HYDERABAD : Little did YouTuber Adi Reddy know that a small introduction on his channel for his sister Naga Lakshmi Boddu and wife Kavitha Bondala’s YouTube channel ‘Kavitha Naga Vlogs’ will propel them to 47,000 subscribers after just one -and-hal f -month of i t s launch.
With over 34 lakh views, at an average of 1.5 lakh views per video, the 19 videos released by the sistersin- law have captured the imagination of YouTubers. Naga Lakshmi and Kavitha, both 26 years old say the main aim for their videos is to showcase their amazing vadina-aadapaduchu (sisters-in-law) camaraderie.
The 20-25 minute videos are on home cooking, social causes such as menstruation, sari weavers, home tours of their villages, Dasara decorations, and the latest released on November 3 is on how to decorate homes economically for Diwali. What sets apart this duo from millions of others on YouTube is that Naga Lakshmi despite being totally blind in her left eye and with only 10 percent visibility in her right, is the cynosure of all eyes with her vivacity and creativity.
She says, “As a child, I was made fun of by relatives, neighbours and friends for being blind. Through this channel, I want to show them that I can do anything that I want and prove that I am not a burden on anyone.” The barely twomonth- old channel is already being monet i sed and has earned the duo `1.5 lakh. How did this idea come about? Kavitha says, “Though Nagamma is visually-impaired, she is a very good cook. We wanted to use her skills and do something online.
So, we put up a video and the response was overwhelming.” Do they prepare for the shoots? Both of them said “no”. Kavitha replied, “We do all the videos in one-take. There is no script. We decide on a topic at spur-of-the-moment and that’s it.” They use a video camera that Adi uses to shoot his videos, and the duo say they fix it up on a tripod and do everything on their own. Their USP is their simpleness. No glamorous makeup or flashy clothes. Kavitha says, “We are simple people.
We don’t know how to act. We want to be natural.” The ‘House tour’ video alone got 6 lakh+ views. Not just regional and national, seven per cent of their viewers are international. Even as their recipes — bendakaya pachidi, nellore fish pulusu, minapa pappu pachadi — are trending, they want to show a wide facet of their lives to the audience. Naga Lakshmi says, “People a resceptical about how Kavitha and I have such a close relationship. The answer is in our videos.”
— Tamanna S Mehdi tamanna@newindianexpress. com @tamannamehdi