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Would you be able to sing to a stranger in a park full of bystanders? Influencer Shekhar Kripalani shares how he started his career creating videos of him singing and performing in front of strangers in public parks.
How did you get into content creation?
So I started singing covers in March of 2020 in my basement, and that’s kind of when Tik Tok kind of launched as well. I started focusing on covers, and then transitioned to the public content as well. It was just a little more fun, and I thought that the audience was taking that a little better than the covers in terms of engagement and traction.
When did your first reel go viral?
When I started singing in different languages, that’s when the videos started doing decently well. I was capturing a different audience who were South Indian, who spoke Tamil and Telugu, and I think the first video that went super viral was when I went into an Indian restaurant and I just started singing ‘Sheila Ki Jawani’. That was my first attempt at singing in public, and it did well, so that was the first one.
How many languages do you speak?
I speak two: Hindi and English, but I can sing in all languages, because I try to learn the pronunciation. I write it down, and I try to hear how it’s pronounced, and I mimic it basically.
How did you get into singing, and did you have any formal training?
No formal training actually. I just tried out for the acapella group when I was a freshman at Rutgers University, and I ended up just doing it for four years and put in the work, and now I feel like I can kind of sing. So, no formal training.
You film a variety of different types of videos. Is there one type of video that you really enjoy creating from start to finish?
I really enjoy it when I’m able to sing Hindi songs to people who aren’t Indian. Editing those videos is super cool. Just going up to people in public and singing to them and seeing their reaction is super dope. No one is really doing that in America or Canada … getting another person’s reaction who isn’t Indian is intriguing to me.
Do you ever get nervous to do it in public?
I used to get so nervous, and I would be like I don’t want to do it. My buddy brought up the idea to do this, and he would push me to do it. Now it’s kind of fun … now it’s good vibes all of the time. I’m going to Washington Square park in the sun and singing to people, and they enjoy it.
What’s your favorite reel you’ve ever created?
I started doing these reels recently which was like pretending I can’t sing, and singing properly afterwards. That’s a new idea that I just tried, and editing those videos are so fun. The video didn’t do really well, but editing it was like ‘Damn, this is what I really want to do. I want to actually sing and not just mess around, but spread my talent.’ I don’t want to just do music or just record music … I kind of also want to be in front of the camera.
How do you reconcile user engagement and creating content that you like and enjoy producing?
Obviously, it’s the terrible videos that get crazy engagement, and the ones where I work hard will flop, and it actually does hurt me a lot. I struggle with this whole engagement thing, because I obviously want every video to do well. Going out in public takes the life out of me, I put in so much energy, and I’m an introverted person anyways so going out and singing to people is a lot for me.
You mentioned that you’re an introvert. Do you have to help prepare yourself before you go out and sing?
Think about yourself going out in public and singing. If I’m at a party, I’m in the corner doing my thing, I suck at mingling and stuff like that. Before, it was really scary, I would think of every possible negative outcome that could occur because of it … now it’s kind of like business, I just have to turn on a switch and be like I have to shoot a video this week, let’s get it done.”
You have talked about how concentrated the content creation genre is specifically in New York City. Is that something that has intimidated you, because it might be difficult to go into the same line of work as many other people around your age?
I’m not intimidated, I feel like I stand out with what I’m doing. I’m doing stuff that people don’t do. Some people might find it cringe, I’m very aware of society and stuff like that, but I’m doing something that no one is doing. From that sense, I’m very comfortable with my content, but the part that makes me uncomfortable is when I constantly compare myself with someone else and their journey, and I do that a lot. I really stay off social media unless I have to post, because it really triggers me. Everytime I’m on Instagram, I check other people’s engagement, and I guess it’s a young 24-year old’s competitive mindset, which at the end of the day affects me.
What is the hardest part of content creation?
The hardest part is detaching yourself from the results. I enjoy every part of making content … I enjoy editing it, I enjoy putting it out, but as soon as I’m off Instagram and Tik Tok, and I hop back on after a week or a couple days, and I see that it didn’t do well, that’s the hardest part.
What was your inspiration behind wanting to create this type of content?
I think it’s really important to know your purpose in life, and sometimes it takes a lot of time, and sometimes it doesn’t. I always knew I wanted to entertain people in whatever capacity: that could be acting, singing, I never wanted to put a cap or limit on what I wanted to do. That’s why I’m very comfortable with the content I make, I don’t really care about what other people have to say about it.
