Saloni Gaur is one of the more famous Indian names on the web because of the satirical and humorous content she keeps delivering with alarming regularity. Gaur is best known for her videos where she switches over to her satirical alter egos Nazma Aapi and Kangana Runout. Her videos are short and crisp and that has worked wonders for her.
But when Gaur started out making videos a few years ago, they used to be longer. “When I used to make videos on Instagram initially, they used to be 3–4 minutes long," she told Cinestaan.com. "But later I realized that the reach for short videos is more because you speak to-the-point in them. There is no build-up or any such thing.”
Gaur agreed that surfers' impatience while on the internet is one reason why shorter videos are in vogue. “People don’t have much time," she said. "The point is to make short videos that people see and move ahead. That’s why their reach is more. And now Instagram has launched Reels [section]. So, their thinking is that if there are small videos, they will reach more people.”
Gaur said she began making videos on Instagram to entertain herself as she was bored being in Delhi for studies, away from her family in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh. But then her videos started going viral and there was no looking back.
In the role of Nazma Aapi, Gaur impersonates a common Muslim woman who shares her take on current socio-political affairs in a humorous manner. And her character Kangana Runout is a spoof of actress Kangana Ranaut. Putting on a wig, Gaur mimics the controversial actress and slams people from the fields of cinema to politics to cricket, all in good humour.
Speaking of short vidoes, UFO Moviez recently launched its own short video app Zinglin, which offers content creators the chance to get their videos screened in movie halls. Responding to this, Gaur said, “When I had seen a movie in a theatre for the first time, I got so excited. In our country, and in others as well, if you are featured on the big screen, it is a different experience altogether. It’s a good thing that you people are doing.” (UFO Moviez, a digital cinema distribution network, is an investor in Cinestaan Digital Private Limited, the company that runs this website.)
Gaur now has a show of her own called Uncommon Sense With Saloni. It recently went live on the Sony LIV platform.