Happy birthday, Niharika NM: Tracing her remarkable career trajectory
What's the story
Niharika NM, who became a household name with her quick-witted 30-second videos, has taken the Indian entertainment scene by storm.
What initially started as a hobby gradually transformed into a genuine passion.
From collaborating with celebrities to gracing the red carpet at Cannes Film Festival, her journey has been nothing short of extraordinary.
On her 26th birthday, we delve into her remarkable career trajectory.
Beginnings
How did it all start for Niharika?
Niharika's success story began when during her college years, she experienced a sense of dissatisfaction with what she was doing and it was in her second year of engineering that she came to a profound realization—she had no passion for pursuing engineering.
This pivotal moment prompted her to make a bold choice: she picked up a camera and embraced content creation as a hobby.
Career choices
Niharika's journey essentially began on YouTube
While Niharika rose to prominence with Instagram Reels, her journey actually began on YouTube back in 2016.
In eight years, she amassed 1.83M followers on her YouTube channel. In an interview, Niharika shared how she is contemplating returning to YouTube for some time now.
"But before diving back in, I want to discover what kind of long-format content truly excites me," she shared.
Success story
Her Instagram success story
In 2020, Niharika took the plunge and uploaded her first short-format content on Instagram.
Her debut video—Living Alone 101—garnered a staggering 11M views in less than 13 days. Presently, her Instagram account boasts an incredible following of over 2.1M devoted fans.
What sets her apart is the dose of comfort that she infuses in her videos and serves with a touch of Bengaluru colloquialisms.
Challenges
Challenges encountered on the way to success
Success doesn't come easy and this holds true in the case of Niharika, too, who struggled in balancing the demanding coursework of engineering with the creative demands of content creation.
Along with her success came the trolls, both online and offline. She faced mockery and backhanded comments.
She even endured comments, ironic quoting of her videos, whispers, stares, and laughter directed at her.
Collaboration
First-ever content creator to collaborate with actors Yash, Mahesh Babu
In recent times, Niharika became the first-ever creator to collaborate with renowned Kannada actors Yash and Mahesh Babu.
She has also made short videos with several A-list Bollywood actors including, Ajay Devgn, Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Aamir Khan among others.
In May, Niharika also made a splashing appearance at the 76th Cannes Film Festival and attended the screening of Anurag Kashyap's Kennedy.