Content creator Nick, better known as Be YouNick (read Be unique) on social media, just made his OTT debut with a comedy web series, Apna Villa. The show stars Nick and Tusharr Khair as two broke friends who are on a long vacation at a luxury villa but come up with the idea of renting out the place after one of them loses his job. In an interview with Hindustan Times, Nick opens up about the 5-episode show and also answers various questions revolving around the concept of content creation on the web. Also read: Kunal Roy Kapur on the weird connection between Delhi Belly, Tripling 3: ‘This is another kind of typecasting’
Nick has also directed the show along with Vivek Menon. Currently streaming on Amazon miniTV, Apna Villa also stars Nick and Vivek along with Tusharr Khair and Atul Khatri in pivotal roles. Nick has a massive fan following on internet and feels his fans would love more of what he has already been offering on his YouTube channel. He says, “This is my first web series outside YouTube. People love the content we make for 1 minute or 8 minutes. This one is 25-30 minutes per episode. It’s a lot more laughter and fun. People would love our stuff. This is like the original gang of Me and Tushar, Vivek and Manmeet coming back together after too long. Initially, we used to isolate ourselves to make stuff, that’s the same we did here. It’s the best of us.”
Nick says Apna Villa is inspired from a concept similar to Airbnb. Elaborating more about the series, he says, “We are working from home and living on rent. But a few of us lose our job. So, we turn the place into a holiday home and rent it out like Airbnb. How we treat the guests to everything turns out to be a laughter riot. Fun is contagious, we had so much fun making it that we feel the viewer too have the same amount of fun watching it. There is a twist in the last episode. It is like what you expect from a BeYouNick video.”
Ask him about his own favourite web series and Nick names American TV series Entourage as his favourite. “I can’t live like that, so its my all time favourite. I am hoping it comes back,” he says. Among the Indian shows, he names Pratik Gandhi-starrer Scam 1992 as the best one.
During the chat, Nick also opens up about social media addiction and how can one draw a line. Despite a fan following of 1.9 million followers and posting content regularly, he says, “I am generally not on phone. I stay away from it as much as possible, and that’s how you draw a line. I don’t consume a lot on social media because I am also a writer. I don’t consume a lot because I may get inspired even if I don’t want to. It remains in the subconscious mind and we may try to imitate it.”
On being asked to share a message for those who get demotivated on watching ‘perfect lives’ of people on Instagram, Nick says, “At the end of the day, if you can sleep easily at night, you are having a great life. I have seen a lot of people putting on a face, they were wearing masks way before coronavirus pandemic. Their lives were more miserable than what they show. You should not always believe in what you see. Its always you against yourself.”
Nick however, disagrees with those who say over exposure on social media can have adverse effects for a talent creator. On being asked if too much social media exposure can kill audience’s interest in seeing a celebrity on screen, he says, “I am a strong believer in content value, not star value. No matter you have not been seen for past 10 years or are seen every day, if the stuff is good, you are going to be recognized.”