Adhish Gurung, also known as @gurudhish, is lighting up our feed with his short, snappy, relatable comic videos based on everyday people, situations, and incidents. With his humor, satire and social commentary, Adhish manages to hit the right cords of the audience's funny bone. He says, “Usually, I’m making videos on trying to understand Gen Z trends and it generally leads me making a fool of myself. I’m a huge advocate for cycling, cities that are equitable and safe for women, and climate activism.” He is also an urban planner helping entrepreneurs build startups to improve our cities at a venture studio called Utopia Kathmandu
How did you get into content creation?
My girlfriend Trisha encouraged me to do it. She had been using tiktok for a while before we started dating and she had made a lot of hilarious videos. I didn't have a lot of ideas at first and tried putting up some travel videos. They were terrible and nobody watched them. Later we posted a few videos of us pranking each other and that started gaining traction. Now, we share fun things that happen in our relationship.
What is your role in Utopia and what is it that you like doing?
As Utopia's Community Manager, I create opportunities to engage with the innovator, entrepreneur and investor communities in Kathmandu. This involves curating thought provoking events, exploring partnerships with other urban allies, and building a community at the CITYLAB. Here, people who want to start their ventures or are already working on their projects can find other like minded people to interact with.
As someone who cares about the future of cities, Utopia offers me the perfect canvas to explore urban solutions. I get to ideate with entrepreneurs on their urbantech ventures or host workshops on reimagining our city. It is an inclusive organization and I feel privileged to work in a women-led organization.
How do you balance your timings to create content in between your work hours?
I struggle to be honest. Sometimes I'll have an idea but by the time I try to record it, I might be tired or have lost interest. If I'm lucky, I'll make 2-3 videos a week after work hours.
Can you take us through the content creation process?
What helps is having a co-creator in Trisha. We get to make content together and bounce ideas off of each other. That's usually how I check if my ideas are funny or entertaining. If I can't make her laugh, it's usually a no-go. It's important to stay current and keep track of what's happening in the news, culture, and trends. From there, either picking a trending sound or idea and trying to make it your own.
The gold mine is if you can come up with an original take on an existing trend or idea. Those videos really take off and have loads of engagement. Once we have our drafts made, we show them to each other, share ideas on captions and then post them. It's not that complicated; there isn't an excel sheet of ideas.
What are some of the algorithm changes in the social media platforms that you have experienced lately?
I get the sense that newer creators are being pushed on tiktok in particular. A few months ago, I'd be fairly certain that a video, if even a tiny bit funny, would do well and get a lot of views and engagement. Recently though, I've seen my views along with views for similar creators like me drop dramatically. I'm not sure why. It really takes a great idea to get a lot of engagement now. That's okay actually - it pushes me to be more creative.
Which platform do you mostly use and why?
Tiktok is the gold standard when it comes to finding and creating content right now. It's the platform with the most organic reach and there's simply no match. Since this is where I started making videos, I'm sticking with tiktok. Eventually I have a plan to transition to other platforms like Instagram reels and youtube shorts but for now Tiktok is where I create.
What is the aim of all your contents? What idea would you like to share with your viewers?
I'm trying to not take myself too seriously and encouraging others to do the same. I'm not a big fan of a perfectly manicured and curated life. Our lives are messy but there's still joy in sharing it and finding community around it. It really encourages me when people comment to say this happens to them too.
Since a lot of my videos are about my relationship, I'm hoping that a lot of younger couples can see that there are progressive, liberal, feminist people out there. I can see that a lot of young people, even though they want to be different, are inhibited by their own perceptions of society, their families, and their friends. Maybe seeing us on social media can give them that little bit of a nudge to also embrace their own personalities.
Other than that, it's really all about dismantling the patriarchy.
As per your experience, what do you think youths relate to with your content?
Mostly, when I shed light on how difficult life can be in Nepal and how I struggle to do things here; it gets a lot of engagement. These can be videos about struggling to fill out forms in government offices, being unable to interact well with older relatives, or the state of politics in this country that directly affects young people.
The younger audience definitely also relates to all the relationship content that my girlfriend and I post together. These can be about unique date ideas, talking about our problems, or also just trying to keep up with Gen Z. That usually gets a laugh.
How do you differentiate yourself in the social media game?
There are a lot of funny people on tiktok and most of them are funnier than I am. However, I think I make it a point to add social commentary to my videos. I try to talk about politics, social injustice, climate activism, societal norms with a comedic twist in my videos. Being a feminist man in Nepal also distinguishes me from the rest I think. I'm sure there are many feminist men out there, but not a lot of them are active on social media.
What are some of the projects you are working on right now
My girlfriend and I are trying to share more jointly through our combined Instagram and youtube account @twosteroo. We hope that this can be more collaborative and that we can do bigger video projects together. Maybe a relationship podcast with a Nepali theme.
