Scrolling through the gram must be one of our favourite hobbies that only gets addictive day by day, thanks to the creative content creators. And the two faces you definitely would have come across during your ‘scroll hour’ are Shyam Sharma and Dhruv Shah of Funcho. Young, creative comedy that’s content-driven and also aimed to provoke some thoughts on the socio-political issues of society in a humorous way, these guys have made it big from scratch. Shyam Sharma gets candid and takes us back to his and Dhruv’s wonderful journey from college to their upcoming web series plans and a lot more in our exclusive interview.
1. Most Engineering graduates are successful standup comedians and content creators now! What’s the sauce behind this?
I think most students who get into engineering don’t know why they are actually doing it. But one thing is for sure, it works as an eye-opener and also makes you smarter. It ain’t like all engineers end up becoming standup comedians or content creators, but yeah, most choose a different path and follow their passion post-engineering. I mean after Engineering even though I and Dhruv didn’t know what to do, I just kept going with the flow, I was an actor and was into Digital Marketing after engineering. We continued doing that while also doing videos side by side and came up with Funcho eventually.
2. When did Dhruv meet Shyam and how was Funcho born? Tell us about your journey.
I met Dhruv at Thakur college when we were doing engineering. I vividly remember the college fest in 2nd year of our course where Dhruv and team was part of a cultural drama. Here’s where we met.
I was an actor in the drama he and his crew wrote and during the 15 days of practice, we became good friends. Later I got to know that we both stay in the same locality and then started to travel to the college together. We often met to chit chat post college hours and there we began making short videos on Snapchat. We stitched all those mini videos and posted them on Facebook once and it went viral! And that’s how Funcho was born.
3. Who do you call your inspiration? Are they any content creators whose work you both love and admire?
We love good content. There are so many great content creators on social media with no lesser follower count or reach yet inspiring ideas. We go awe-watching a few creative videos from lesser-known creators. So it’s not like just the popular, mainstream content creators, anyone who makes good content we admire it! I guess in this case we are lucky as our ideas and love towards good content are mutual and there is no conflict in that.
Talking about inspiration, we really admire TVF’s content. Their content was and is refreshing and inspiring. They stood out of all the web series that are out there because they trusted their content and it was too good. So we call them the inspiration and we are also taking a plunge into making web series. That’s the next thing!
4. Have you guys ever faced the pressure to be funny or come up with a joke at a boring family event or get-together? If so, how do you handle it?
True that we do feel pressurized at times but there are also times when such events bring new ideas and new content. Family members and relatives do have their own apprehensions and assumptions. Recently I attended a function where I felt there was something expected of me. They want to check if we are funny in real life too. But yeah, not every joke lands right and not everyone’s sense of humour is the same. So regardless of how fun or bring the function is, we do our own fun!
5. How important is being relevant and upbeat with trends for content creators?
I don’t think keeping up with trends is important to create good content. We don’t make videos aiming to be trending nor do we do something just because it’s trending. But one thing I and Dhruv are so proud of is the fact that we are up for anything and have grabbed every opportunity which necessarily may not be trending.
On the other hand, when you talk about trends, we don’t pick trends that everyone has been following but the trends that are happening globally or on a national level for example hike in petrol prices or other such common worries of the public.
6. How do you churn out comedy angles for pressing topics of the hour?
Everything that has worked for us is because we have included relatability in every
content we have made. So whenever we plan our content, we think as per the general people’s point of view and hence, our main focus is relatability. We generally think of concepts like what happens between friends, what happens between you and your family etc.
7. How did it feel to be the first content creators to collaborate with the Indian cricket team while on national duty for the 2022 T20i series? How did you make this happen and share your experience on this?
It indeed was one of the best moments ever! Most memorable too. We went with the brand during the India v/s West Indies series and thought, we will just go watch the game, meet the players and make a few videos. But what turned out to be a surprise was that we were staying in the same hotel as the cricketers. It felt crazy! A dream come true kinda moment. We met at breakfast and the best part was they knew us too. Rohit Sharma introduced us to the rest of the team and we got to know them all well so that by the end of the 4-5 day trip we became friends. We had dinners together, went on long walks, and opened our hearts with conversation both on professional and personal levels. It was an amazing and unforgettable experience!
8. Social media can be a tricky business. Having more than 2 million followers how do you work towards reaching out to more audiences and balancing both positive and negative responses?
Luckily, Funcho doesn’t have many negative comments. The only thing we have seen is the comments that say why we post only fewer videos. Initially, we didn’t have as much audience reach as we have now. Currently with 2 million plus Instagram followers, and about 3.5m YouTube subscribers and there is a sense of responsibility within us. We can’t post anything and everything, we do our best to post the ones that sit right with our audience as well as us. Of course, there are times certain videos don’t do well as expected, which is when we go back, check up on those videos that did well and try to create content similar to those types. we cannot make and show them some random videos. So if I have to post on Instagram or any other platform, I think twice, thrice or 4 times before posting it.
9. What are your Christmas plans? What would be your three wishes, if Santa appears to make your dreams come true?
We don’t have any plans as of now. Probably will party or just go out with friends to celebrate the day.
If I could ask for three wishes it would be to make our videos go viral, make everyone love our content and so but I think Santa will be like “then what’s your job?” But yeah, those are our only wishes now!
10. How have you planned to take Funcho forward in the coming years? Also, tell us about your future projects and collaborations.
Yes, I mean we have obviously thought about our future and we are not restricting ourselves to the short format videos that we have been posting on Instagram. Our next big project is that we have been working on the web series Humara Kaam Chalu Hogaya Hai. So now we have to make web series for OTTs and basically long-format content.
After we are done with OTTs then we would like to explore movies and everything, so yes those are a few plans we have for now. We are just going with the flow of life and taking things as it comes – be it ideas or opportunities!
