Bhuvan Bam has had a smooth transition from being a content creator on YouTube to becoming an actor with shows like Dhindora (2021) and Taaza Khabar (2023) to his credit. Recently, he received praise for his acting skills from filmmaker Anurag Kashyap as he called him an exception to the belief that influencers can’t act. Ask him about it and he says, “I never thought this compliment would come so soon in life. Feeling to achchi hai.”

The 30-year-old adds, “There’s an old vlog on my channel where I have said that if I get appreciated by two people in life, my life will be fulfilled, and one of those people was Anurag Kashyap. While there is a long way to go for me, such compliments are encouraging.”

However, he agrees that the prejudice against influencers is strong. “These assumptions (that influencers can’t act) do take place and I don’t blame anyone for it. It’s like there’s a line ki iss taraf waale (actors) acting kar sakte hain aur uss taraf waale (influencers) acting nahin kar sakte hain. And there is still time for that line to get blurred. With art, it’s difficult to please everyone and when you come from a social media background, the judgement is naturally very heavy,” he says.

Bam acknowledges the power of the online realm as he says, “Social media actually runs the world for me. In today’s time, even if it goes down for two-three hours, hahakaar mach jaata hai har jagah. Not only is it driving every country’s economy, but there are also so many people like me who have got hope and their careers from social media.”

However, he also points out the duplicity of it: “There is a lot of fakeness on it too.”