“I like rant videos. People can relate a lot to them, too. But as a comedian, I have to be more creative, be sarcastic, while raising issues,” says Rakin Absar, whose mockery of the urban elitist culture has earned him a unique status.
Rakin has earned a loyal fanbase by catering to the needs of the younger generation who feels represented through his portrayal of family and social dynamics in a sarcastic way.
Rakin started his journey as a content creator with Vying and then moved to YouTube. From the beginning, he noticed his natural aptitude in the work and built his own platform ‘Mr. Absar’ where he creates comedy videos and vlogs.
Rakin has worked for platforms before and is now working solo as he prefers doing things his way.
“Being independent allows more freedom to work, ideations can get executed without being told what to do and what not to do,” says Rakin.
The most interesting aspect of Rakin’s content is the frankness with which he portrays various issues the younger generation faces but gets stifled to express them otherwise. This has a wide range, from stunting traditional restrictions to corporate culture.
Rakin says he is enthusiastic about dark humour in general and tries to reflect that creatively in his content.
Giving insight into the fun dynamics he has with his family, Rakin shared his privilege of getting support from the family. His family has never been unsupportive of his work, and he never had to face conflicts over his choice of profession. In fact, his mother takes great delight in the sort of videos where he plays the role of a Bengali mom.
“My target audience is never mass. People with self-awareness will like my content. Those who wouldn’t will eventually unfollow me and I do not have any issues with that,” he told regarding his target audience.
“When you have a greater reach or engagement, you end up being someone you are not because you have to please the average audience. Hence, you start restricting yourself from expressing yourself, exploring a lot of new ideas and saying a lot of things that matter to you. From the get-go, I wanted to create an audience base where we share the same mentality and value.”
Rakin explained that the ease with which he can express himself among the people who will accept him as he keeps evolving is more important than any monetary benefits.
Increasing hatred online is an issue content creators struggle with, which he seems to be least bothered with. He says that every profession comes with some problems.
Also, he has started enjoying negative comments as they reflect that he is doing something right. He appreciates the knowledge it gives him to understand other people’s perceptions and psychology. But he is not willing to change himself for the mass.
“To me, success is catering to the audience that really appreciate me than the majority of people who barely know me for whom I end up being pretentious,” says Rakin.
When asked if numerical measures like followers, and views matter to him, he said, “Numbers don’t really matter to me because they don’t show the actual essence of a content creator.”
Rakin explains that a lot of talented creators have small exposure. In his opinion, numbers often get one better brand deals, but the quality of the video and the kind of people who watch them are what determine the talent of a creator.
Rakin shared his future plans with the writer, expressing his intentions to explore more genres of content making and become darker.
“As an artist, I feel like I should be expressing myself breaking barriers and go ahead,” he said.
About his perception of the future of the content creation industry, Rakin commented, “The mentality of brands and clients has to change. It boils down to whether they want to go for quality content or for content with less creative effort.”
“As long as brands do not understand the effort of a creative person and the kind of audience they attract, no matter how good of a content creator you are, you will not survive in this industry.”
With due initiative and change, Rakin believes creative content creators can really make it in the industry. Seeing them young and aspiring creators will be inspired to pursue this. He thinks that brands need to focus on the creatives, rather than the viral content.
Rakin shares his final thoughts by giving advice to new creators, “If you want to start content creating because you want popularity, then you should never come to this industry. You really have to have that innate love and passion for content creation, other things will follow automatically.”
“I just want to make it clear, money follows wherever your creative heart and soul is,” he concluded with his famous smile.
