YouTube and Branded Ltd with Pepsi, in association with HP are delighted to announce the return of the YouTube FanFest to Mumbai, an exclusive live show bringing together established and emerging YouTube stars from India and around the world with fans.
YouTube FanFest, which debuted in India last February, provides fans with the unique opportunity to meet their favorite internet heroes in person. This year, YouTube FanFest is set to take center stage on Friday, March 20 2015 at the NSCI Indoor Stadium in Mumbai. Over 6,000 fans will get face-to-face with some of YouTube's biggest stars, local internet sensations and up-and-coming talent performing live on stage.
This year’s show features a dynamic mix of music, comedy, dance, fashion and even cooking, all together on one stage. The stellar line-up for the YouTube FanFest Mumbai encore features 24 widely popular YouTubers, including IISuperwomanII, Bethany Mota, Jus Reign, TVF ONE, Kanan Gill & BiswaKalyanRath, and East India Comedy.
“Over the past year, we’ve seen popular Indian creators emerge on YouTube and excite people around the world. We’re bringing YouTube FanFest back to Mumbai for a second showing to celebrate this new generation of YouTube stars with some of YouTube’s most passionate fans in Asia,” said Gautam Anand, Director of Content and Operations, YouTube Asia-Pacific.
“This FanFest in Mumbai is going to be the largest FanFest ever. More stars, more fun and more screaming fans in one of YouTube’s largest Asian markets,” said Jasper Donat, CEO of Branded, producers of YouTube FanFest.
“Youngsters today are creatively inspired, not scared of new experiences and eager to Live Life in the Now. Consumers and brands across the world are stepping it up to make great things happen through collaborative innovation and a sense of disruption that’s soon becoming a ‘norm’. For us, the YouTube FanFest exemplifies all of this and stands for original creativity and the young consumer taking control. These values perfectly embody the Pepsi consumer. We are extremely excited to partner with the YouTube FanFest this year, and in true Live It Abhi style, we look forward to cheering the creative, inventive and spirited young consumer,” said Vipul Prakash, Vice President - Marketing, PepsiCo India.
“India has one of the youngest populations in the world, and through YouTube FanFest, HP is able to connect with this new generation who are bending the rules as they go about creating and enjoying content,” said Lloyd Mathias, head of marketing, Printing and Personal Systems, HP India. “Keeping millennials’ needs in mind, HP has a range of stylish, yet productive notebooks, tablets and hybrid devices that will enable them to bring their creativity to life and go that extra mile.”
To make this day more memorable, fans will have chance to get up close and personal with the stars through promotions run by the YouTubers themselves. Jus Reign, Kurt Hugo Schneider, and Sam Tsui will join several other global and local music sensations for the performances in Mumbai.
"I'm pumped to finally be coming out to MUMBAI to see many good looking faces that are way better looking than mine, see you all on the 20th. ALL OF YOU…” said Jus Reign.
"We are really looking forward to this Fanfest. We've never been to India and we are totally excited to be coming to Mumbai to meet fans and to collaborate with other artists,” said Kurt Hugo Schneider and Sam Tsui.
"Biswa and I are extremely excited to host the second-ever FanFest in Mumbai, to see fans who like our work, and to meet other creators from around the world who we are fans of! We’re counting down the days!" said Kanan Gill.
All general admission tickets made available last Thursday March 5th were snapped up within four hours. Further tickets will be made available in the coming days via sponsors and announcements on @youtubefanfest. For those who can’t make the live show, YouTube FanFest will be live streamed at http://www.youtube.com/fanfest.
YouTube FanFest Mumbai LINE-UP:
International YouTubers:
8,352,477 subscribers
663,500,899 views
Bethany Mota is an American beauty and fashion expert who got her start when she created her YouTube channel Macbarbie07 in June 2009. Originally, it was simply something designed to be a fun outlet for a tween girl who wanted nothing more than to share her opinions on fashion and style. She had no clue that a few years later, she would be featured multiple times by the LA Times, and that her “style haul” videos – and others featuring her seasonal and occasional video fan favorites – would make her a huge YouTube star. Today, Bethany Mota’s YouTube channel has over 8.3 million subscribers and her videos have been seen over 662 million times. A true social media phenomenon, she also has close to 2.4 million dedicated followers on Twitter, and over 4.4 million on Instagram.
5,264,318 subscribers
614,588,528 views
Lilly Singh, known on YouTube as IISuperwomanII, is an Indo-Canadian YouTube personality. She currently has more than 590 million views and over 5 million subscribers on her channel. She has collaborated with digital talent including Ryan Higa, Jenna Marbles, Hannah Hart and Grace Helbig as well as mainstream celebrities Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Priyanka Chopra. She is known for her satirical sketches on everyday life and her character inspired by her Punjabi parents.
460,498 subscribers
65,319,261 views
Born and raised near Toronto, Canada, Jasmeet Singh aka Jus Reign began to create YouTube videos in 2009. His general and obscure comedy touches on the lifestyle and experiences with the South Asian or immigrant diaspora, showcasing his relationship with his parents. Jus Reign has also been trained in classical Indian music and many of his videos involve musical elements. He has gained a huge following on Vine with close to 850k followers and a Facebook following of the same amount, growing steadily.
5,172,624 subscribers
1,099,889,883 views
Kurt Hugo Schneider is a songwriter, director and producer of films, music videos and recordings. His YouTube channel started in 2007 and now has over 5 million subscribers, 25 million monthly views, 1 billion+ total views and over 150 videos. Kurt has collaborated with numerous artists including Victoria Justice, Jason Mraz, Jason Derulo, Philip Phillips, Christina Grimme, and of course his long-time buddy, Sam Tsui. Recognised as an innovative producer in the music and entertainment industry, he lives and works in Los Angeles.
1,827,012 subscribers
170,803,548 views
Sam Tsui was among the first to establish a hugely popular music-focused channel on YouTube, along with his production partner Kurt Hugo Schneider. Hailed as an internet singing sensation, his videos include original compositions, covers, medleys and mashups and have amassed over 500 million hits on YouTube since 2011. The creative 25 year-old released his debut original album “Make It Up” in 2013 and completed a two-month domestic tour in 2013 with a seven country Asia tour in 2014.
Local YouTubers:
54,777 subscribers
2,874,081 views
Abish Mathew is one of the most experienced and unique comedians in the country. His performances are littered with funny original songs, silent enacted one man sketches, online shows, improv and stand up that keep his style of comedy fresh and thoroughly entertaining. Abish has performed as a headliner comic for comedy companies like Weirdass Comedy, The Papa CJ Comedy Company, All India Bakchod, Schitzengiggles and many more. He was recently one of the panelists on the AIB Knockout.
2,359 subscribers
75,260 views
Bryden-Parth is a musical outfit which was born out of a combination of Bryden’s contemporary Western influences and Parth’s background in Indian classical music, late night impromptu jam sessions involving the flute, guitar, singing, beat-boxing, along with the realisation that all these elements tweaked and produced into a groovy professional set, could be a lot of fun. The acoustic duo has a unique expression. Having travelled across the world with the multiple music projects they belong to, they’ve picked up music styles from different cultures. Their act explores global sounds like Celtic, Country, Pop, and staying true to their Indian roots, Bollywood. On stage, the two of them share an endearing chemistry that comes from the experimental and exciting nature of their music, combined with their entertaining individual personalities.
128,679 subscribers
10,032,510 views
East India Comedy (EIC) is a comedy collective comprising some of India’s top comedians – Sorabh Pant, Kunal Rao, Sapan Verma, Sahil Shah, Azeem Banatwalla and Azeem Khatri. Their shenanigans on the EIC channel include sketches, song parodies, news comedy and stand up comedy clips. They are also known for their Bollywood worst-of show, The Ghanta Awards. East India Comedy have toured India and are branching out to new audiences around the world.
13,007 subscribers
588,868 views
Elton J Fernandez is an independent beauty professional, Mumbai-based make-up artist and hairstylist with an established name in the Fashion and Glam industry – from runway to advertising, bridal to celebrity, editorial to film. His most recent venture involves setting up India’s first professional YouTube beauty channel where he demonstrates personal and accessible beauty tips, and pays tribute to darker skin tones, in an effort to nullify social biases against skin colour by re-inventing the concept of what is considered ‘beautiful’.
29,987 subscribers
1,701,785 views
Going under the anthem “We are not Madrasi, We are Just Padosi,” Enna Da Rascalas is ‘your neighborhood comedy group from the South.’ Three men and a woman who travel the globe to educate the uneducated on the style and charm of South-India.
16,241 subscribers
1,520,321 views
Indo-Canadian singer Jonita Gandhi is a young and promising music talent with hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide having come to know her through her YouTube videos. Trained in a western classical style of singing, her versatile and broad vocal range enables her to sing everything from Opera to RnB to Hindustani semi classical and more. Now she is a highly sought-after artist touring the world as Sonu Nigam’s lead female singer and regularly recording and performing alongside AR Rahman, Salim-Sulaiman, Amit Trivedi, and YouTube collaborator Aakash Gandhi. With her online presence and videos, she has gained widespread recognition in the Bollywood music industry. Among her recent Bollywood credits are Kahaan Hoon Main (Highway), Dil Chaspiya (Kochadaiyaan) and Maaloom (Lekar Hum Deewana Dil).
Kanan Gill & Biswa Kalyan Rath
198,319 subscribers
16,781,058 views
Biswa Kalyan Rath has been dabbling with stand-up comedy all over Bangalore for over a year now, cracking audiences up with his observational comedy. Co-creator of the wildly popular and completely humourous Pretentious Movie Reviews, he is an IIT alumni and believes in stereotypes.
Kanan Gill is a part of the new wave of Indian online comics. He is a writer, musician, stand-up comedian, software engineer and fitness enthusiast. His YouTube channel has close to 200,000 subscribers with video series like the ‘The Pretentious Reviews’ a hugely successful mock Bollywood online review series along with Biswa’s and various other solo videos. He exploded onto the stand-up scene by winning the Punch Line Bangalore competition, going on to win the open mic at The Comedy Store in Bombay. Kanan is also part of other collectives like ‘The Improvisers,’ and ‘The Yellow Experiment.’
21,761 subscribers
2,549,211 views
Maati Baani, the brainchild of Nirali Kartik and Kartik Shah, combine rustic folk, Sufism, Hindustani classical, funk and new age sounds with world music. Celebrating “One World, One Love and One Language,” they collaborate with famous musicians and rare talent of the world purely online, producing original music with songs like ‘Balma’ – an Indo-French song with 11 musicians from 5 countries and ‘Rang Rangiya’ – the first ever India-Pakistan peace song.
123,616 subscribers
27,346,170 views
Clarinetist and composer Shankar Tucker, creator of the online music video series “The Shrutibox” with over 27 million views and 125,000 fans, “magnificently blends the essence of Jazz, Pop, and Indian Classical music to create seamless fusion” (Hindustan Times). Shankar has recorded and performed with many notable musicians worldwide and been featured on MTV’s Coke Studio, MTV Roots and Sony Entertainment Television.
38,609 subscribers
5,866,593 views
Fashion and beauty blogger Scherezade Shroff a.k.a. Sherry currently has over 5.7 million views, making it one of India’s biggest beauty and fashion channels. Featuring hair and makeup DIY’s and tutorials, and lots of other fun crazy videos, Sherry always says “Have fun with fashion, there are no rules!” Sherry also has two other channels, the recently launched Coupling!with her fiancé and GottaDoIndia, her travel channel.
108,790 subscribers
7,990,509 views
SnG Comedy aka Schitzengiggles Comedy is India’s wackiest comedy collective. The group was founded in 2011 and comprises of Karan Talwar, Varun Thakur, Brij Bhakta, Aadar Malik, Neville Shah and Kautuk Srivastava. The six buddies love performing stand up, improv and sketch comedy on stage. SnG began making comedy videos on YouTube in 2014.
13,885 subscribers
1,511,647 views
Sonal Sagaraya is an Indian beauty and lifestyle vlogger. What started out as an experiment four years back has now turned out to be a profession for her. Sonal makes tutorials focusing on the minutest details while still keeping them entertaining and fun. Creating makeup looks, nail art designs and treats are the things she’s most passionate about. The best part about being a YouTuber she says is communicating with her audience and knowing that there are people from the remotest pockets of the world watching her videos.
21,847 subscribers
3,137,118 views
Ford Seeuws is an opinionated, film-loving, surfing, violin-playing, aspiring filmmaker American living in India. He fell in love with the history and culture of India and decided to move there. Seeuws wanted to experience a different way of life, make new friends, cross cultures and record it all on YouTube. He aspires to be the best source of cross-cultural web video for the next generation of Americans and Indians and promote mutual understanding and discovery.
1,009,959 subscribers
86,212,717 views
The Viral Fever’s Online Network for Entertainment (TVF-ONE) is the biggest online video content destination for the youth in India across genres like drama, comedy and non-fiction. It has three YouTube channels – “TVF VIDEOS”, TVF Recycle Bin and Humorously Yours, and together has over 1.2 million subscribers. Launched in 2012 by Arunabh Kumar, TVF-ONE has been responsible for some of the biggest viral videos in the country and is a pioneer in the evolution of original web content. Creator of some of the biggest properties like ‘Chai Sutta Chronicles‘, ‘The Making Of‘ and ‘Barely Speaking with Arnub‘, its latest drama show ‘Permanent Roommates‘ is the most viewed branded web series in the world.
427,712 subscribers
234,162,216 views
“Vahchef” aka Sanjay Thumma is a chef specialising in Indian cuisine. Sanjay began his career with the reputable ITC hotels at Gurgaon, Chennai, Agra and Jaipur before shifting base to Chicago in 1998 and starting his own restaurant series ‘Sizzle India’. He now focuses his energy on his website www.vahrehvah.com based in Hyderabad. His YouTube channel with over 230 million views features his delicious and innovative recipes. Vahchef also won the prestigious Gold Medal in All-India Competition for Culinary Arts.
1,909 subscribers
213,296 views
Vasuda Sharma is one of India’s few one-woman electro-acoustic live acts. Famed for her use of the loop station, she fuses beat boxing, live instrumentation, Indian and Western classical influences with her vocals. Sharma was discovered in an online contest representing India in the 2010 Popkomm Festival in Germany. She has collaborated with musicians from all over the world and recorded a folk fusion album, ‘Attuned Spirits’ raising funds through crowdfunding to release the album.
88KeysToEuphoria - Aakash Gandhi
97,241 subscribers
27,668,663 views
Aakash Gandhi is an American composer, pianist, songwriter, and entrepreneur who is currently based in Mumbai, India. He is widely known for his largely instrumental and acoustic musical arrangements which blend piano and world elements. His YouTube music channel ‘88 Keys To Euphoria’ was created in 2008. It now features over 130 videos and has amassed over 27 million views. After its conception ‘88 Keys To Euphoria’ soon became a collaborative powerhouse, where Aakash used the large global audience listening to his music to promote hidden musical talent around the world. This began with flutist Sahil Khan in 2011 and vocalist Jonita Gandhi in 2012. Amongst some of his most popular videos are “Tujhe Bhula Diya on Piano,” “Pani Da Rang (Acoustic Cover),” “Tum Hi Ho (Acoustic Cover),” and “Galliyan (Acoustic Cover).”
