HYDERABAD: For cooking enthusiasts, the YouTube channel Sharmilaz Kitchen might be a well-known name.
With her current subscriber count on 11,088, she makes an average of $400-500 every month. With the passing time, she has not not only improvised on her cooking skills, but has also learnt how to make a dish look much more appetising. However, cooking was not what she thought she would venture into, until she moved to Hyderabad.
“In 2010, when I moved to the city from Kolkata to work, I realised that the food here is spicy and does not suit me. That’s when I realised that I should start cooking at home. I slowly developed a passion for it.”
But life had something more that just cooking for herself, in store for her. After she got married in 2011, her husband and her brother-in-law, in a candid chat with her noticed her passion for cooking. They decided to take it further using social media. “In the beginning, I was apprehensive. I decided to start with working on my recipes with my husband, Abhijit Das’s help. He is a foodie and also a good food critic. He helped me improve my recipes. My brother-in-law, Arijit Das, who is studying photography and videography at SV College of Fine Arts and has knowledge about Google AdSense chose to shoot videos for me. We started with experimental videos in 2012,” explains Sharmila.
Once they were confident enough to go online, they started posting videos on YouTube.
“The videos started going viral and YouTube now also pays me depending on the advertsiements I get on for my video.” Sharmila’s most popular video on YouTube is Chinese Chicken Fried Rice which has around 4,64,812 views and 1,533 likes as on Sunday.
Sharmila who has specialised in chicken realised that they needed a better kitchen, camera and studio lights to make videos presentable. “We designed a portable kitchen and bought DSLR cameras, studio lights and also microphones. Though we have been making videos for two years now, we look for improvisations all the time,” she says adding that the colours we use play a major role.
“I use white plate to present the food. Apart from that, I add cucumber flowers, carrot flowers and also lemon while arranging food on plate.” Sharmila also partnered with tastemade.com, a US based food show network on YouTube which helps her channel grow by making it more visible to the netizens.
Ask her if she is aspiring to participate in any of the cookery shows, she informs that she did take part in the current season of MasterChef India auditions but could not carry forward because the show this year focusses only on vegetarian food.