Newsmaker | Shyam Rangeela Part II: As AAP leader in The Great Indian Political Challenge

The decision followed a series of tweets by Rangeela on April 16, tagging Prime Minister Modi, which he says he wrote out of frustration, after another rejection. “Dear PM Narendra Modi ji. I am a small artist and do mimicry of you and other people. It is now that I can’t go on TV shows because the people from TV channels fear you. You like comedy, then why are they afraid of your mimicry? Is your mimicry a crime? ” wrote Rangeela.

He also thanked his followers on social media, saying that if not for the online medium, his comedy career would have ended long back.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Rangeela says, “I am in politics due to these personal happenings.”

A resident of Mokhamwala village in Rajasthan’s Sriganganagar district, Rangeela, whose real name is Shyam Sundar, says that back in 2014, when Modi was contesting to become PM for the first time, he had campaigned for him. “I was a nobody back then.”

Rangeela became a household name in 2017 after his popular act mimicking the PM on The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. He has released many videos since copying the PM, at home and work, and while giving speeches and interviews. A Rangeela video made of the interview Modi gave to Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, and one on petrol prices hitting Rs 100 a liter in his home district of Sriganganagar were among those that went viral on social media. After petrol pump management denied him space for recording another video, he made one in front of the poster of a petrol pump.

However, TV remained out of reach, Rangeela says. “Every year, I got at least one to two calls from channels for TV shows, but they were later canceled because the organizers felt my content was too political. Directors would tell me that channels don’t want me. “

Finally, this shrinking of space got to him, Rangeela says. Slogans such as “mehengai ki maar (the pain of inflation)” were relevant even when he campaigned for Modi in 2014, so why not now, he asks. “Those whom I asked to vote (for the BJP) ask me about the price rise today, the increasing petrol, diesel rates.”

Lately, the 28-year-old has been telling his family to skip the comments under his videos, so that they don’t worry about the online hate he faces.

It’s the love he also receives that keeps him going, and gives him hope that his political foray would be successful. He talks of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, fellow comics turned politicians.

“I have been an admirer of Maan for a very long time. After the Ukraine President and Punjab CM, people now take comedians in politics seriously, ”Rangeela says, adding that he gets a lot of messages on Twitter from students, doctors, protesters, people fighting for rights, seeking help. “I would feel I don’t have the power to assist them. After considering all these facts, I decided to join politics. ”

The work done by the AAP government in Delhi attracted him to the party, Rangeela says. AAP has been trying to find its footing in Rajasthan for a long time. “What we are telling the people of Rajasthan is that you gave both the Congress and the BJP five years each to govern the state. Now give a third force, AAP, a chance, ”he says.

Rangeela doesn’t rule out contesting the 2023 Assembly elections in Rajasthan, but says he will first go to the field to see the public’s response. And that he will be happy trying to fulfill whatever responsibilities the party gives him.

Rangeela is also looking forward to making comedy or satire videos for AAP, though he adds that he hasn’t spoken about it with the party yet. About whether the AAP had also shown intolerance, with its government going after opponents, such as BJP leader Tajinder Pal Bagga, Rangeela says the protest outside Arvind Kejriwal’s house by the BJP was “serious”.