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New Delhi: On Sundays, young boys sporting colourful hair and shiny sunglasses come to Connaught Place, the New Delhi shopping hub. Most of them come in groups and some with cameras.

People watch them curiously while they take selfies, dance, perform stunts and rap. While one performs, another directs. One plays the background music and another records it. Team work makes the dream work, clearly.

One passerby in his 70s asked 16-year-old Punit, “Who are these boys and why are they singing so strangely?” The teenager explained, “They are TikTokers. This is a TikTok adda.” The old man shrugs and leaves, muttering “Phitte mooh (what rubbish)”.

Every weekend, more than 100 TikTokers, aged between 16 and 22, travel from the outskirts of Delhi to reach block ‘B’ of Connaught Place in the heart of the city. They congregate near the H&M showroom to make videos, which they then edit and upload on TikTok, the social media video app. On weekdays, too, at least 50-70 youngsters make it to this spot — at the cost of school, job hunts and more.

ThePrint takes a look at who these people are, what drives them and why this particular spot is such a favourite.

He came from Bihar to get a job, but got 70k followers instead

Henry Ranjit from Bihar’s Samastipur district came to Delhi six months ago in search of a job. His family sends him Rs 7,000 per month so that he can make do. But rather than searching for a job, he is busy investing in TikTok.

He explains, “I started coming here to make duet videos with TikTok stars. My four videos have gone viral and I have 70k followers now. TikTok is an addiction. I can’t help it. This place gives me new ideas to get famous.”

He’s not the only one. Most of these boys come from the lower economic strata — their fathers work as tyre repairmen, carpenters and other kinds of labour. And they’re all looking for a quick route to fame — school, college, work and any other activity be damned.

Situ, at 13, is the youngest in the group that gathered at Connaught Place Sunday. He tells ThePrint, “I don’t like playing sports. TikTok is more fun. It’s a kind of exercise, too, when we perform stunts. TikTok is a real passion and there’s swag also.”

Interestingly, in the crowd of over 100 TikTokers, there are only two or three girls. They’re college students who have come there to make TikTok videos and hang out with their boyfriends. They don’t want to speak to ThePrint as they’re afraid of being found out by their parents.

Also read: TikTok is giving birth to India’s new influencers — young men who cry, violently

Becoming a TikTok star is no mean feat

It takes two to three days to deliver one perfect video, the TikTokers explain. To lip sync the dialogues flawlessly, they sometimes stay awake all night. Many of them work on these video edits secretly, away from the gaze of their parents.

Like 15-year-old Kush, who lives in Laxmi Nagar, New Delhi. His father runs a nuts-and-bolts shop and he says his parents have banned him from making TikTok videos. But Kush found a way out — he started making videos on the rooftop of his house.

Even after all that effort, the video might not get as many likes as they want. But the show must go on, they say — you can’t sit around after one flop. You have to get up again and prepare for the next video.

Many youngsters have done their research. After observing the trends for months, a new user, Sahil, found that “crying videos are a big hit. But there’s a flood of such videos. Now we have to find a new way to get followers. If you aren’t creative you can’t stay in this market”.

“It makes you feel like a celebrity. People recognise you and ask for autographs. It gives your life meaning. There’s swag in it,” says Punit while preparing for his next video.

It’s all about the branding

It all started two-and-a-half years ago when some TikTok stars started shooting at Connaught Place. The main attraction is the British architecture, including its iconic stately white pillars, which makes the setting look like a London street, according to one of the TikTokers.

Sandeep, 16, from Karol Bagh says, “Celebrities like ‘Lucky Dancer’, Ashiya Chaudhary, Anifa Khan and Jiya Rajput used to come here. People noticed the H&M logo and started following them. I, too, come here to get clicked with famous TikTokers. I want to become one of them.”

H&M authorities didn’t respond to ThePrint’s request for a comment, but one of the staffers says it’s “good for the brand”. “It gets promoted in every video. Earlier, they used to make videos on the premises too, but there was a fight between the guard and the TikTokers. After that, they were asked to make the videos outside,” he adds.

The guard standing at the back gate of the H&M store corroborates the story about the fight. He also says he is worried about this TikTok generation’s future.

“After seeing them, I was worried about my children. What if they, too, are affected by this virus? In the beginning, I lectured some of the kids, but now I have stopped interfering.” Now he just watches the “madness”.

Also read: Can we hold TikTok responsible for the spread of pornography in India?

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