We recently connected with Rajiv Nema and have shared our conversation below.
Rajiv, appreciate you joining us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?
I have been working in hi-tech industry for 30+ years and in parallel, I have been a theater and film actor over the weekends. In my mind I should have been a full time actor in bollywood rather than suffer the drudgery of Silicon Valley high pressure job. I survived this internal conflict as the weekend theater shows kept me going. I have been laid off twice – first at the age of 40 (2009) and the other at the age of 55 (2024) and at both times I was doing very well professionally hence both the layoffs were VERY UNEXPECTED. Since I was in great mental space, my creative pursuits took hockey-stick upward momentum during those layoffs. I discovered YouTube in 2009 and through my INDORI videos the worldwide Indian audience got to know me. I have 400 videos with 20Million+ views now, which led me to getting roles in 5 bollywood films and which resulted me to co-founding Masala Comedy Club with my theater buddies Neha Goyal and Ritwik Verma.
Rajiv, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am an Actor, Standup Comedian and a Youtuber based in Silicon Valley, California. My “Rajiv Nema Indori” video series on YouTube has 400+ videos with more than 20 Million views.My most recent feature films are Jaadugar with Jitendra Kumar and Thai Massage with Gajraj Rao, both streaming on Netflix. My other Bollywood films are Sanju with Vicky Kaushal, Simran with Kangana Ranaut and LoveAaj Kal with Saif Ali Khan. I have also acted in small budget independent films made in the US, like Bugaboo and Family Party.
I am an avid theater actor. I have been performing for NAATAK (www.naatak.org), America’s biggest Indian theater company, for the last 26 years and have acted in more than 25 plays including The Odd Couple, Rashomon, Sakharam Binder, Muavze, Ramayan, Tughlaq and Ek Tha Gadha. Becoming a standup comedian is my latest avatar which formally started in 2019 as a follow-on to my YouTube sit down comedy avatar as I started getting request for private shows. I found 2 more like minded friends in my theater group (Neha Goyal and Ritwik Verma) and we founded the Masala Comedy Club. Since then the climax of this journey has been a month long tour in March-April 2024 with India’s #1 Hindi language comedian Zakir Khan. I did a 8 cities, 17 shows, 40,000+ audience tour of USA and Canada including performing at the Madison Square Garden Theater in front of 6,500 fans. Today. the Masala Comedy Club is the biggest Indian standup comedy club in USA and we have done 60+ shows for 12,000+ Indian audience in Silicon Valley, Seattle and Sacramento.
For whole grain bread and organic butter, I work as a Senior Director of Marketing at an Enterprise software company. You can learn all about me at @RajivNemaIndori on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I started my social media journey in 2009 and I spoke in Hindi on YouTube, which was a rare thing. In fact it was a dialect of Hindi which belonged to a particular region of India (city of Indore in the state of Madhya Pradesh). That’s the dialect we speak at home and learnt from my grandparents. My audience connected to it immediately saying “my elders speak / spoke like that” and “i am shy / embarrassed speaking like that as it is considered old/traditional/uncool” etc. I gave them permission to be OK to be considered a small towner and “living in the past”. I spoke because I missed that language/dialect. Millions of views and adulation around the world is testament ot people connecting with that language, Advice: Be authentic. Be yourself. Speak from the heart. Do not try to copy anyone…..inspiration is OK but dont try to become someone who you are not. Social media via smart phone is a 1:1 connection between you and your audience – so you will connect with that viewer ONLY if you are genuine.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I believe, everyone will connect to my journey. One of the things I say is “no act – small or big – goes to waste”. Everything that happens in one’s life or the action one takes/does is a learning moment, a teaching moment, an experience for life. Always help people, be collaborative and stay grounded, no matter how famous you become. Fame is fleeting. Creative or non-creative, the ultimate definition of success is happiness. And happiness comes if you are doing what you love, And ONLY YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU LOVE – not your partner, not your parents, not your siblings, not your friends. They all might have an idea to a certain level – but not to the extent how you feel about it . So, pursue what makes you happy. Once you are happy, everything around you will automatically fall into place and the world will look beautiful. If you are unhappy, you will find negatives in everything around you and the world will look gloomy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://masalacomedyclub.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/RajivNemaIndori
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RajivNemaIndori
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajivnema/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/rajivnemaindori
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RajivNemaIndori
- Other: https://g.co/kgs/dsSfbkE
Image Credits
Photos by Saurabh Malviya