There are a few people whose stardom comes quickly and seems effortless but the reality is different. From a Flight Attendant to a Content Creator, Kevin Zingkhai is one of those people who earned nearly 500K followers in less than a year. Instead of sheer luck, it is his hard work, passion and dedication that earned him the reputation. The team at Social Nation had a wonderful opportunity to get in a conversation with Kevin, who was his raw, unfiltered and hilarious self throughout. Presenting snippets from the interview with Kevin Zingkhai who was our guest for this week’s On Our Radar.
SN: From a flight attendant to a content creator, what has the journey been like?
Kevin: I was always drawn towards the camera. Somewhere along the lines, I wanted to build a career where I was constantly in front of the camera. I used to be a flight attendant before this for 5 years. I was living in Qatar at that point in time and decided to quit my job to start content creation. I just came back home and told my mom about my decision. I assured her I will give content creation 100 per cent and she said as long as you don’t ask us for money, everything is fine.
I started making YouTube videos but nothing worked. I got a little frustrated with life. Like every main character, I went to Himachal for about 2 months, thinking I will become a vlogger. In these 2 months I got very comfortable with the camera. I came back to Mumbai all motivated thinking I’ll upload these videos and gain a lot of views but nothing happened. I thought to myself that since my savings are about to finish, let’s finish it in style and I’ll come back and start a regular corporate job. I went to the Philippines and went ice skating one day. This was the first time I was ice-skating and I was shooting a little story and someone just came in the front and shouted “Aye La**e Hatt na” while I continued to talk. That video blew up. I got 10000 followers in a month and in the next 21 days, I touched 100K. This felt unreal to me.
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SN: How did you decide on the characters?
Kevin: I was very inspired by Bhuvan Bam and how he developed his characters, with low production he just changed the game. I decided I’ll develop my characters. I would observe people thinking of them as characters in a sketch. The first character that came was Kevin himself- he wore leather jackets and was the cool GenZ type. Then I wanted a Ted Moseby hopeless romantic kind of character who was a little geeky. So that’s how Kamlesh happened. Then I came up with Shivani and Sufiyan. Shivani was one of the most difficult characters as I put in a lot of effort. Now Sufiyan is the most popular character and people love him tremendously because of his rawness and relatability. It’s so funny that when I got out, people don’t know my real name but know me as my character. As a writer, that’s so beautiful that your art has surpassed you.
SN: How’s the journey been from a flight attendant to a content creator?
Kevin: I really loved my job. In fact, my job is responsible for the character development I’ve had because I travelled so much and met so many people. I would serve these A-list creators and comics coffee in business class and would look at them awe-struck thinking how amazing they are. Now, however, I met them all at the meta event together. From serving them coffee to now being considered their peer, the journey has been nice.
SN: Since you’re a stand-up comic, how does it feel to be on stage?
Kevin: Since last year I wanted to do 10 things that really terrified me. I always wanted to perform on stage. I was so scared of performing on stage because everybody is quiet and looking at me. As a content creator, you can retake your shots and add background music but that is not the case with stand-up comedy. So I decided to do a Gig with Vivek, my friend. We decided to keep the conversation chill. The audience really liked it. They loved the chemistry we had.
SN: As a stand-up comedian, what are the 3 things that you learnt on stage?
Kevin: Timing is extremely important. You have to focus on your delivery and just make a joke out of everything. Everyone who has come there has paid money to laugh so they will laugh and you shouldn’t get all worked up about it.
SN: Now that you’re on 500K, what impact do you have on your audience?
Kevin: People who have followed me when I was at 10K and see me reaching 500K, feel like they have been a part of this journey. I get so many of these messages where people tell me how they have seen me grow and get the courage to follow their passion. After all, everybody likes the little ray of hope.
SN: What are the things that you learnt from Content creation that changed you?
Kevin: Initially, when I started I would think how difficult it would be to post a video once a week or a single reel every day but soon realised the amount of work ethic these creators have is phenomenal. My work ethic has improved a lot. I have this entire routine now where I have specific days to write, shoot, etc. Another thing I learnt from content creation is there is a lot of money in this field. If I knew people make so much money here, I would have started when I was 18, especially during covid.
SN: What are the things content creation helped you achieve?
Kevin: I moved my family from the place we were living to a much better place. Back when I was a flight attendant, we would travel in business class quite often but now paying the full fare of your ticket feels something different. Now I don’t really need to look at the bill anymore. I know that I have enough money to pay for it.
SN: What are the big collaborations we should look forward to?
Kevin: There’s a lot that has been planned. I felt that I went very hardcore on Instagram and now I wanted to break into the YouTube space. My agency and I are working on a few IPs that are going to be around, travel, gaming and podcasts and many other things. I recently started Candyshop Productions and am planning to make these high-end sketches.
SN: You also launched your merch last year. Tell us a little about it.
Kevin: The entire idea about the merch was that I wanted to create a small community. I did not want the brand to get too big. I wanted to be a low-key brand that a few people know about but when they spot it on anybody else, can easily identify.
SN: For someone who’s starting their content creation journey, what would be some hacks?
Kevin: Previously, I would post 5 videos from which the first and the last video is a short one usually less than 10 seconds but I know it would go viral because it had some punch in it. The 3 videos in the middle are the ones where I would showcase the storyline, the characters, and the dialogue delivery and it would be relatively long around 40-50 seconds. When the first and the fifth video would go viral, people would visit my profile and see the other three videos and would understand that there’s an entire storyline. Trust me, this really worked for me because I achieved 500K in less than a year.
Be it the romantic Kamlesh or the hilarious Sufiyan, Kevin’s performances are extraordinary, charming the audience every second. If you have not seen his videos, do yourself a favour and check them now! The waves of laughter will surely get uncontrollable.
