With thousands of followers on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, the twenty-something, also known as @the.ranting.gola, has come to be known for her short videos explaining the socio-political conditions of the country. She says “the.ranting.gola” is her alter ego and her way of owning up to the two topmost troll comments she gets on social media. “You want to call me fat, call me fat. You want to say ‘she rants’, say that.”
Shamita Yadav, as she is known to her friends and family when not donning her online persona, sat down with THE WEEK as she explained what makes her “click” with netizens, what it takes to be a political influencer and what goes into creating her viral videos. Shamita talks about her recent shift from a day job to pursuing content creation full-time and the secret behind her viral reels.
Who would you credit for shaping your worldview and this online persona that we see today?
I have lived, studied and worked in different states across the country. So, it's like an accumulation of everything and I am a super talkative person. I like talking to people regardless if it's in sleeper coaches or aeroplanes.
Even during the elections, I talked to a lot of people, I would go to sabzi mandi and ask the vendor, Bhaiya aap kisko vote karoge, kyun vote karoge? and I know what other people are thinking or what maybe a collective Indian view would be. So actually the people helped me shape my perception. Through conversation, I meet people of different races, ethnicities, sexual preferences, and religious identities. It’s the people who have helped me shape my ideology. I don't care about the parties—Congress or BJP or whatsoever. I am a regular, normal citizen of the country so all I have to do is to raise the ordinary citizen's voices.
What urged you to become a content creator and particularly a political content creator? Why not anything else?
Not everybody is heard, not everybody in our country is represented and at the same time not everybody is ignorant. So I just wanted to be a platform. When I spoke to all those people, despite all their differences, one common thing was injustice, discrimination and people not being able to exercise their rights. These have always been there and will always be a constant thing.
The job of the mainstream media is to voice the voiceless, which I try to do everyday across different platforms in different ways. All I want is everybody should be heard and everybody should have representation. Sometimes when we see the news or when we see something happening there is this inner rage which I wanted to validate, that you're not alone, you're not the only one who's angry; there are lakhs of people like you who are angry about this. I wanted to bring out news in a way nobody has been doing and reach the people who are not interested in reading or watching the news. Say, this person is not political, he does not like talking about politics. Okay, let's make content so that he consumes that content, he does not feel like he consumes political content but then his conscience is pricked because it is political content. On my Instagram stories sometimes, I'll sort out four topics and ask my followers to pick one, or I’ll ask for video suggestions. In these ways, I try to inculcate my followers' opinions and preferences. I want to validate people's feelings and their rage towards the failed system. My conditioning is such that whatever is happening around me, somehow I too am being affected by it which is also a reason why I can make content that touches them. As a regular citizen, we don't have a lot of power, but there is an emotion that the common people feel and I wanted to tap into that with a Gen Z touch. It's like “hey queen! I want to tell you that your man's kinda not doing good things to you but let's not give you trauma” and I sprinkle a bit of sarcasm over it so that you're not hurt. That is my political content creation style.
How come so many influencers began sharing their political views online during the Lok Sabha elections and where do you see yourself in that context?
I think there was a lot of rage and neglect. Asa deshbhakt logon to hain in my generation. We love our country but then we also see that the politicians don't have a vision. Like in Gangs of Wasseypur, vision kaha hain, kahan hain vision? What is your vision for us?
Humara toh na tum rozgaar mein mujhe kuch acha dikh raha hai, na mujhe education mein kuch acha dikh raha hai, toh dukh toh ho hi raha tha and I think it was just the whole ke ab nahi kiya toh fir kab karege, matlab. ab nahin kiya toh phir kab karege. Everybody saw through the incompetencies and failures of the last government. And I think people just wanted to speak out and, to be very honest, I felt it really good that they (influencers) were voicing their concerns. But then somehow it is also felt that they are doing tit only because elections are in trend and they are not going to continue it.
We all saw the result of the Lok Sabha 2024 elections, probably because social media influencers started talking about things. It was necessary to remind people that there is no one greater than a common citizen of the country. If you are a prime minister, MLA, MP, or whatever position of power you are sitting in, you are there because somebody chose to vote for you. So you are stepping on their shoulders and you should look out for them, you don't have to crumble them down. In my videos neither did I take sides nor did I say whom to vote for, nor did I campaign for anybody, I just told people what had been happening and the decision was up to you. I started with the whole politics for Gen Z; they need to know why not to go for NOTA, what is the first past the post method, why opposition needs to be consolidated, what is a dictatorship, what it means.
How did you deal with the backlash and online hate on your content?
Oh, the pro-government trolls! I love them. I absolutely adore these babies. I have huge respect for them because it takes a lot of gut to be highly opinionated which the majority of our country is not able to do. Lately, my trolls have reduced their attacks. I started taking up these abuses and hate comments and used to check their profiles and I used to roast them since I'm a roaster. I would make a video showcasing that, see, this is what these people are doing. The first time that my Instagram got suspended was because of such a video and this repeated. A few days ago, a similar video got taken down. The irony of it is that all those abuses, all those rape threats, all those death threats, character assassinations are vulgar and obscene.
Never in my videos have I used such language but my content gets taken down. All those comments that I keep reporting, just stay there. Now it's stopped getting to my head, I see a comment and I'm thinking what can be a counter to this? That becomes my response. It's sad, but it's normalized. During election time, I used to get 40-50 troll comments a day, a few from those IT bots too. In the last two months, all I did was open Instagram, record, post, and shut it down. I missed DMs from my fans because I stopped checking messages. The only way of not being affected by this is to ignore it because they are not going to stop.
One thing that's distinct about all your videos is your comedy. Who are you most influenced by when it comes to this?
This is my shortest answer, John Oliver. I am inspired by him and aspire to be like him. Every line of his is informative and funny, and every sentence is a punchline, this is what I want to be. Bade hoke kya banna hain? John Oliver banna hain. That is something I am aiming for.
