The students of Bandra’s MMK College of Commerce and Economics are busy with mid-semester exams. But on the Friday morning we drop in, the lot is distracted; their focus teased by an ex-student.

“Who’s she?”

“Chandni, Chandni”

“Who Chandni?”

“Arey, she does Alia.”

Chandni Bhabhda, 22, is back at her alma mater. Petite with long hair that she tosses rather than combs, she’s flitting through the scattered crowd as she gushes to mid-day about the “homecoming”.

A blushing teenager we encounter stops her and says, “My mother loves Marwadi mom.”

She is referring to a comedy short on YouTube that sees Bhabhda ditch the jeans and crop top for a Bandhani dupatta, add two decades to her age, and speak fluent Marwari to mimic a housewife obsessed with Mumbai rain, admonishing millenials in the family for choosing jeans that don’t dry. Someone asks for a selfie. “It’s like [being with] mini Alia [Bhatt].”

In a room on the ground floor, Vice Principal Roma Wagh is surprised and happy to see her. “But, we had to push her on stage; she was so shy.”

That’s tough to imagine about Bhabhda, who is a bonafide blue tick influencer with 2,22,000 followers. Mimic, emcee, voiceover artiste and host, she admits that as a little girl she was plagued by no show of support from those her age. The teachers were encouraging. But friends stayed away. “Some didn’t like my voice... some, my personality perhaps. I had no friends when growing up, not in school or college.”

Social media justice, though, has ensured that those who bullied her are now sending DMs with a sorry. “They singled me out; pushed me towards depression. I don’t open those messages. They can become triggers,” she says as candidly as she plays characters in her sketches. Her therapist says she needn’t force the grudge out of her system. “After all, success is the best revenge. Even Alia believes that!”

Bhatt, one of Hindi cinema’s most popular and successful young actresses, is Bhabhda’s inspiration and hope. They even share a name. Aila Vatt is her social media persona attracting new fans every day.

Her most recent reel surrounding Bhatt’s multi-crore Brahmastra, has 11 million views. It all started with Bhabhda ordering for a pizza in Bhatt’s voice. Ever since, her reels are going viral. Even Bhatt has acknowledged her “duplicate”, saying “she is outstanding”. The actress’s biggest cheerleader and mentor, producer-director Karan Johar posed with Bhabhda at a recent event.

She says the chunni act dates back to childhood. Sulochana, her mother, offers this writer a cup of evening chai at their Andheri East residence. “There wasn’t a neighbour or relative who Chandni hasn’t mimicked. One day she would say, I want to dress like a rickshaw driver; next day, doctor...,” says the poet and teacher.

But it’s her criminal lawyer father Madan Mohan’s passion for Bollywood that she inherited, choosing to use her observation skills and train to behave and speak like Bhatt, and then Ananya Panday.

Bhabhda says imitating Bhatt has brought her fame 10 years after she first spoke like the actress who made her debut in Johar’s campus romance Student of the Year. “That entry scene with the pom poms— I wanted to be that person.”

The day she watched Bhatt’s recent release Gangubai Kathiawadi in the theatres, she spoke to the autowalla who drove her home in the brusque Gujarati accent tinged Hindi of Gangubai, Kamathipura’s madam. Ever since, when the phone rings, she has ditched the “hello” for “haan, raja.”

Since the film released in February, she has watched the Sanjay Leela Bhansali biopic 40 times. “I didn’t like Brahmastra, though. But I have done so much free publicity for the movie... at events, I am always asked to just say, ‘Shiva’. I had no idea this would happen,” she says, her eyes widening with incredulity.

The first taste of success is evidently sweet for someone who struggled with low self-confidence, her mother having to quit her job to look after her. “She managed to cope by acting,” says the mother. “We are just very proud of what she has done, all this while continuing with her law studies,” says her father, “there is so much competition the young have to deal with.. including with peers in our own family.”

Surya Kumar is a musician and Chandni’s only friend from the past. He calls her a “packet of energy”. Hardworking, determined are the words he uses to describe her. “We have been friends since before she became famous. She is extremely talented.”

The modest family background hasn’t stopped the digital creator from dreaming big. In addition to hosting interviews with stars, and playing emcee and voice over artiste, she harbours Bollywood dreams. “I want to be in a Dharma movie,” she says plainly when we ask, where she sees herself in five years. 

Mimicry is an art and it takes work. Bhabhda says she practices most of the day, trying to crack yet another nuance of Bhatt’s personality. It’s taken many years to ride the wave, and she is finally seeing money trickle in. “I won’t call myself an overnight success! I have been doing Alia for 10 years. It just got noticed.”

If she is worried about transitioning to varied content after the Alia craze dies down, she doesn’t show it. “Who knows what will happen tomorrow? I don’t plan. But if you want Alia, it’s going to cost.”

Mimicry is defined as the superficial likeness of two species that are not taxonomically related. The performance art demands that the practitioner master voice modulation, facial expressions and comic timing. In India, Kerala has long been a hotbed of mimicry, the community’s love for satire having sowed the seeds. Experts say that Chakyar Koothu, a performing art from the state that’s a refined monologue of episodes from the Puranas and epics, could be the beginnings of standup comedy in Kerala. The practitioners would use political satire and social critique, and spare no one, not even the rulers. 

Modern day, mass mimicry has been long associated with imitating film stars. Duplicate mimics of Shah Rukh Khan, Dev Anand, Sanjay Dutt and Shatrughan Sinha have managed parallel careers of their own, in film and television. Legends like Johnny Lever and Jaaved Jaaferi in Bollywood, are poster boys for the performing art.

Late comic Raju Srivastava, who passed away earlier this month, in fact, was a fantastic mimic and became famous for his impersonation of superstar Amitabh Bachchan and Bihar politician Lalu Prasad Yadav. But although a rage on stage and television, he belonged to a generation not associated with modern, urbane standup.

Mimicry gets you instant eyeballs, but are comic impersonators second-class citizens in India’s modern comedy scene where standup is perceived as the higher art associated with observational skill and opinion?

Ayush Guha, business head at Hypp Talent, which handles Bhabhda’s work, says mimicry succeeds because it can make huge impact in short time. 

“They [mimics] command high engagement, and their scope is not dependent on the platform. Mimicry also connects them to a larger audience [than standups]. For example, Chandni’s Alia sketches will make it easier for her to move to the movies, or an OTT platform.”

Bhabhda’s strength is also her weakness, and mimics must live with that. “Brands tend to always ask for Alia, but we push Chandni’s Marwadi mom character too. We charge a super premium for her to play Alia, and that helps us filter. We are helping her attend events, but that’s solely for visibility.”

Guha agrees that stand-up comics may have a chip on their shoulder when it comes to mimics. “That doesn’t take away from the fact that these guys are making 40-second original content bytes every single day, even if they are based on a character. Most standup comics write a 120-minute set and recycle it all year. Chandni, for instance, can create content over a voice note!”

Geetika Narang Abbasi made a documentary called Urf this year, which follows the lives of the lookalikes, and what it means to constantly be mistaken for someone else. “Even though people like Johnny Lever are so loved, mimicry never enjoyed the regard that OG stars do. Somehow, in India, it’s not seen as an art form,” she says, adding, “I think it was TikTok that led to the resurgence of this form. Social media has made it easier for artistes like Chandni, but in the 1990s, it was difficult for mimics to make money. People had to come to Bombay, make their name here somehow, and then wait to be invited for events and stage shows.” 

Mumbai-based standup comedian Rueben Kaduskar, who heads the Brown Bread Collective, says the honest answer is that all comedy begins with mimicry. “One of our earlier introductions to comedy was mimicry, thanks to Johnny Lever. But as I got deeply involved in the industry, I realised that mimicry could be an easier way to get ahead; that doesn’t make it easy to do. There is a lot of hardwork. Writing wise, yes, perhaps it lacks nuance. But if you were to combine mimicry and standup— imagine if [Kunal] Kamra had to tell a Narendra Modi joke as Modi—it would take it to another level. I hope we see that happen with some artistes.”

Comic Shreemayee Das, who co-founded The Grin Collective, says they don’t have a mimicry artiste on their roster. With standup, she says, the specialness comes from the fact that the joke is written by a comic. “That’s why the pride. But of course, mimicry is very popular, and there is merit to that.”

Balraj Singh Ghai, who runs The Habitat in Khar, a venue that regularly hosts comedy artistes, recollects the time he first started work in the industry in 2016. Mimicry then was not considered comedy. “It was a completely different art form. We have never been able to do a show with a lineup that sees artistes who can do both standup and mimicry. Standup comics won’t like it. In fact, even improv artistes are considered a breed apart,” he says of the live theatre in which the plot, characters and dialogue are made up in the moment. Improv comedians perform without a script. 

“Over time, things are changing. Now, mimicry involves writing too. We see that the jokes are now layered. Mimics now take on a character, but write a whole set inspired by the person. But a standup lineup is unlikely to see a mimicry artiste. If it does, it will also have a poet, mentalist, and be ticketed as a variety show,” he explains.

At the just-wrapped up reality comedy competition, India’s Laughter Champion 2022, mimic JayVijay Sachan, proved this wrong. The popular contestant on the show judged by Shekhar Suman and Archana Puran Singh says, “Some believe that mimicry is about speaking in voices, but I create a story, I have punchlines. I am making a social comment [through my jokes], and I still make people laugh. For example, if I impersonate Pankaj Tripathi [actor] and tell people to wear a helmet, that’s getting across a good message through comedy. It’s only in India that mimicry is not appreciated; but I think that’s now changing.”

Sumedh Shinde, 38, agrees. The former dentist has turned into a viral sensation with his mimicry videos of Hrithik Roshan and Aamir Khan. He thinks that unlike standup comedy, mimicry offers performing artistes more avenues to express themselves, while bringing in the money. “You can do corporate shows, dabble in dubbing, perform on stage, and even act! I have dubbed for the Marathi version of Criminal Justice [OTT show] in Pankaj Tripathi’s voice. In fact, the great Robin Williams had said, the better you are at mimicry, the more characters you can play,” says Shinde, who has been mimicking for 25 years.

His only advice, “It’s no longer about coming on TV. If you have talent, and social media presence... you can make it. But it’s also about consistency. You have to keep updating yourself; stay relevant or leave.”

Bhabhda for now has her sights set on the big prize—meeting Alia Bhatt. “I want to do a podcast with her. That’s the plan.” She is also working on putting to rest the ghosts of the past. “Sometimes I can’t believe that I have got here; is this me, or am I trying to fit in? I am still figuring out who I am.”

Roma Wagh, the Vice Principal of MMK College, Bandra, where Chandni studied, says she was a shy teenager, who had to be coaxed to get on stage. PIC/pradeep dhivar

Reuben Kaduskar, Brown Bread Collective

JayVijay Sachan and Ayush Guha

Former dentist Sumedh Shinde, who is known for his Hrithik Roshan impersonation, feels that mimics actually have more aveneus to make money. Pic/Sameer Markande