1. What inspired you to become a YouTuber?
My inspiration on becoming a YouTuber started early from my school days, where I used to participate and create content in drama and mime. These were the only things which got me inspired beyond my education. The whole content thing stopped after my college when I started to work. Everyone has their dream of entering the entertainment and media industry, achieving something big and I was no exception. However, I had questions on taking things further. That’s when I saw people creating YouTube channels and getting movie offers out of it and it made me realise I could do it too. That’s when I got the idea of creating a YouTube channel and creating content full time. This is the main reason for me becoming a YouTuber.

2. When did you first realise you were famous? Do you enjoy being famous?
When I went to the theater, a small boy came near me, didn’t mention my name and asked you’re him, right? He also said I’ve seen your videos, it’s very nice. Can I take a picture with you? Whenever kids see a television or media person, they get excited. For them, we’re big. That moment made me realise I was famous. Of course, it is an addiction. When people recognise you and ask for a picture it feels good and is every artist’s addiction. When that is getting bigger, your addiction level gets stronger. I’m happy about it too. Sometimes, it might feel like there’s no privacy but at the same time you’re an artist and there will be people recognising us every time. I started my YouTube channel to become famous and I’m enjoying it now.

3. According to you, what kind of content works on YouTube?
When it comes to content that works, I mainly focus on the audience perspective. Basically, for humans we like two types of content. One is where we create things that happen in our life and second thing is a fantasy side, on how they wanted it to be and which cannot happen in real life. When the content is relatable, they post it on their social media page and share it. The keypoint is to focus on the audience’s point of view. Majorly, I focus on married couples, students, friendship and lovers and what all happens between them.

4. Can you tell us about how your journey started?
I finished my MCA and was working for a company as a business developer. That was boring for me as it was a normal 9-5 job. Again it made me feel as if I’m in my college or school. It was a little tough for me to sit in one place and work. I wanted to do something big. Then I realised, I can create content and act. That is when it all started, but even after starting it, I constantly kept questioning myself on whether I can survive this or not. Moreover, I went with the flow and left it to the audience. Earlier, we kept a lot of names for the channel and finally decided to name it “Micset”.

5. What do you do about nasty or negative comments?
Starting from big stars to smaller ones, everyone would have faced hate comments. You cannot move to the next stage without facing it. Atleast hundred comments out of fifteen thousand comments will be negative comments. Likewise, when the hate comments are compared to the million views and likes, we should skip the former and move further unless and until those comments are for good. We shouldn’t get demotivated. We should continue to do our work for the people who love us. Negativity is a part of our life, accepting it and moving towards our goals in a positive way is the best way.

6. There was a situation, where your YouTube channel “MicSet” had issues and you had to delete a few videos and upload them again?
It was a technical Issue. I had taken a few songs from music labels and inserted them into the video. I wasn’t aware of the timings that can be used for the video. Every year, YouTube’s algorithm and terms will be changing. We were used to working with the old terms. Later, after uploading the videos we realised that even two seconds of usage of a particular song from another music label is a violation. Few videos got viral and were hitting millions. The same music label called us up and said that they’re going to strike the video. If it’s one strike, that’s totally fine, but if it’s three. The channel automatically gets deleted. For us the channel was very important as we were aiming for the Tamil audience and had 4+ million subscribers. It was a big thing for us gaining those subscriptions from south India. We had to delete the videos, change music and upload them again. The blame was on us, so we had to correct it.

7. How did you grow your channel?
It is good content that we present to the audience in a proper way and in a consistent manner. If that’s happening, you need not do anything for it to grow. It will grow naturally.

8. You have signed your first film. Congratulations. Tell us more.
I’m making my Tamil film debut with this movie. In addition to its strong plot, the script is based on a college experience. It is certain that this movie will be a hit once it is released. To begin with, I only signed up for the Hero role. It’s now being directed by me as well. As a matter of fact, it’s very challenging but I have been facing it for the last five years but the medium is different. Hopefully, I believe I’ll do the justice to this project. There will be an update soon for this movie from my side.

9. You and the music producer collaborated on two albums that were huge hits. It is now a movie again. Can you talk about that?
His name is Arul Raj, he is a guy with great potential. There are two albums we did together, and I have not done albums with any other since then. To start with, we must like the person and the wavelength must match. Here, it was 10 on 10 for both of us. Aside from all this, we’re good friends. There’s no budget or any such thing between us. If I ask him something, he does that without denying and likewise the same bonding we share. He had the motive that I wanted to be an actor in movies. Even, I wished that he would be a big music director. If we grow, we make the other person grow as well. That’s why I pulled him in this movie as a music director. Till now, he’s doing a great job. Even if I had not given him the space, he already has a separate place in the Tamil film industry.

10. How do you manage your time between work and life? Tell me more about the struggles you’ve faced and are facing and how you are overcoming them?
We should definitely allot timings for the work we do. I have only four hours of sleep in a day. I have to work a lot on pre-production, post-production, VFX and SFX. It’s become like a lifestyle now. I will be sleeping all day and working all night. I had no time to spend on myself. Only after lockdown, after the channel’s boom, I got time to spend with my family and friends. It is like riding a cycle. It becomes a habit of managing and controlling it. When everything is in our hands, we should manage to handle it in the right way. Everyone has struggles in their life. We should face these and become stronger. When the struggle gets bigger, it means you’re growing and it’s healthy too.

11. Your channel is in the genre of comedy? How do you work on your scripts?
I don’t really work on a script as such. It all depends about the scenarios at that moment and things that happen in my life. I focus on the things that people can relate to themselves. Or else, I’ll discuss it with my friends and get a general view. When we think of something new, it may not be as relatable to many people. But, when you see the overall script in my videos, 60% of the things will be about the scenarios that have happened in my life. Rest of the others will be from my friends’ lives. So I don’t work on the script. I just gather some memories and create a concept around it.

12. What strategic advice do you have for up and coming YouTubers?
There’s no such thing as a strategy. Rather, we should note down a few things. Trend changes season by season. If you’re capable enough to catch the trend and consistently play along with it without influencing them, you will be accepted by the audience. So, my advice will be that it takes time. For a few it may happen in two months, for some it may take years to make it happen. Yet, we should work relentlessly until something happens. We shouldn’t set a time period and work. If your efforts are sincere, the results will be good.

13. What would be the one thing you would want to change in your YouTube Channel?
For now I don’t want to change anything about it. Why should we change it into another, if we’re on the right track? Maybe, if I’m unsuccessful or this way doesn’t work then I can change my way of work. On second thoughts, if I have to change one thing. I would increase the number of videos for our YouTube.

14. You’re also a lyricist, director, editor and much more. How do you do it all effortlessly?
I had the need to do these things all by myself. This doesn’t come under multitasking as I had no one to help me put on the videos back then. I started to learn all these skills. I was chasing my dream, so I would do all the work. It wasn’t by choice. I did multitasking as there was no budget in the beginning stages of my career. Now, it has become multi-tasking for me and left me directing a movie and acting at the same time. But I’m not complaining. I’m happy about that too.