 a huge round of applause for Prajakta for joining us here tonight and making this evening even more special. You know, we're awarding the startup founders here today, and we're three founders, so, and I think that your presence as a founder, as an entrepreneur, she's 29, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you, and within that she's been a radio jockey, she's an influencer, she's a YouTuber, she's an entrepreneur, she's now an actor, and she's also a climate crusader. She's single also, she's not single, sorry. What do you actually just, you know, matter of interest, what do you plan to do when you're old? Since you've pretty much done everything by 29, most people don't do it in a lifetime, what she's done, ladies and gentlemen, so on a lighter note, if you want to share your plans for a later lifetime, that would be nice. That was a very flattering introduction. Thank you, you're very sweet. Hello, everybody. Good evening. Thank you so much for having me here. It's a pleasure. Honestly, I did not know that all these avenues would open up for me when I started creating content on YouTube eight years ago, so everything is coming to me as a surprise. I had no clue any of this was even possible, so I'm taking it as it goes, honestly, I have no clue what I have no plans. Well, that's the way life should be lived, you know, you take day as it comes and then it sort of becomes your life, and that's so beautiful, and I just lived a beautiful journey doing so much, and I know, I mean, you know, it's easier said than done, there's so much hustle to it, and you, I remember reading that you said that Radio Jockey, you wanted to be a Radio Jockey all the time, and then you figured that, you know, this was really not the life you wanted to live. I mean, I had to figure because I got fired. I was almost a little too confident about being a Radio Jockey till I actually became one and realized that I suck. How did you sort of, you know, I mean, while I understand, you know, because the space was so new in 2015, becoming a YouTuber, honestly, nobody knew who was on YouTube what they were going to expect five years down the line. But how did you sort of artistically manage it? I mean, you know, I mean, making content is very difficult when you have to do it on day on day, maybe, you know, think about it hour on hour. So how do you sort of artistically put this all together and say that, okay, look, you know, this is what I want to talk about today? I mean, a lot of us still cannot figure it out, you know, how to produce content and keep our audience hooked and engaged every day. You know, I really wish there was a more hot-out process than I would have a better answer to give at places like this, because every time this question comes and I think about, I was 21 when I started, so I was obviously very, very clueless. Like you said, YouTube was so new, nobody knew what was going on. And even still, I feel like the digital space is so customized, creator to creator. There's not really a roadmap you can follow, or there's not really a blueprint that will assure success or virality for that matter. But I think after working in radio for a year, and I was, I was 11 when I decided I want to be a radio jockey. I spent all my teenage only prepping to be a radio jockey. And when I became one and then I failed at it. I was so lost at that point, anything would have been fun for me because I hated my job at the radio station. I hated waking up every day. I used to look for like newer excuses every morning. I said, this is why I don't want to go to work today. But so after, like after a year of that, when I started creating content and I realized that, oh, I don't have to take my scripts to anybody. I don't have to get it approved. If I fail, I get to like try again next week. I think that process got very addictive for me. So the first couple of years, I was just having fun. I really wish I had more thought to it, but there wasn't. And now when I look at it, I'm just like, I'm so glad I didn't because I feel like with content, if you overthink it, you always end up kind of missing the point every now and then. So it took me a few, I feel like I'm still finding my feet with content because everything keeps changing. The platform's changing. My audience is changing every single day. So I think we're all, and I'm sure there's a lot of creators we have with us today. So I think we'll all agree that we're still kind of finding our feet with what's going on. We're all a little bit of creator in all of us. And we're still, I think, finding our mojo out there. You found it. So in startup world, the founder always sort of swears by a mentor. And he or she always thinks that because they were mentored at some point of time by someone which helped them find their way, as you said, you hated your job. So, and of course now in your job, you meet so many people. You meet, you met Bill Gates recently and then of course you were at Davos and you met so many important people out there. So do you, I mean, do you feel that a mentor or somebody, not even a mentor, or somebody played a pivotal role in your life to help you find what you did today? Many, many people did. I'm very blessed to have friends and family in my team in a way that kind of, they've always been my sounding board. And for example, right from the beginning, my parents have been my biggest support because every day I used to wake up till I told them I want to be a lady jokey. Before that, every day I used to wake up and have a new profession. I'm like, okay, today I want to be an interior designer. And I remember it was so important for me in those growing up years because not once did my parents ever get back with, you know, I don't think that's a good idea. Or do you want to rethink it? Do you want to try something else? How about that thing? You were better at that. Everything I threw at them, they were like, yeah, it's fine, go for it. And I think that was so important for me to have the confidence to even get up and be like, okay, now I don't want to be a radio jokey, I want to be a content creator. Sorry. Oh, that burp was stuck for a long time. My bad. Whistling, I want to know that. Oh, my. Okay. Go for it, I went for it, bro. Sorry. So yeah, my parents have been, my sister, who's been my constant support through everything. And then I happened to meet my team, who just were, you know, when it just fits, you meet somebody and you're like, okay, you know what, please don't leave me. Let's spend eternity together because I need you. My friends, I have a very small circle of friends and it stayed like that since school and I'm very grateful for them. So it's not one, I think I have a bunch of people. Sorry? Subtitles for all the, okay. So she's also been, she's joined Bollywood as well. So she came in this movie, you're right. She started her career from there. Now she's doing like a bunch of Netflix series and a TV series. I actually started with Netflix. Yeah, you started with Netflix. And now you're doing a TV series as well. TV series, some, okay. Some other. It was a teleplay. Teleplay, yeah, I did. So, you know, I mean, and we love Bollywood. I mean, you know, for everybody out here, we can vouch that Bollywood is really what we love and what we love to watch in our evenings. So, you know, do you feel any different as a content creator now that you've moved to Bollywood in two films? And do they conflict or do they sort of, you know, both have two separate things and you want to continue to do both? And I've always said this, I think it's a great time for content because the lines are, oh, sorry. The lines are very blurry. Right now it's just a pool of content and it's up to the audience what they wanna watch. Do you wanna watch a film on Netflix or on Prime? Or do you wanna go to the theaters? Do you wanna watch it for free on YouTube? Like what's going on? It's up to you. So it's a great time for content but obviously it was very different for me because I remember when I was in my first film, you said when we were shooting Miss Matched in 2019. It's a show on Netflix. If you haven't seen it, please watch it. We've got two seasons. Thank you. Okay. So when I was on, I realized that I was so used to playing characters that I had written that that was one of my biggest barriers in the beginning. I was like, how am I gonna play a character that I haven't written? Also when you're shooting all your content by yourself and you read set, you wanna know where the camera is, what the lighting is, is everybody on, like you have to take care of everything but it was so much fun for me because I was like, hey, I reached this set and I don't have to worry about anything else. I just go, say my lines, do it a few more times if you need more takes and then that's that. So that was, it was very new but also it was a lot of, it was a lot of liberty in a way where I didn't have to kind of worry about having control over every aspect of it. Right. And now what do you like more? I can't choose. I can't choose. One of my directors told me, Akash who keeps denying that he said this to me but I'm pretty sure he did where he was like being on a film set is like tasting blood. Like if you've tasted it once you're gonna, you can't stay off a film set but at the same time I love creating content and I love writing sketches or writing blogs or writing other things that kind of help me keep going on creatively. So I really can't choose. I just feel very grateful that I'm in a point, I'm in a point in my life where I don't have to choose. So I get to do both. Does the content come spontaneously to you or do you have some kind of a method with which you say that this week we're gonna do this kind of content? I think most of it is spontaneous because I've always said this that the kind of comedy that I do it's not gonna be ha ha funny. It's very like, oh my God, it's so funny that happens to me all the time. I like to tap into that because I also don't think I'm a comedian so I can't write jokes. But it comes also I have a team now which kind of helps me, helps me by like sitting down brainstorming with me. So it's much easier now but it started off very spontaneous, yeah. See, remember that. For all of you who are making content out there. Recently you've also sort of taken up climate change as part of your UN, as an ambassador to UN for climate change. So what sort of, what are you going there? I mean what was it that brought you to make a difference to the climate change in the world? So I think it was 2017, no, 2015 when I started speaking about things that were close to my heart when it comes to a more social context. I started talking about body shaming and mental health and stuff like that. That kind of snowballed into girls' education, gender equality, YouTube had a huge role to play in putting me at these platforms where I got to learn and meet new people and realize that oh, I can speak here and have an impact and I think that's when UNDP and I got into a conversation which was very, very recent. Climate change is a very recent conversation for me and that's when I realized that I am now in a position where I have reach and I have impact and even though I don't have the experience in the field of climate, working in the field of climate change I can use my platforms to amplify voices that already have been doing a lot of work and that's where kind of UNDP and I got together so I was very happy that I got to do that. I'm very happy to be a part of that conversation. No, no, and I think sustainability is something we all need to be passionate about if we want to live on this earth. So I think... I also feel like the conversations around sustainability and climate change sometimes get so complicated because they move from one boardroom to one boardroom, you know what I mean? It's a lot of people in suits talking languages that people in suits talk. This doesn't count as a suit. So what I like to come in and do is like kind of simplify that conversation and kind of make it bite-sized so it's easier for my younger audience to consume and adapt to. And I mean, honestly, reaching out to a 20-year-old audience where you have a very young audience who sort of you, in your larger sort of zone and making content for them is anyway very difficult. They're so gullible, they change their mind every day, so you've got a tough job out there. So I know that recently you've also turned an entrepreneur and you've done some new merch. You're doing a bunch of things in fashion and other spaces. So you wanna tell us a little more about that? Yeah, sure. I wanted to do merch for a very long time, but we tried a couple of things, but somehow also I don't have the best business acumen. I don't think I'm very smart when it comes to the technical side of things when it comes to business, but I have a team that's very good at it. I like to stay on the fun, like, hey, let's put this on a T-shirt side of it. So I finally happened to meet and collaborate with a team that kind of got what I wanted to do and were meeting me midway. So a couple years ago, it's very new, we are still learning, but I think on my 28th birthday is when we launched mostly scenes, merch based side of things. And do you plan to make it bigger? I do, yes, I'm hoping that it grows, but again, like I said, I'm a little slow with it because I'm trying to take baby steps, I'm trying to see what works, what doesn't work. I don't wanna overcome it because it comes with investment and money and I'm just like, oh my God. So I'm trying to take baby steps, but hopefully, yeah, we've got a couple of really fun plans for this year, so I'm looking forward to it. Sure. So we'll also take a couple of questions from the audience, quick ones, guys, no comments, just quick questions. But my final question is, now that you've sort of found your way around so many different things that you're doing, any particular moment that you remember which you want to share with us or some content which probably strikes you and it was your wow moment or you thought. There's two, can I share two? Sure, please, go. So one was in 2018, we were gonna do a meet and greet in Mumbai, okay, and I'd done a couple of meet and greets before, so I was like, I remember like 100 people coming to that meet and greet, so I was like, okay, let's prepare for maybe 500, but things got out of hand. But the wow moment was when I actually went on stage and I saw close to 8,000 people who turned up and that was one of those days in my life where I was just like, this can't be real, this can't be real, like who paid them? Why did they not do anything else but chose to come and spend their time here? That was one, number one moment forever. I think number two was when I got to shoot with Michelle Obama for Girls Education. I think that was a huge moment for me. When she walked in, she gave me a hug, she knew my name and everything, and I was just like, this is crazy. So I think these two days have to be my favorite at work so far. Look, it's always so stay with you, right? Yeah, yeah.