New Delhi: A sea of around 3,00,000 people sweated in the August heat at Gurugram’s Tau Devi Lal Stadium. They weren’t there for an election rally or a music concert but for a ‘meetup’ called by a young man. Even Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar turned up.
The crowd waited with flashing phones, eager to capture the moment. And then it came. The CM appeared on stage and triumphantly raised the right arm of a man dressed in a black shirt and deep blue jeans.
The CM was officially in Gurugram to inaugurate three development projects worth Rs 144 crore ahead of the 2024 assembly and Lok Sabha election. But these announcements were overshadowed by the fervour surrounding his meeting with the man.
He was Elvish Yadav, a 26-year-old YouTube sensation who entered Season 2 of Bigg Boss as a wild card contestant and went on to clinch the trophy. The event on 20 August was intended to celebrate his reality show victory, but the reception he received made him seem like a national hero.
Elvish is not invited because he says some great things. It is his 15 million Instagram followers and the 21 million YouTube subscribers that get him invited. It is this cult that the political parties want to exploit.
– Member of the social media team of the Gurugram BJP unit.
“Kar diya na systumm hang?” he said to the ecstatic crowd, using his signature line from the TV show to signify his disruption of the status quo.
A district administration official claimed on condition of anonymity that Elvish’s team met with the CM a day before the event to request his presence at the meetup. When the CM said yes, the district administration gave permission for the event on an urgent basis, according to the official.
That is the power of an influencer in small-town India today. Everybody wants a piece of this influencer dust. In Elvish’s case, it is a combination of YouTube virality, Bigg Boss infamy, a raw rural dialect, and youthful humour. Politicians, OTT, reality TV, and college campuses can’t get enough of him.
So, when he was booked for allegedly supplying snake venom to Noida rave parties last week, Elvish’s career didn’t grind to a halt. It took on new wings. Every controversy becomes an opportunity for fan base consolidation.
Since the snake venom controversy, Elvish has challenged the systumm with videos protesting his innocence and threatening defamation suits. His fans have rallied behind him.
His YouTube video I Need Your Support, with over 2.5 million views, elicited an outpouring from his fans, as evidenced by the 45,000 comments. “Literally, my heart cried after this vlog,” wrote one fan. “The world is so cruel. You are soo pure. You are gem.”
A senior police officer in Gurugram told ThePrint that Elvish is “highly in demand” as a paid guest for private parties across Delhi-NCR.
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A slight totter from grace
At Elvish’s celebration event two months ago, the Haryana CM seized the moment to deliver an anti-drug message to the attentive crowd. “If you stay away from drugs, only then will you progress, will Elvish progress, and will the country progress,” Khattar told the cheering audience.
भारत माता की जय !
उत्साह और उमंग से भरपूर युवाओं के इस अपार जनसमूह ने एकजुट होकर जो शक्ति प्रदर्शित की है वो निश्चित रूप से अमृत काल में भारत को नई ऊंचाइयों पर ले जाने और नशा मुक्त समाज बनाने में सहायक होगी।
गुरुग्राम में हरियाणा के युवाओं की ऊर्जा का साक्षी बना।… pic.twitter.com/PYrnoNPEH5
— Manohar Lal (@mlkhattar) August 20, 2023
This, of course, hasn’t exactly aged well.
On 2 November, the Uttar Pradesh police swooped down on a rave in Noida’s Sector 51 after a complaint from a member of People for Animals (PFA), an animal welfare organisation founded by BJP MP Maneka Gandhi. The allegation was that Elvish and his cohorts were not only filming snake videos but also peddling venom, which is said to have hallucinogenic effects, at the party.
The PFA laid a “trap” to help the police in the crackdown, which resulted in the recovery of nine snakes and 20 ml of suspected snake venom.
Elvish, his agent, and four others were booked in this case under the Wildlife Protection Act and Section 120A (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
So far, five people have been arrested — but Elvish is not one of them.
He had a close encounter last Saturday when the police in Rajasthan’s Kota stopped the car he was travelling in with friends. However, when the Kota police contacted their Noida counterparts, they were reportedly informed that the case was still under investigation and that Elvish was “not wanted”.
The following day, the Noida sub-inspector, who had initially booked Elvish, was transferred to the reserve police line and the case handed to another police station.
He has worked really hard and never gave up. He has evolved over time. The only thing about him is that he is straightforward and doesn’t mince his words
– Vinay Yadav, Elvish’s friend
Elvish’s most vocal critic remains Maneka Gandhi, who has branded him as a “sargana” (gang chief) who is exploiting endangered species of snakes.
“We have been keeping an eye on him for quite some time now, as he is seen holding snakes in films, photos, and videos that he posts. These snakes are endangered species of pythons and cobras,” she said Friday. “Some people are willing to do anything for fame. He should be immediately arrested.”
Elvish, meanwhile, has not only criticised the media for tarnishing his reputation but also declared his intent to file a defamation case against Maneka Gandhi.
“I will not spare her,” he said in his YouTube vlog.
On X, he wrote: “Naam ke sath badnaami bhi aati hai (With name comes notoriety). People also grow jealous. I won’t be surprised if there are more cases against me.”
As for CM Khattar, he has distanced himself from the controversy.
“The police will take action in the case. We don’t have any say in this. If he (Elvish Yadav) is at fault, then he will be punished,” Khattar said.
Schoolteacher’s son to internet sensation
Elvish’s journey from a humble upbringing in Haryana to YouTube stardom is an integral part of his appeal, but not much is known about his early years.
His parents, schoolteacher Ramavtar Yadav and stay-at-home mother Sushma Yadav, raised him in Wazirabad, Gurugram. His parents named him Siddharth, but he has claimed on Bigg Boss that his older brother always wanted him to be called Elvish. After his brother died in a car accident, Siddharth changed his name to Elvish as a tribute.
Elvish completed his schooling at Amity International School in Haryana and went on to study further at Hansraj College, Delhi University. It was during his time there that he started developing his public persona.
His first steps to fame can be traced to 2016 when he opened his first YouTube channel called Elvish Yadav with the hashtag “the social factory”.
This channel grew to accumulate more than 14 million subscribers and a catalogue of about 180 videos. One of the first videos that he uploaded was about the types of students during an exam.
Elvish pioneered the ‘desi boys’ genre on YouTube, pitting them against their Westernised, city-slicker counterparts in relatable videos about desi boyfriends and friends. His earthy humour and a dash of Delhi-NCR flavour resonated with a growing trend in Haryanvi pop culture and songs to celebrate rustic roots and reclaim pride in this identity.
The rise of YouTubers like Lalit Shokeen, known for his humorous slice-of-life takes, and the Sheorans, popular for family-friendly videos interspersed with comedy and social messaging, ushered in a distinctive genre of content from Haryana that amassed a massive following.
Elvish reportedly has a net worth of over Rs 12 crore and counts a Porsche among his fleet of cars.
‘He has evolved’
Elvish Yadav, Harsh Beniwal, Bhuvan Bam, Amit Bhadana, and Ashish Chanchlani are some of the faces who made “vines” — short, looping videos made popular in the discontinued Vine app — a big hit on YouTube. They swiftly captivated school and college-going audiences, which grew into a cult-like following in a few years. Elvish especially appeals to millennials and Gen-Z.
“He has worked really hard and never gave up. He has evolved over time. The only thing about him is that he is straightforward and doesn’t mince his words,” said Elvish’s friend Vinay Yadav, who runs a restaurant. The two have been friends since 2016.
This “straightforwardness” made Elvish one of the pioneers of “roasting culture” on Indian YouTube. He has spared no one—not even Salman Khan.
In a now-deleted 2019 video, he reportedly called Khan “a criminal”, accused him of destroying Vivek Oberoi’s career, and roasted him for only helping actresses and “running over poor people”.
As the number of subscribers crossed millions, the list of controversies grew too.
Elvish has been called out for his misogynistic comments many times on social media platforms such as Reddit. One of his most famous videos was a 2020 roast video on “fake feminists”, where he targeted content creators like Kusha Kapila and Dolly Yadav, mocking their appearance and using abusive language.
But social media trends tend to be fickle. And influencers have to be nimble, shape-shifting adaptors. Elvish knew the game well. The roasting videos were losing their charm and influencers were shifting to vlogging. Elvish got his cue.
He opened one more YouTube channel in 2019 and named it Elvish Yadav Vlogs. It is here that he shares his day-to-day life with seven million subscribers. One video, posted Tuesday, shows him expressing his filial devotion and beaming with pride over his new house. The video appears to contradict, perhaps strategically, his image as a snake-wielding partier. Within nine hours, it had drawn 1.6 million views and over 6,400 comments.
When he won Bigg Boss 2 and went live on Instagram to thank his fans, he recorded 5,95,000 viewers, making it one of the most-watched Instagram lives in India.
Elvish reportedly has a net worth of over Rs 12 crore and counts a Porsche among his fleet of cars.
A crowd puller
Elvish’s internet stardom has crossed over to the real world.
In April 2023, he was invited to inaugurate the Mayur Swimming Pool in Haryana’s Mahendragarh district and drew a massive crowd and numerous local journalists. Students bunked classes to catch a glimpse of him.
As he rolled in his black SUV, accompanied by young ‘bouncers’ and crowd managers, groups of delirious fans chased after him, shouting “systumm, systumm, systumm”.
Though Elvish started using this word in his blogs, it became a buzzword for an even wider audience during his time on Bigg Boss. It even inspired a handful of Haryanvi music videos.
When he took the microphone to talk about the swimming pool, the crowd went wild, making it nearly impossible for him to be heard.
“Unbelievable,” Elvish remarked as he finished his lines. The crowd remained uncontrollable until he left.
A senior police officer in Gurugram told ThePrint that Elvish is “highly in demand” as a paid guest for private parties across Delhi-NCR. How much he charges for such an appearance is not known.
Handles associated with the Hindu Right-wing ecosystem swiftly come to Elvish Yadav’s defence whenever he faces criticism.
This is the phenomenon that political parties and leaders want to utilise in the era of algorithmic politics.
Dr Shanu Yadav, the wife of an IRS officer and a BJP leader, was a prominent candidate for the Behror seat in the Rajasthan assembly election. To connect with the constituency, she organised a meetup for Elvish’s fans, attracting a crowd of 20,000 people.
Although Dr Shanu did not get the BJP ticket, the event underscored the burgeoning pulling power of influencers like Elvish.
“Elvish is not invited because he says some great things. It is his 15 million Instagram followers and the 21 million YouTube subscribers that get him invited,” said a member of the social media team of the Gurugram BJP unit. “His online influence is much more than that of many real celebrities. It is this cult that the political parties want to exploit.”
The BJP member claimed that this kind of following comes in handy during polls. “(Influencers’) massive fan base and troll armies further help in the election campaigns,” he added.
Also Read: Elvish Yadav’s win shows Big Boss is all about gamification of influencer fan armies
Hindutva poster boy
Elvish Yadav doesn’t shy away from expressing his political and religious beliefs. In a tweet last June, he declared, “Hindu lives matter,” garnering around 3,300 retweets. He has also affirmed his faith in “Jai Shri Ram” on multiple occasions, including after the snake controversy. His X bio features only the word “Hindu” and he has a large caste-based following.
Handles associated with the Hindu Right ecosystem swiftly come to his defence whenever he faces criticism. For instance, when he had a social media feud with actor Swara Bhaskar in 2021, an army of supporters launched attacks on her. In August, after Alia Bhatt expressed her support for Elvish on Bigg Boss, Bhaskar retweeted a post that criticised Bhatt for it.
In February, during the G20 event, a video showed a man stealing earthen pots (gamlas). Many on social media claimed that the luxury vehicle seen in the video belonged to Elvish, leading to the trending hashtag #gamlachor. This incident sparked a politically charged polarisation on Twitter. “Elvish is a soft target because he is a nationalist,” posted one supporter.
But identity politics have given rise to a few tricky scenarios. For instance, Elvish’s supporters launched a campaign urging him to unfollow Munawar Faruqui, a fellow Bigg Boss participant. During the voting on the show, Elvish got support from certain Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal backers, largely due to caste affiliations. But many of them expressed disgruntlement on social media when CM Khattar presided over the felicitation event in Haryana.
However, the venom controversy has not shaken the devotion of the “Elvish Army”, as his fans call themselves. Messages of support on his YouTube appeal cut across religious lines— from “Jai Shri Ram” to “Brother, I am Muslim, and I support you” to “You are always blessed in the mighty name of Jesus”.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)