BENGALURU: For Bengalureans, troll has always been synonymous to Haiklu. The satirical social networking page is the most followed page on every platform today. They have over 3 lakh followers on Facebook, over 2 lakh on Instagram and on 21,000 Twitter. The page, which was started by two youngsters in 2012, today it has 13 admins, including a girl. The page recently completed 5 years and the admins –
Mohan Cv, Tejas N, Venkatesh Sharma — in a candid chat with City Express, speak about trolls, competition, threats from fan groups and more.
Mohan CV, a film enthusiast, used to write about films on Facebook. “Back then, there were no troll pages in Kannada. I met Tejas online and that’s how we came up with Troll Haiklu. Venkatesh joined a year after. Today, we have 13 admins,” Mohan says.
“Today, there are hundreds of troll pages and most pages pick content from other pages. But with our page, we have always ensured that we maintain ‘Troll Haiklu’ standards before we pick on any topic to troll. Same goes with the advertisements as well. There are pages with 1lakh likes and they promote films for a few hundreds. But Haiklu would never do that,” adds Tejas.
“When memes were made only on engineering students, we got a medical student as an admin, whose memes got good response. Today, we have admins from different fields, and make memes on everything,” says Venkatesh.
“People in the film industry have understood the importance of visibility and memes now. Of late, the trend has caught on.We get to troll them and they get the visibility,” adds Tejas.
Their posts get an average of over 6,000 likes and shares.
‘We are not fan page’
“Our inbox is filled with lewd messages if we post a meme trolling a film or an actor. What people don’t understand is that we are troll page, not a fan page nor are we other troll pages that praise a celebrity for attention.
We are here to troll, and to entertain. Take it or leave it has always been our mantra,” adds Mohan. “Once, a complaint was filed for trolling a celebrity. We went to a lawyer to ask if the meme was offensive. The lawyer couldn’t stop laughing,” laughs Tejas.
The period ordeal
There was a big hullabaloo when Troll Hailu posted a meme on menstruation. Female admin Indu (who posts as Aakasmika), says, “A lot of people were irked. They did not take it lightly and mostly because they did not know that it was posted by a female admin. A lot of people, including women, thought we were making fun of mensuration. All we wanted was to educate people. Even after that I haven’t stopped posting about social stigma and menstruation. I will continue doing so.”
Admin names from Dr Rajkumar films
Names of thirteen admins to post in their page are taken from Dr Rajkumar films. Yaarivanu, Immadi Pulakeshi, Mayura, Jwalamukhi, Keralida Simha, Sathya Harishchandra, Babruvahana, Devatha Manushya, Daari Thappida Maga, Hiranya kashipu, Ranadheera Kanteerava, Naan Obba Kalla and Aakasmika. Each one of them post with their individual admin names.