoor about Pammi aunty helped him score more fans in the last two weeks. “Initially, some people asked why I was maligning my image by doing this, but I am an actor and have no problem in playing drag. I am not here to maintain an image, I am here to do what I love — act,” adds Pascricha. Varun Thakur “The Adventures of Struggling Actor Vicky Malhotra” are really just hilarious misadventures — from a date gone wrong to his sexist, sleazy comments at a shoot. And they’ve made this leather jacket-donning, thick-browed character a hit on the social media. Mumbai-based stand-up comic Varun Thakur’s latest act has him playing around with Snapchat's faceswap filter. “Snapchat suddenly blew up one day, and I saw people were making full comedy sketches on it, like Tanmay Bhat. People start relating to these characters and this translates into a spike in numbers on your other work,” says the 29-year-old. Thakur is one of the first few people who took to apps to create funny videos. In January 2015, he began making seven-second Vines daily — on his relationship with his parents, siblings, friends and girlfriends. “Vines are popular in the West, and I followed Canada-based comedian JusReign’s vines and decided to do something similar here. After a while, people started recognising me more because of these vines than anything else I have done,” says Thakur.
