Content creator, Karishma Gangwal (RJ Karishma)
Image: Mexy Xavier; Stylist: Pallak H Shah, Namrata Harisinghani; Wardrobe: Piri India; Jewellery: Curated By Nam; Makeup: Tanuja Dabir, Pramann Bhatia; Hair: Forum Gotecha
In 2021, when Karishma Gangwal was new to the world of content creation, she received a message. “This is the first time I’m smiling in 10 days, so I just wanted to thank you,” wrote a girl who had lost her brother to Covid-19.
Gangwal, 31, popularly known as RJ Karishma, has since made her subscriber base of over 15 million people laugh through her satirical, slice-of-life content based on Indian families. She’s the saas (mother-in-law) who’s always criticising her bahu (daughter-in-law), and she’s also the bahu who knows how to handle situations tactfully. She’s the condescending bua (aunt), and she’s also the grandmother who is constantly dishing out unsolicited advice.
“I’m a one-woman army,” Gangwal says, for not only playing these and many other characters, but also because she’s the one who scripts, edits and acts to create content.
Born in Jammu, she lost her father when she was five, and grew up in a house of three along with her mother and an elder sister.
“I was an observant child, with a knack for acting,” she recalls. “When other girls my age would be playing with doctor and Barbie sets, I’d dress up in my mother’s clothes and act in front of the mirror,” she says.
However, as the daughter of a single mother, she knew she had to choose a stable career. In a move that would help her stay close to the field of art and creativity, and potentially land her a job, she chose to pursue mass communication in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Upon graduation in 2015, she was selected by My FM—and later moved to Red FM—to work as a radio jockey (RJ). She was hosting late-night shows talking about love and relationships, but never left her fondness for mimicry and acting.
When the world was forced to stay behind locked doors due to Covid-19, in 2021, Gangwal shot a reel featuring a conversation between a saas and bahu but didn’t dare to post it. Her sister and copywriter, Neha, watched it and threatened to make it live if she didn’t because it had the potential to go viral.
The reel garnered three million views in three days and became the moment that changed Gangwal’s life. “Then I never stopped,” she says. “It was also a way to fulfil my dream of acting.”
Click here for India’s Top 100 Digital Stars
Not fully understanding
how lucrative this field would be, Gangwal continued her stint as an RJ. When managing both became difficult, she quit the radio station in 2022, on friendly terms and a cautionary note—that she might come back if it turned out to be a low-paying job as she was also responsible for running the house.
“You’ll never need to come back,” her CEO had then said. And her words turned out to be true. With a rapidly growing subscriber base, Gangwal has collaborated with actors such as Ranbir Kapoor, Vidya Balan, and sportspersons, including cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Hardik Pandya.
In 2024, she made her global debut by walking the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. She was also the first Indian content creator chosen by YouTube to attend the Paris Olympics as part of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
These career highs aside, Gangwal says, becoming an influencer has also been a source of blessing. When her mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2022, Gangwal and her sister knew that the path ahead would drain them mentally, physically and financially.
Also read: Nancy Tyagi: Here to inspire creativity and bring something authentic to the world
“We were both working, but weren’t able to do the best for her,” she recalls. “We belong to a middle-class family; no amount of salary or loans was going to help. And the guilt of not being able to save someone because of money would haunt us,” she adds.
Gangwal’s content and her popularity brought promotions, advertisements and brand collaborations her way, and along with those, money.
“My mother is alive because of people and their love for me,” she says. “My followers tell me that I make people laugh, so I’ll never be sad. Blessings come in all forms,” she adds.
The journey has been easier compared to her counterparts, she says, but not without challenges. First, the audience takes time to approve of female comedy content creators. “Why don’t you stay in the kitchen?” and “Did we have to laugh at your joke?” were the kind of comments she had to endure in her earlier days.
Second, she says, some people think her content, especially around the mother and daughter-in-law, is being portrayed in a negative light because society has changed and is now more open-minded.
Karishma Gangwal plays characters such as a bratty son, an overthinking father, and a critical mother-in-law to create slice-of-life, satirical content around Indian families. She comes up with ideas by observing people—whether it’s in a salon or a hospital
“I want to tell them not to form perceptions so easily. It’s just light-hearted comedy, not meant to be taken seriously,” she says.
She’s aware that the way forward is to ignore the negativity and focus on working towards gaining the audience’s trust. And to do that, she says, her mind is constantly trying to think of new ideas by observing people, whether it’s in a salon or a hospital.
“Gangwal is a person of many talents, be it creativity or content or acting. Her way of moulding a script and turning it into a masterpiece is what sets her apart from other content creators in the industry,” says Vinay Pillai, head of strategy, Pocket Aces, a digital entertainment company.
The next big dream is playing the lead, in a show written by her, which is already a work in progress.
“I see Karishma solidifying her universe of characters even more strongly. I would love to watch her in a series written and produced by her,” says content creator and actor Kusha Kapila, with whom Gangwal has collaborated. “The way she understands women deserves a fictional world of its own,” Kapila adds.
(This story appears in the 18 October, 2024 issue
of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)