Influencer and content creator Harshita Gupta, who has embarked on a whole different journey in her career, has gained immense traction on Instagram. In an exclusive chat with
The Pioneer, she discusses her journey and much more. Tejal Sinha
A versatile artiste and creator, Harshita Gupta has had quite a challenging journey with a lot of ups and downs, which has led her to where she’s been today. Her career began as a radio jockey, and she is currently producing comedic content.
Not something that she had preplanned; content creation had happened accidentally to her. Recalling her days back then, she shares, “I was a radio jockey, and there came this whole digital way where we started going digital, and my boss was like, ‘You are supposed to do it’, and it was around 2017. It was all about digital being the new shift and the new game. I was a very camera-conscious person because there were body issues and a lot more things in life ever since childhood.”
She was not comfortable, and the only reason she chose radio was that no one would have to see her. “I have to speak in an empty room. It was like a perfect setup for me. Now for me to come in front of the camera was like me opening up to the world. But then my boss said, If you want an appraisal, you’ll have to do it. So it was like 50 percent of it was radio and 50 percent of it was digital. And that’s how I started making videos in 2017. Obviously, I was unnoticed for three years, but the only thing was that I never gave up. Even when nobody was watching me, I was constantly making content.”
As she went on to recall the days of her self-confidence, she shared, “I was in my school, and there were a lot of people who had commented on my body. There were a lot of nasty comments that I got to hear. These comments used to pinch me so much that I used to come home and cry. And because of that, you know, my confidence had gone so low. I was very confident in my talent, though. One of the reasons I chose radio was that I was confident. I can speak. I had content to speak. I just didn’t want to show my face.”
In fact, this was just one of the examples. In another incident, she recalls, “There was this aunt of mine whose daughter had thyroid, and she passed on a comment and said, Chalo koi toh hai,meri beti ko competition dene. It was like, dude, what do you mean by that? You know, that thing literally went so deep in my mind that when I was asked to make a video, all these things just flashed back in my mind. It was like, what if I put it on social media and people would say bad things about me? People will start saying it again in those comments on my post. but it was okay.”
It was then that she somehow accepted it and began doing intense workouts for two long years with a rigorous diet. However, over time, she shares that it is through social media that she has gained immense confidence.
During her journey and transition from RJ to content creation, there was a day that actually brought her into a much bigger picture when one of the videos went viral. She recalls, “We generally say that virginity ki FD karaenge kya and mai pre-marital ke pro thi. I was like, it’s okay to have sex before marriage, and the video was just about that. It went viral like crazy. I don’t think there was even one meme page that took up that video, and everyone gave me credit. They all started tagging me, and within a day, I was stuck at 35k an year and posted that video. My follower count straight up went to 50k+ in a day, and after that video, my followers reached 85k in a day. I was like, If this is what you wanted to say, I would have made the video before itself.”
Comedy has been something that comes very naturally to her.
However, there have been times when she ends up having a creative block in her mind. Initially, “I used to get a lot of guilt when I used to take a break. And this happens to everyone because there is no creator who can work continuously without getting exhausted or having any kind of creative blockage. So for the first time, I experienced this creative blockage! I simply just panicked. I was like, ‘This is my career, and how can I get a creative blockage?’ ‘How am I not getting the idea?’ I should be getting the idea. This is my everyday work, but then I read about it and saw a few interviews. I saw that it’s common that, as you know, creative people do get the blockage, they do get exhausted, and they do need a break. Initially, it took me a while to take a break. They said that I was going to lose those people and thought that people would stop liking me. I will not be able to create content. There is a lot of self-doubt that came in within me.”
People say that numbers are not important to them. However, she, on the other hand, shares, “Numbers are very important. You go to a brand. They would obviously not prefer someone who has 10K followers and tell them that they make amazing content; nobody would even care about that creator. The people who were saying that numbers are not important the day they don’t get the numbers would be the ones who sit and cry and get anxiety attacks, to be honest. It has happened to the best of us. I personally know a lot of friends who have experienced that. I still get anxious when my videos don’t perform. It’s been seven years now. I have, you know, accepted all these things and have moved on. It’s all about accepting that you are having creative blockage, and then you can do things you know, like meet friends or go shopping. It’s not about you; at the moment, you can just not get anxious, saying, How is it going to happen? You just need a break.”
