Mania ki Duniya: That funny channel you don't know about

It's tough to find a channel that is genuinely funny nowadays. Any comedy show on TV is more likely to make you weep. That's where YouTube provides respite. Alongside channels such The Viral Fever and All India Bakchod, check out another humour feed - Mania ki Duniya.

Creator of the channel Mania Ki Duniya, Manish Karnatak

Mania ki Duniya is a pleasant world with 2D animated characters - one of its most popular shows is the Bollywood Classroom, where a teacher asks his students nonsensical questions and whose answers are hilarious takes on Bollywood songs. Take, for example, this question: ‘Duniya' is spelt with an ‘i' in English. Toh duniya mein i ho to kya karna chahiye? Answer: Duniya mein aaye (i) ho to love kar lo, thoda sa jee lo, thoda thoda mar lo!"

Stills from the channel's shows

The characters such as the teacher, Gullu, the student with spiked hair, rebellious Dhunki and the boy who always answers with ‘Sal, nahi pata sal' (pronouncing sir as sal) are immensely popular. Another popular show on the channel is Mehta Kuch Nahi Kehta, in which a hassled boy is inundated with questions and complaints by his dominating girlfriend, Sheela. Mehta is left dumbfounded by the escalation in reactions (hence the title).

Naturally funny
Creator Manish Karnatak, a creative writer with a radio channel in Delhi, recalls, "I used to crack such jokes all the time, so I made it into a video and uploaded it on YouTube about six months ago." A couple of days later, a friend sent him a link to the same video on WhatsApp. It had gone viral. Enthused, Karnatak kept making new videos and people kept coming back for more. Fans asked him to make a Facebook page and he did. "People even talk in the same lingo as my characters," says 30-year-old Karnatak, who worked in advertising before, but found it too shallow.

Soon, YouTube identified Mania ki Duniya as one of the fastest growing channels in its genre and made him a partner. This means ads run before each video starts, and the channel makes money, depending on the number of views. The channel currently has more than 1.27 lakh subscribers. "Mania ki Duniya has more fans on Facebook than TVF and AIB. I think that says a lot," says the man who was called Mania in his hometown, Pithoragarh, in Uttarakhand. He states, "Bollywood Classroom is uploaded every Wednesday night, and people stay up to watch the videos."

Expanding further
Karnatak has now launched a new series, Dhunki's Self Defence Classes, to aid women in dangerous situations. "After almost every incident of rape, an NGO or a group starts a crash course in self-defence for women. But it's difficult for women to remember those moves by learning them only for a couple of days," he adds. In his video, Karnatak has tackled real-life situations women face, and in a funny yet educative way, explained how they can teach the culprits a lesson.

Mania ki Duniya has been approached by several advertisers, but Karnatak has locked a deal with an online retailer who promised it wouldn't interfere with the content. "Content is king. I don't like forceful brand integrations," he says. The channel is a one-man army, with Karnatak taking help for music tracks. With the number of subscribers rising, and YouTube telling him to expand, he plans to hire some additional writers. "Some actors also approached me to write some spoof scripts for them," he tells me. Mania's world is just getting bigger.