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Ranveer Allahbadia found an easy way of asking questions which made sense to him and his team.
No counter-questions or finding out the 'Why?' from the celebrity he was speaking to.
The 'Why?' was buried and forgotten in Ranveer's shows, observes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
When I joined journalism, I would feel privileged when senior reporters spoke to me.
Since I lacked experience and always wanted to know more in the pre-Internet era where information was not easily available, tips from senior reporters were a godsend.
To get the news confirmed in the age of no mobile phones, one had to catch buses, trains, autorickshaws and taxis to meet that one source who was ready to go on record.
All my stories were vetted by senior reporters who ensured I had factchecked with my sources about what I was writing, after which it used to go to the news editor for approval.
And God forbid, if your information was incorrect then the next day you had to face the embarrassment of being taken to task for publishing an incorrect report.
The final call on what to publish and not was the editor's.
And it was the editor's head on the line because he would have to trust my word and publish or else he could be taken to court for publishing an incorrect report.
Your day was made if the editor patted you on your shoulder stating, 'Good story'.
This was very rare though, and a trainee reporter always longed for recognition.
And there was one thing in common in all the newsrooms that I learnt as a young journalist and keep in mind till this day more than 30 years later, every day.
News is what somebody does not want you to print. All the rest is advertising.
The thumb rule was among all the five Ws of news -- What, When, Where, Who, Why -- it was always the Why? that needed to be kept in mind.
Why is he saying it?
Why is he hiding it?
Why did he do it?
In other words, 'What the politician is hiding is news and what he is saying is just a PR quote.'
As the YouTube era boomed and podcasts became fashionable, 22-year-old Ranveer Allahbadia entered some of our lives.
In the first video he posted, he declared that he was a fitness freak and an engineer by training.
Fitness and food, he said, were his biggest passions and hence he called himself BeerBiceps.
Ranveer says he started off as India's First YouTube channel on fitness, that he wanted to clear doubts among Indians about diet, fitness and gyms.
When the fitness channel didn't go anywhere, Ranveer and a friend Rajas Pardeshi decided to change track and market clothes and brands.
Luck struck when 23-year-old engineer Viraj Seth joined Ranveer and navigated their career route in another direction.
Monk Entertainment, the company Ranveer and Viraj launched, had a simple credo: 'You have a brand? Let us tell your story and leave it to us for a seamless execution right from the start.'
And via this journey, with The Ranveer Show, Ranveer Allahbadia became a brand himself by becoming one of the most successful podcasters in the country.
On one of his shows Ranveer praises External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar saying, 'In many ways, I feel Virat Kohli and you are the faces of young India.'
Now, which 70 year old won't be happy to hear that?
When he launched The Ranveer Show in 2019, Ranveer adopted the long tail theory and interviewed anyone and everyone.
The strike rate was four interviews a week, so be it a defence expert, a spiritual guru or an actress, they were on Ranveer's show.
Ranveer had no expertise to ask questions on the interviewees' area of specialisation -- which is probably why he carefully tagged The Ranveer Show as 'India's fastest learning portal'. The learning was for him, as he was learning on the job. What were the viewers learning from it?
'It's the job of a YouTuber to look out for content that works,' Ranveer told MensXP.
In Ranveer's words, what is the smartest thing he could do? 'I can call smart people and talk to them.'
Why smart people?
'Because, it was the easiest way to do things.'
Easiest way?
But herein lies the problem.
On The Ranveer Show, Ranveer found an easy way of asking questions which made sense to him and his team.
No counter-questioning or finding out the 'Why?' element from the celebrity he was speaking to.
The 'Why?' was buried in Ranveer's show.
Asking uncomfortable questions to the guest was out of the question probably because you didn't knew the topic well, you likely didn't have a research team who could list difficult questions. Or probably you never wanted to get into an uncomfortable situation with your guests.
Because all you want to do was PR.
Just nod your head all the time as a result of which the guest was happy, you are happy, and your audience content.
The end result: The Ranveer Show is fluff narrative, fluff interviews, a fluff public relations platform.
The 'Why?' is out, and the death of journalism is the reality of his show.
So what is the truth and who is the real Ranveer Allahbadia?
It is how you saw him and what he said on India's Got Latent.