Aditya Kakodkar a keen mind from Maharashtra, has actively masterted multiple career opportunities such as content creator, event host, water treatment, fermentation, personal care, cosmetics, raw materials, and food industries since 2011. The creative digital creator has been experimental with his career, he added a horizon of becoming a stand-up comedian, during the lockdown.
Here is a delightful conversation with Aditya Kakodkar on his journey as a Food technology consultant, Event emcee, Content maker, and much more with Icy Tales.
Q. What type of content do you enjoy creating the most, and why?
Aditya Kakodkar: I enjoy content creation a lot but there is one type of content that I enjoy a lot which is making people educate about my local language, which is Marathi. I want to bridge the gap between the discord between Marathi and non-Marathi. Being brought up in Pune, I have witnessed that people believe that they speak the purest form of Marathi. I wanted to give the satirical twist on that also, with that to bring out the funny elements of the Marathi language.
Being brought up in Pune, the city gave me a chance to meet a lot of quintessential characters that I created with Marathi Kaka. The character was created based on my experiences with desi uncles while growing up. Those experiences allowed me to get along with the Marathi Kaka with a satirical take at the same time make jokes about the uncles without making them realize that the joke is about them.
The character is placed in such a way that it depicts that “I am laughing with you” and “not at you”. I get to flirt with those boundaries wherein I can make a few spicy takes without it being considered wrong. One of my favorite examples that I would like to share is, that I made a video which was about how desi uncles believe every single message on WhatsApp, and that went viral on WhatsApp and was being shared by uncles.
That is when I realized that the more resistance you give, the more resistance you get, and humor works when you are facilitating the joke. The Marathi Kaka is one of my favorite content pieces because I get to play along with the character.
Q. Apart from food technology consultant, content creation, and event hosting what is the one thing you like to do in your free time, any bucket lists?
Aditya Kakodkar: Back when I was studying the biotechnological course, we had a subject called industry microbiology where we taught how to make beer, that is where my interest in beer started as to how beers are made. Beer is the reason why I have my handle which is The Brewkenstein
Beers that are made on a smaller badge are called Brews or Craft beers. The reason why I came up with the idea of choosing ‘The Brewkenstein’ as my handle back in 2009 is a Franking-style monster that was created by replacing the brain and my brain is full of beers that is the idea behind choosing the name.
My bucket list idea essentially is to do a series that showcases beers, not just a series but to do an entire India tour, of all the local alcohol and the spirits that are there, because alcohol is considered a subject taboo, which is not the fact. Hence I want to explore and experience the local jungle alcohol and sports and make a content piece on the same.
The other bucket list item is to have my late-night talk show. Where I do standup sets with the audience sitting.
Q. How do you stay motivated when working on multiple projects at once?
Aditya Kakodkar: Honestly, there are days when I wish to shut down more often than I have stayed motivated, especially when it comes to content, it is finicky. There are times when the content works and sometimes does not, and there are times when an individual puts a lot of effort into making the content but the engagement does reach the level of effort that has been put in, that’s when you think why to do so much?
Then there are days that random content gets an organic boost. Honestly where the motivation comes from, and there are more bad days than good days when it comes to content. But, one of the major reasons for being motivated is the audience who are watching my content are laughing and enjoying, which gives me satisfaction that I did my job.
Q. Which other digital content creators do you admire and why?
Aditya Kakodkar: I have good luck working on content with people whom I have admired. I have worked with Kurta Guy, and have never collaborated with Sufiyan Junaid, but we have exchanged ideas because our content style is different. I have mutual admiration for whom I have collaborated. In general, who has put out content drafted with originality and effort, I admire them a lot, be it a bigger or a smaller count.
I have experienced the pain of drafting the content, and the content creators who put down the effort for drafting the content hold a massive respect.
Q. What do you think is the most essential aspect of digital content creation?
Aditya Kakodkar: I believe there are various aspects of digital content creation. First is, having stated the fact that the content that has been created, will be an audience for it. Second is, learning how to evolve from the content. If one keeps on creating the same kind of content, traction will come, but the audience who are viewing it will start to lose interest.
Hence evolution is necessary. And, the third is to be consistent at it with originality. Do not burn out yourself but keep working on making the content better. The clarity will only come when you keep improvising the script after analyzing what content works best.
Q. What strategies do you use to create content that stands out from the competition?
Aditya Kakodkar: I believe there is no competition per se. The strategy that I follow is to check the metrics in terms of account reach, engagement of the content that works best, not replicating the same content, and having spacing of other varieties of content so that it gets the room to grow. Replicating the same content will lose its novelty.
Try experimenting with different types of content and use, you never know what gets clicked by the audience, and then the creator will have two templates as backup. Whenever there is a creative block faced by the creator, they can always choose to go back and use the templates.
Q. How do you measure the success of your content?
Aditya Kakodkar: There is no specific success metric per se. I do not put a number to a piece of content. My success pieces are when usually my friends whom I have known for years, start sharing the content without me having to prompt them. If I see content that is similar to mine, I would take it positively, because I know it was my original content and it has been used, that is a success for me.
Q. Are there any challenges you anticipate in working as a digital content creator?
Aditya Kakodkar: Initially I did struggle with editing, but later on I learned on my own. When you start posting content, the algorithm does not truly support the content curator. When you are in the range of 5,000 to 10,000 followers it’s a tricky kind of situation because there are a lot of followers who are in the same boat, algorithm can’t be blamed because Instagram can not show all the videos at the same time at all times. The day I started creating content I had 1,200 followers, and from there gaining 10,000 followers took me three years.
There are days when my creativity has burned out, that burnout hurts back then because you were not able to focus on other aspects of how the content is working. As the follower count increases, the visibility of the content increases, and then the strategy comes into existence. In the initial stage, everything is haywire. For me content creation was scary.
Aditya Kakodkar is a creative enthusiast and is intrigued by experimenting with content creation and also follows his passion for making his fermented beer. Aditya holds a passion for food and a mindset to explore every aspect of content creation and the food industry. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.
