When actor Alia Bhatt had a baby girl this month, some priceless desi advice came from a rural corner of Haryana. In pure Haryanvi dialect, Instagram influencer Rakhi Lohchab told Bhatt to organise a geet, invite all of Mumbai and serve Oreo biscuits to the guests. Why? Because that is what they do in Haryana.
Alia Bhatt and her mother-in-law Neetu Singh didn’t respond, but this Instagram reel was enough signal to thousands of Haryanvis online that their time had come.
Rakhi Lohchab has been making Haryanavispeak look cool one reel at a time, monetising the recent boom in Haryanvi culture in India’s popular imagination. It began with songs in Dev-D (2009), Tanu weds Manu Returns (2015) and Dangal (2016) and has been slowly edging out the total dominance of Punjabi culture.
When the Haryanvi athlete in Chak De India (2007) let out her ‘bhains ki aankh’ dialogues and Udham Singh held forth on Channel V with his bamboo stick in the 1990s, it endeared millions of Indians to the rich, sing-song dialect enriched with pastoral metaphors.
Rakhi Lohchab has a list of familiar tropes—she makes fun of a Haryanvi desi couple going on a date to buy mewa ka ghewar, and compares it with city couples going to Starbucks and Tim Horton; the nosy neighbourhood Haryanvi aunty overhearing conflicts in the next-door family; a flight attendant who belts out security directions in Haryanvi dialect where ‘kursi ki peti’ (seat belt) is likened to a dog leash.
For too long, Haryanvi accent has been mocked as uncouth, laughable, and too desi. Now with more and more influencers owning their identity, #HaryanviPride is a real thing.
“We made Haryanvi cool by owning it,” Rakhi says.
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Auchandi to Australia
From MTV Roadies to YouTube to Instagram, Rakhi Lohchab’s journey is one of Haryanvi chutzpah and the art of turning trauma into comedy or traumedy. She spoke openly about her father beating her mother, the break-up of a long relationship, and on Neha Dhupia calling her the ‘Dhakkadgirl’ on MTV.
“My father used to beat my mother. He had an extramarital affair. I used to listen before sleeping at night. Then one day I took a stand for my mother,” had said then-22-year-old Rakhi in her MTV Roadies audition in 2017. She looked straight at the camera while she spoke about her fraught ties with her late father and her other personal relationships.
But her online content is not about her difficult experiences. From playing a Haryanvi mother to an all-intrusive and easily offended bua, her content is a light-touch satire delivered in her native dialect, making it both an inside social critique and reverse-mocking the external gaze on her community.
As a ‘content creator,’ actor and influencer, the 28-year-old has a finger on the pulse of popular culture. She has 343k followers on Instagram and 645k subscribers on YouTube. Most of her videos are shot in Auchandi, a village near Bawana, where she currently lives.
One of her popular posts, ‘Desi Aunties in Weddings,’ where she sings and gives advice to young brides, has over a million hits. Playing the role of a village woman, her character comments on another woman dancing during the festivities. “She is dancing only for biscuit packets,” she says.
Her “clean” content is a hit across age groups. “You are a proud Haryanvi girl, and u make us proud also,” said one woman in the comments section. Another praised her for her authenticity. “…Whenever I miss my chachi, maami, daadi, I watch your video.”
The characters Rakhi plays are at once endearing and empowering. In one Instagram reel, a male passerby complains about her choice of clothes. She is wearing a pair of palazzos, a far cry from the traditional saris or kurtas that rural women normally wear. The man complains to her husband, to which Rakhi’s character says: “Palazzo main paharu su tere pajame main kis baat ki aag laag ri sai.(I am wearing a palazzo, why are your pants on fire?).”
She takes potshots at the domestic rivalry between a young woman and her bhabhi (sister-in-law) too. In one reel, she mocks her bhabhi who is depicted as a greedy, acquisitive character. The lady went to the market and bought a drawstring for herself but her sister-in-law is so greedy that she takes it. “Wa palazzo aur pant ke suit pahara kare iss naade tai ke vo fansi khake maregi (She wears palazzo and pants she wants to hang herself with that drawstring),” says Rakhi in her reel.
Then there is the bua or paternal aunt, who loves her nephew but is critical of his mother. When her nephew asks what is in the bags, bua replies, “These are the suits your mother gave me last time, they are not nice. Your mother doesn’t know how to treat us.” Her videos and even vlogs, which she started experimenting with, inject humour into the mundane. She forces her viewers to laugh at their foibles and petty jealousies. The content is too real for comfort.
In October she went abroad for the first time—to Melbourne in Australia to host a Haryanvi event. It was a pleasant surprise for her to know that she has a fanbase among the Indian diaspora and Rakhi intends to tap into it.
“A woman in Australia told me, ‘Even in abroad after watching your videos, we feel that we have a little bit of Haryana with us. We see the characters of your aunt, mother, and grandmother as part of our family’,” says Rakhi.
Melbourne gave her the opportunity to experiment with content by reaching out to strangers. In one reel, Rakhi teaches an Australian woman Haryanvi slang.
She posted reels commenting on the wide roads and nice houses, but how it doesn’t feel like home unless she hears the voice of the conductor shouting, ‘Bahadurgarh-Bahadurgarh.’
These days, her calendar has more international events. There is one in Canada and another in Australia.
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Bollywood dreams
Even as a student, Rakhi was a performer at heart. While most young women in her hometown shelved their dreams of a husband and children, she decided to see where her talent could take her.
If she was bold and honest as a 22-year-old student, dipping a toe into celebrity culture, those traits are magnified as an adult. Rakhi remains a proud and fierce standard-bearer for her home state and its culture.
And like most social media influencers, she too has a Bollywood dream. A specific one, though.
“Bollywood should choose people from Haryana to play a Haryanvi character. You see Randeep Hooda in a Haryanvi character and then look at any other actor. The difference will be visible” she says.
The few who get the opportunity, like Jaideep Ahlawat who turned to his roots for his role as a policeman in Paatal Lok, are hailed for their performance. “There are so many talented people in Haryana, they should also get a chance.”
After her MTV Roadies debut–she did not win, but it helped her become a known face—Rakhi stayed in Mumbai. But she did not get much work because of her accent. Her three-month stint in Mumbai reinforced her determination to make Haryanvi mainstream.
Unhappy with her experience, but full of dreams, she returned home and teamed up with YouTuber Lalit Shokeen, who made Haryanvi videos and series. She got the opportunity to build her identity as a Haryanvi actor with the web series Desi Prem Kahani.
Four years later she was ready to launch her own YouTube channel where she scripted, shot, edited, and produced “funny” videos. Since its launch in 2018, she has uploaded more than a hundred videos and 47 vlogs.
Rakhi is currently focusing on making reels, but she is selective about the work she wants to do. “There are many girls on Instagram who show their bodies and gain followers. That’s not what I want. When people see my profile, they should see my work. That’s what I want to do in future.”
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Questioning traditional paths
Rakhi’s refusal to ‘settle down’ is a sore point among her uncles. While her mother supports her, the uncles find no value in what she does.
“They say that this is cheap work, that all this I do is not good. Such people will not change the way they think,” says Rakhi. She can’t hide the disappointment in her voice.
But her cousin rallied around her. “My cousin Nirbhay Dagar gave me his phone and a laptop to do editing. If I had to go somewhere for work, he would take me there. He has been very supportive,” says Rakhi.
Rakhi’s mother and her maternal aunt are her biggest fans. “The hard work that Rakhi has put in and the amount of talent she has shown. Good things will happen. She will go to Bigg Boss one day and will shine like a star.” says Rakhi’s aunt.
People recognise her when she goes to the grocery store or attends wedding receptions and parties. “When I feel sad at night, I watch Rakhi’s videos. It puts a smile on my face before sleeping,” says 25-year-old Sonia, a doctor from Najafgarh who follows Rakhi on Instagram.
Most of Rakhi’s friends are married and have children, but it is a path she’s hesitant to choose for herself. She has seen how the lives of her women friends have changed.
“Their husbands don’t let them go out of the house anymore. Girls who used to be bold have also changed. Maybe circumstances force you to do this,” says Rakhi in bewilderment.
Her fame also serves as a bulwark against pressure to marry.
“Now I have the power so I can make my own decisions. There is no pressure from family members, but girls always have to prove themselves. If today I was a common girl, then I also would have been married,” says Rakhi.
Her inbox, though, is overflowing with marriage proposals from star-struck fans—businessmen to college students and even Indian Navy officers.
“Just a few days ago, a boy expressed his desire to marry me in a very long message. It had everything from his horoscope to his mother’s gotra. I laughed a lot after reading it,” Rakhi immediately adds that she is not mocking him, but the way people go about making such life-altering decisions. “ I am not making fun of his feelings but how can marriages take place like this?,” she says, scrolling through all the proposals in her inbox.
Rakhi is showing a generation of young girls in her village to experiment with content on social media, and more importantly to question traditional paths chosen for them by their elders.
And she has the ‘blessings’ of the women elders in her village. “They ask me to include them in my videos. They think that they will become famous,” says Rakhi. Eighty-year-old women seeking Rakhi out for their 15 minutes of fame is the highest accolade.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)