Greater Noida: In the Bigg Boss 19 house, Greater Noida’s popular YouTuber Mridul Tiwari romances a Polish woman and says, “Noida dekh lego hang ho jaayegi”. With that, Noida’s moment in the parallel universe of Bigg Boss has arrived. And Tiwari may have just become the next Elvish Yadav.
From local paan sellers to upscale stores, everyone in Greater Noida is watching him. He’s become the new topic of conversation in their otherwise mundane routines. Tiwari’s entry into Bigg Boss has turned him into a symbol of local pride — but that pride now comes with big expectations.
His fans — and even his rivals — want more drama, more fire.
“We’ve known Mridul bhai for the drama he brings to his YouTube videos, but on Bigg Boss, he’s become lukewarm. He needs to step up to gain national popularity like Elvish Yadav,” said one of the popular fan pages of Tiwari’s competitor, Elvish Yadav.
Mridul Tiwari is the latest postcard for Greater Noida. And this suburb has never had such a powerful cultural ambassador before.
But before the national audience got to know Tiwari through Bigg Boss, he was already loved by a sizeable and dedicated fan base in western Uttar Pradesh — especially the Gujjar community. He carries the swagger of a Gujjar landlord, with Lamborghinis and BMWs parked outside his bungalow — not the stereotypical Brahmin boy he happens to be. At the young age of 25, Tiwari has over 19 million subscribers on YouTube – surpassing the following of several movie stars.
Last week, during one of the Bigg Boss tasks, Tiwari injured his lip and started bleeding. His Gujjar fans in Greater Noida lined up outside hospitals to donate blood as a gesture for his good health.
Tiwari has also become an inspiration for the growing young breed of YouTube influencers, who are using the platform to showcase their skills and earn money.
Tiwari’s claim to fame lies in his romantic and familial dramas rooted in rural life, all produced in a thick Western UP accent. His shows offer a slice of life from a typical western UP household. One of his most popular episodes on YouTube, Gaon mei Pizza, has drawn 99 million views. The video encapsulates the struggles a rural boy goes through to buy a pizza after days of eating bland vegetables for lunch. From convincing his mother — who doesn’t even know what pizza is — to arguing over the pizza money.
From Instagram reels to television, Mridul bhai on Bigg Boss is the highlight of Greater Noida
– Parvesh Pal, a 21-year-old fan of Mridul Tiwari
Although the show was uploaded three years ago, the comment section remains active with viewers still enjoying it in 2025. And just like that, Tiwari has come to symbolise rural India — much like former Bigg Boss winner Elvish Yadav who represented Haryana.
A sought-after YouTube star
At a cramped mobile repair shop in Greater Noida’s Surajpur, two young boys — Rohit Nagar and Parvesh Pal — are glued to the computer screen. They’re re-watching an episode of Bigg Boss they had already seen the night before. Whenever the camera shifts away from Tiwari to another contestant, the duo eases up and attends to waiting customers — many of whom watch along from behind the counter.
“From Instagram reels to television, Mridul bhai on Bigg Boss is the highlight of Greater Noida,” said 21-year-old Pal.
Surajpur is where Tiwari lives. His house stands out in the neighbourhood — a large, sprawling bungalow with a range of cars parked outside, from Porsche and BMW to Scorpio and Alto.
From NCR to Dadri, Tiwari is Mridul Bhaiya for his followers. Whether he visits a petrol pump to fuel-up his red Lamborghini or a local store, fans surround him for a photograph. His YouTube also has videos of this fandom.
Tiwari came from a middle-class Brahmin household. Though born in Etawah, his family moved to Noida when he was a young boy. The neighbourhood they settled in — Surajpur — was a predominantly Gujjar mohalla. That’s how he picked up the Gujjari dialect and accent. And that’s what shaped his YouTube career and made him the most sought-after YouTube star — the popularity that got him selected by Bigg Boss.
For his teachers, Tiwari was a notorious kid. “He was more into co-curricular activities instead of studying,” said one of his teachers. And his acting, which made him popular, started during his school days. Be it Republic Day or Independence Day, he would perform a skit. His teacher says he would participate in the nationalist skits related to desh bhakti.
Tiwari’s fan base cuts across religion and caste boundaries. Although a Brahmin by birth, he has the strongest following among the Gujjars. Not just that, he has a sizeable following from the rural Muslim community.
“36 ke 36 biradari Greater Noida, Noida ki Mridul ki fan hai,” said 28-year-old Nagar, who has grown up with Tiwari in the same locality.
And Mridul bhai makes sure he doesn’t disappoint his fans. In his conversations, he keeps bringing up Greater Noida, making the people of his hometown feel seen. Last week, during a conversation at Bigg Boss television actor Gaurav Khanna asked him where he lived.
“Mei Greater Noida rehta hu, bhai. Bahut achi jagah hai. Aa jaio kabhi,” said Tiwari, proudly. Khanna responded saying he had once taken a cab from Delhi to Dehradun passing through Noida and was impressed.
“Greater Noida is very beautiful. It has wide roads and a lot of greenery. You can’t find such a place these days,” said Tiwari, as Khanna nodded in agreement.
Tiwari’s love for Noida-Greater Noida is known to all. “Wherever he is today, it’s because of the city and the people,” said Aashish Bhardwaj, his close friend and media manager.
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Claim to fame
Tiwari is not the only one from his family to take a plunge into the artistic world. His sister, Pragati Tiwari, is a singer too. She also features in his YouTube videos as a mother with her head covered with a dupatta. Tiwari’s claim to fame was his first show named School Life. The episodes of this YouTube show have drawn over 200 million views.
It shows the life of students in a rural school and captures the fun, challenges, and everyday drama of school life. It opens with students greeting their teacher with a casual “Ram Ram madam”
But before Tiwari turned to professional acting on YouTube, he had bought a camera to click photos of his sister singing. The terrace of their house served as the spot for their early photoshoots, with a green cloth hung up as the backdrop.
But his initial aim was not to become an actor; he wanted to become a photographer.
“Mridul bhaiya, wanted to become a wildlife photographer, but as he started helping his sister with her music shoots, he became inclined towards acting,” said Sagar Pandey, a 22-year-old neighbour, who would also help Tiwari in his shoots.
As soon as his videos began drawing attention, there was a noticeable shift in content — from school life to themes of romance and marriage, which made him more popular. His content started portraying the everyday lives of young rural boys in love. Tiwari had started his YouTube channel at the age of 14.
In one popular video, he depicts a typical village boy who works with his father in the fields, owns a significant amount of zameen, and dates a modern girl whom he calls “babu.” The video, titled Tution Wali Babu, has over 13 million views.
One comment read, “Aesi hi babu, sabki honi chahye. (Everyone should have a girl like her)”.
Another series named Love Marriage features a rural Gujjar boy, played by Tiwari, who falls in love with a woman. The woman wants him to convince his family for marriage, as he is unemployed. Tiwari’s character in the show says, “Tell your mother I get 40k rent every month.” This act referred to the Gujjar community living in Greater Noida with swathes of land.
But behind these videos is Tiwari’s long-held wish to marry. As soon as Tiwari turned 20, he went up to his mother asking her to find a bride, recalled Bhardwaj.
“He was in his early 20s, I think. One day, he randomly told his mother ‘I want to get married, find a girl for me’,” said Bhardwaj, with a loud laugh.
Even in Bigg Boss, Tiwari’s search for a bride has been ongoing. A few days ago, he was speaking to the Polish contestant Natalia Janoszek when he expressed his feelings for her.
“I don’t like when you talk to other men the way you talk to me,” Tiwari said in broken English. Later, Natalia said she never realised when the fun game between her and Tiwari became so serious.
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Dry Bigg Boss journey
But this nationalist, young Brahmin boy with a rich Gujjar accent has also landed in controversy. His red flashy Lamborghini Huracan with a ‘Jai Shree Ram’ sticker was involved in an accident. The over Rs 3-crore luxury car was also popular among the fans. After buying it, he made a video promising his fans that he would paste a ‘Jai Shree Ram’ sticker on it if the views reach 2 million. And it did. That’s how the sticker came along.
This year in March, the car ran over two labourers in Noida Sector 94. However, it was a car dealer from Jaipur who was driving it. Tiwari had bought a Lamborghini in 2023. And this was not his first car. Twenty-five days before this flashy ride, he had bought another high-end vehicle, Porsche.
Mridul is too sweet and real on the show. He is not able to make space for himself. He needs to stand out
– the owner of one of the fan pages of Elvish Yadav
But as dramatic and content-rich as his life has been, his journey on Bigg Boss has been the opposite — dry and uneventful. Even the Bigg Boss host, Salman Khan, has urged him to stand out, as he was getting overshadowed by other contestants.
And his rivals are noting it too.
“Mridul is too sweet and real on the show. He is not able to make space for himself. He needs to stand out,” said the owner of one of the fan pages of Elvish Yadav.
For 18-year-old Ansh Verma, the performance of Tiwari has been underwhelming. He hates the fact that Tiwari doesn’t stand up for other players.
“He cannot put up a fight. He doesn’t take a stand for other contestants. He is sometimes even zoned out. Elvish knew how to play the game, hence he won,” Verma said.
But for Tiwari’s YouTube family, such comments don’t bother them. They are making videos and reels to gather support for Mridul Bhai in his absence. In Surajpur, a fan, Dinesh Kumar, is watching the Bigg Boss show on his phone. As the show ends, he opens the voting section and presses the button with Tiwari’s photo on it.
“Kuch bhi ho, jitenge toh Mridul Bhaiya hi. Greater Noida jitaayega unko,” Kumar said.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)