So fellas I am back with another big interview, today I have Rajnikant Vs CID Jokes director Shahid Javed. Yes he is not Ankit Mor, but director of RVCJ team. So I got in touch with Shahid on facebook and got to know more about his story of RVCJ. I asked Shahid will he be available for doing this interview, he said yes and I was sure that I am going to ask him very quirky questions.
So here you go with the interview of Shahid Javed.
- First of all please introduce yourself ? Share about your education background ?
Well there is nothing really much to know about me. Just a family man with a beautiful wife and two power packed kids who are constantly reminding me that ' DAMN, I am a DAD right now '. It is hilarious to see myself standing at this position. I am a kind of a person who turns up to them and seek motivation. Apart from this, I am an MBA graduate with a certificate ! Nowadays people are more interested in your certificates than your skills.
- How did you started with idea of RVCJ ? What was the main reason behind it ?
It was out of the blue. I had no plans for it. I was introduced to Facebook or more precisely I was an 'ORKUT' migrant who was interested in humor content but back then there were just quite a few of them. Rajinikant Sir's movie ROBOT was released back then which was a huge hit and many social media groups including BBM were quoting and using his film's dialogue for creating content for their pages.
Also at the same time CID TV Series was rocking the entire industry by doing many promotion with Salman Khan for his upcoming movies like 'Wanted' &'Bodyguard'.
Every individual page on Facebook as well as on various groups started rolling out memes based on these subjects. And then I as struck with the thought of fusing them together and creating a page which would consist the contents from both the subjects.
And from there itself, within 3 minutes the most important chapter of my life was scripted - Rajnikant V/s CID Jokes.
I was just like any of those lazy guys who dreamt to dream about having wonderful dreams while taking a so called 'NAP'. I was indeed a Vella which helped me to think and brainstorm a lot of content for my Page.
People have been asking this question for a lot of times. RVCJ was indeed founded by me on 10.10.10 but Ankit has a huge role for making RVCJ what it is today. During the first year of RVCJ, I just had a mere 30k odd members and I used to post only 'TEXT Jokes' which apparently had lesser potential for maximum reach. Facebook algorithm is a very important thing and unfortunately I didn't give much importance to it.
But after 1 year, Ankit who was completing his MBA back then joined into the team and he started posting out memes which had the potential for maximum reach and this indeed helped our page grow like a monster.
He could have gone ahead with his well settled job in PEPSI company but decided to stay back and work with my dreams. He left his job the day when we commercialized RVCJ which was a bold step back then when TV SERIES like PITCHERS was just on scripted on papers.
For commercializing RVCJ Mr. Harpreet Bajwa played a very important role by bringing up the website with the best SEO optimizations. He is an IT expert and a B-TECH Graduate who was working as a Technical Head in an MNC. It takes a special effort to come out of your comfort zone and do something off the trend which is risky as well as well as stupid in many ways. But that is what LIFE is all about - Taking Calculated Risk !
Apart from these two, there are many who joined into our journey for becoming the most popular Facebook page in India. Contents Writers and Meme Creators are certainly the ones who are and will be the backbone of our company. And let us not forget the 10 Million subscribers who showered their blessing upon us from the day one.
RVCJ Ke subscribers hai to RVCJ hai, Agar RVCJ Ke subscribers nahi to RVCJ bhi kuch nahi And with that, we completed our RVCJ Family. We were then a fully fledged NEWS/MEDIA House which was a dream come true for 'JOKERS' like us.
We have 3 Directors. Ankit Mor, Harpreet Bajwa and my wife Rizwana Ansari.
Well, I think we were able to connect with the youth. If you look into our Insight then you find that more than 60% of our subscribers belong to the age group of 18-35. There are teenagers, students and office people who basically gets quite frustrated after a whole day's work. They indeed want someone to make them laugh and put a smile of their face just so as to relieve some tension.
Watching your favorite channel in an Indian family is not that easy. You actually have to fight for it and not every 'shayari' of Sidhu Paaji are that great. So in order to get clear, crisp humorous content, the best way was to switch to our page and this situation indeed helped our page to gain so much of attention.
The biggest challenge was to maintain BALANCE. This is something that many startups of today are lacking and hence they are ending up in screwing themselves in the worst possible scenario. BALANCE between your work in which you believe and your personal life as well as your professional or academic life is something that determines your success. And keeping BALANCE wasn't that easy for me too.
At times even I felt low when many of my friends, colleagues and family members asked me to get a ' REAL JOB'. But somehow I kept going, believing in myself that Yes this WILL click and eventually achieved my goal which was never a part of my plan. True, life is all about surprises.
The reaction was a usual one - 'Go Get A Real Job'. But I don't blame them for this mentality as even if today my kid shows his desire to become an Actor, I would still be naive about it for a second or so. Job security is something which is indeed very important. But then if this is what he likes and has passion towards it, then it is better to let him fly than to make him rot in midst of maintaining a so called ' JOB SECURITY '.
Well, the answer for this question is quite funny and complicated as well. People actually don't know me that much. Although in a way I can still say that every day I get nearly 30-40 friend requests/Followers on Facebook but that is comparatively quite low to the scenario which you are depicting or assuming. However, once someone gets to know about me being the admin of RVCJ, they indeed ask for selfies which is something really amazing.
Young kids from the age group of around 13-23 personally text me to get some idea about making the most of Social Media. And personally speaking, it gives me a great pleasure to reply them back as I do want them to do great but on their own. So the pressure of handling fame is not a big deal as I love doing my job.
Keep giving interviews like these ! ! (Chuckles) Well, our elders always advise us to think about future but what I want to do right now is to just cherish the present. Yes, we have laid down some few important milestones that we want to achieve in future. We are already quite engaged in various social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and even Viber. You never know which of these can become the next big hit.
But there is this one place where we aren't that active and that is YouTube. So we would soon be coming out with our own Web Series and much more Video Content. And it is quite generous of you to see us where Buzzfeed is today. Definitely, we do like everything that makes us great and successful.
At first, way back when we were nothing that just a mere Facebook Page, hate comments used to piss me off. But now when we are actually a successful running business model, hate comments makes me feel pity for the people who write such stuff. You don't need to handle hate comments if you don't think much about it. And in a way I have achieved quite a lot than I could imagine a few years back, which gives me a feeling of RELATIVE SUCCESS. And once you are successful in your life, hate comments don't really bother much.
The amount of energy & time that I consume for replying such people, I can indeed easily channelize such energy to earn or crack a deal for the sponsorship of my RVCJ Facebook page.
Always keep yourself updated with everything. Think with an open mind without any pre-planned objectives. Twitter and Facebook Trending charts have been proving like an icing on the cake ever since these features have been launched. Such features have helped us a lot for making many viral contents.
When you post something related to the Trending Topic with appropriate hashtags, the contents has to become a hit. This should always be the Thumb Rule for every Facebook page that dreams of becoming just like us.
By staying foolish and idiotic all the time. ( Chuckles). You don't need to be anyone for becoming like him which is actually a criteria for becoming like him. Quite confused, Right? If you chase after something in your life just so as to become like it, you will eventually end up losing your own personality.
Be what you are are. Well apart from this personality perceived question, if you want to become like a founder of RVCJ, then you need consistency and humour inside yourself. Hard work is something that is really needed for every profession in the world and this is no exception.
Well, If you start thinking about the survival then you won't be living your present. We don't survive the competition but nurture ourselves with it. Competitions are always good that brings the best out of us. So in a way you can say that we actually thrive on competitions.
There is no other page apart from RVCJ. Although we do have categorized RVCJ in various sub pages which deals in Sports, Hindi Jokes, Videos and Movies.
Google Adsense is our main source of income which roughly accounts for 70% of our income and the rest 30% is from Affiliate Marketing, 3 rd Party Display Ads and Direct client promotions. Many people have been asking us about the 'MONEY' that we make in a month and it is hilarious to see how many analytical websites have estimated our earning as high up to 50-60 lakhs per month.
Although revealing our income is sort of our internal matter and I would like not to disclose it - 'NAZAR NA LAG JAYE KAHI'. However, it is good enough to make a decent living in this rough world. #KeepGuessing
It's only me who screws up the 'arse' for getting various sponsors and many Bollywood tie-ups. I am solely doing many corporate tie-ups for getting sponsors. However, with so many works, I hardly get time for sharing any content on my page which was ironically created by me six years ago.
But that is how time flies and you change. Looking for Bollywood and Corporate ties ups are indeed a part of my job now which is serving the same purpose and that is doing something for my Facebook Page which is now my LIFE.
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