Star Power: How Bollywood Star Lookalikes Are Seeking Their Place Under The Sun

Life has changed a lot for Md Islam Khan in the last five years. Once a small mas­o­nry contractor for fitting floor tiles in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh, he is now a Mumbaikar, following his passion for acting. His appearance—when he dons black goggles and lip syncs to dialogues from the film Dhad­kan, he does look a lot like Bollywood star Suneil Shetty—was a big help.

But Khan never thought of acting until 2017. “Once, I was busy in my usual work fitting tiles at a house, when someone told me you look like Anna (Shetty in Dhadkan). I thought he was kidding. But people kept repeating that. At the time, TikTok was getting popular, so somebody suggested I make mimicry videos. So, I started making videos on TikTok,” Khan says.

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His first video in 2017 didn’t work, ie., didn’t fetch the hits and views he had hoped for. Defused, he thought of abandoning this idea. Then, one fine day, after returning from work, he decided to give it a last shot. Late in the night, at around 10.30pm—he put on a blackish shirt, unbuttoned from the top, donned black goggles—and started lip syncing to dialogues from Dhadkan, mimicking Shetty. He uploaded the video on TikTok and went to sleep.

Next morning, he says, he woke up to around 1,700 likes and 15,000 views of the video. “This was the first time a video of mine had gone viral. Initially, I was befuddled. I thought I must have pressed some wrong buttons. But slowly, it sank in, and the feeling was good. I felt like dancing.”

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Schooled till Class VII, Khan says he had dropped out due to the “bad influence” of some friends. He can’t read the “Latin alphabet” well, but keeps trying. “Initially, when I used to get comments on my videos, I had to ask friends to read out what was written. But now I can follow it a little bit.”

By the time India banned TikTok in June 2020, Khan already had over a million followers. “After the ban, another similar app offered me Rs 32,000 a month to upload my material on their platform. It was a good offer, as I wasn’t getting anything from TikTok, except for offers to perform at wedding ceremonies.” During the lockdown, Khan, like any other migrant, was stuck in his hometown Motihari, in Bihar. He continued making videos, but there was little remuneration, he says.

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Around April 2021, Khan decided to go to Mumbai, the city of dreams, to follow his new passion—acting. Here, he even got a chance to meet his idol, Suneil Shetty. “It was like a dream come true. Check the videos I made after meeting him. You’ll find I was fumbling. It was overwhelming.”

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Like Khan, there are hundreds of lookalikes of famous celebrities on short-form video-­­­sharing apps like Instagram’s Reels, ShareChat’s Moj, MX TakaTak and DailyHunt’s Josh, among others. Some of them have mil­l­i­ons of followers, and even get offers from brands to collaborate.

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Outlook reached out to several lookalikes on Instagram Reels. “The kind of work you get depends on your degree of resemblance and quality of mimicry,” says Shashikant Pedwal, 52, a government ITI instructor and a Big B lookalike. Not only does Pedwal look like Amitabh Bachchan, he also mimics his voice and mannerisms. “I get offers to perform at weddings and parties. I also do advertisements.” Pedwal has over 2.5 lakh followers on Reels, and has established his name in the market. He doesn’t share how much he earns, but says it is “enough”.

Not everyone is so lucky. Ajay Verma, 25, from Kanpur, an Ajay Devgn lookalike, lip syncs on the star’s videos, but doesn’t get much “outside work” as he can’t copy Devgn’s voice. “I’ve been making videos for the last one year, but so far, I’m dependent solely on Reels,” he says. Verma has around 80k followers on Reels, and earns a little bit extra through brand collaboration. “I’ve just spent a year making these videos, so I’m hoping to get more traction in the future.”

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Majority of small-town lookalikes Outlook spoke with had started their journey on TikTok. It allowed many a Khan and a Verma­—­coming from marginalised communities in the boondocks—to become social media sensations overnight, and put their organic acting talent on display for the world.

The ban on TikTok—which had 200 million Indian users—and 58 other Chinese-owned apps, dealt a big blow to the huge number of content creators from various marginalised backgrounds. Among competitors, Instagram Reels, owned by Facebook (Meta), turned out to be the forerunner, filling the gap by offering these content creators a space and crucially, some income amid the economic downturn following Covid lockdowns.

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But the transition was not easy for many. In India, where everything gets marked by class and caste, TikTok appeared less judgmental to people like Khan, as its subscriber base came mostly from the rural or semi-urban areas and lower classes, unlike Reels that Instagram had targeted at the “sophisticated”, urban crowd—which in India is axiomatically upper-caste and upper-class. “I became active on Instagram around four months ago. I was on MX TakaTak when my friends told me to join Reels, as it would give me better exposure.”

But social media is a fickle beast. It can be as forgiving as it is often merciless. On a whim, a Bhuban Badyakar from rural Birbhum can become a celebrity with “Kacha Badam”, while a Ranu Mondal can be incessantly trolled, once her “15-seconds of fame” were over.

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On Instagram Reels, Verma and Khan found they were being mocked for their aesthetics and diction. Unlike TikTok, the demand seemed to be for more urban, upper caste aesthetics. “There are all kinds of people in this world, some good, some bad. Even though I can’t read English well, I know enough to recognise that I get a lot of comments that are abusive and mocking, along with ones that are motivational. On TikTok, abuse was rare,” says Khan.

Clearly, the Instagram and You­Tube audience, no wonder influenced by the marketing of both, appear to look down upon Tik­Tok. When the latter was banned, existing content creators on You­Tube and Instagram launched a tirade against TikTokers. You­Tube biggies like Ajey Nagar (aka Carryminati) and Elvish Yadav were heard calling TikTokers “chapri” (low tier), metha (slur for homosexual), “cringey”, “without talent”, etc.

Hinterland India’s content creators actually have a clear idea about why Reels doesn’t suit them. They say Instagram’s aesthetics, music library (to select background music for a video) and algorithm are too complex for them. This is why social media sensations like Israil Ansari with millions of views on TikTok, have been struggling for attention on Instagram. From over a million followers on TikTok, he now has a puny 96k followers on Instagram.

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Pedwal says, “We started from TikTok, where we gained recognition. Reels is a different platform. Yet, even though we don’t get any­thing but the occasional gift, we have to be on social media. Our real earning is offline. Social media is just to promote our work.”

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In 2016, Reliance Jio disrupted India’s internet and mobile telephony market by offering everyone free voice calls with 1.5 GB free data every day. It turned out to be the biggest push factor for the expansion of social media platforms. In the last five years, India’s internet penetration has gone up from 27 per cent to around 50 per cent. And, with the launch of TikTok in 2017, a huge number of influencers, doppelgangers and aspiring actors started making content and getting noticed, earning paid gigs at birthday parties, weddings, etc.

But with a ban on the Chinese app, their stardom appeared to fade as quickly as it had blossomed. The elite, urban user-base of Reels has affected them a lot. Here, they have to compete with urban content creators with more sophisticated diction and aesthetic choices—like Akshay Kumar-mimic Vikalp Mehta or comedian and mimic Sanket Bhosale—who already had a head start in the popularity and stardom meters, with Blue Tick accounts.

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Both Pedwal and Khan claim they had Blue Tick accounts on TikTok, but not on Instagram. Blue Tick is a verification badge for popular perso­nalities. “Instagram never offered us a Blue Tick,” laments Khan.

The struggle for recognition for these lookalikes continues, but they don’t feel disheartened. Khan says, “Mumbai is a city of dreams. Circum­stances brought me here, and I feel lucky to be in Mumbai. Some people are afraid of failure in life. I am not. I’m enjoying what I do. That is what life should be, no?”

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Pedwal concurs, talking about how he had helped Covid patients during the Second Wave. “The greatest happiness was when I addressed Covid patients in BachchanJi’s voice. They didn’t recognise me, so they felt happy that BachchanJi had called. This is life. And we live for it.”

(This appeared in the print edition as "Double Life of Rustic")