You might have come across Random Nepali. He’s a youtuber who makes presentation like animation videos that lists Nepali eccentricities and critiques Nepali popular culture.
One of his videos makes fun of the popularity of red and white check shirts among Nepali people while in another video he talks about things that he misses as a Nepali kid growing up in the 90s.
The man behind the Youtube alias is 25-year-old Kathmandu based lawyer Rastra Bimochan Timalsena. “The most difficult thing is to find humor in everyday things and try to make it relatable,” he says. He started his YouTube channel one year ago and today he has about 11,000 subscribers.
Republica talked to the full time lawyer and part time youtuber about his creative process and the plans he has for his growing YouTube channel.
You are a full time lawyer and a teacher. How do you manage time to make videos?
My schedule is packed. My graduate study is ongoing, so in the mornings I’m busy with my classes. Then I have a day job at a law firm and I also teach undergraduate students at National Law College four days a week. So, I mostly make videos during weekends. It’s really tough sometimes to come up with one video each week.
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How do you prepare for your videos?
I collect ideas and make lists throughout the week. This way, I’ll already have a plan for my video beforehand. From there, it only takes me two to three hours to make the final video.
I do the writing, video editing, animation and voice recording all by myself. But I get video ideas from my friends, family members and my viewers. Especially my brother is constantly providing me ideas. He’s into magic and illusion. He’s the one behind all the card tricks you see in some of my videos. My father is also a great support as well. He points out what I’ve missed out and keeps on pushing me to make more videos.
You have been YouTubing for exactly about one year, what have you learned about your viewers during this time?
I have learned that people are more attracted towards controversies and scandals. For example, most of my videos have 15,000 to 40,000 views. These are the videos where I talk about general things and make subtle observations, which is the style I’m comfortable with. But as an experiment I decided to talk about Anmol KC in one of my videos. The views on that video are nearly reaching 300,000.
What are the constant criticisms your videos receive?
Most of the criticisms I get are random and contradictory. Some say that they like my voice while some complain that I speak in a monotonous tone. And I have a fair share of ‘dislikers’ who will continue to hate my work either I make good videos or bad videos. ‘Haters’ is a strong term. So I call them ‘dislikers’.
Youtubers like Aayush Rimal get badmouthed and trolled regularly, but I’ve had no such experience. I get constructive criticisms from my regular viewers and I guess that’s an achievement for a Youtuber. I don’t know how long that’s going to last.
You have gone on to get 11,000 subscribers in a short time. If you could go back in time, what would you do differently with your channel?
I would have started by doing vlogging. I posted my first video just for fun and people started liking a faceless voice talking and listing random Nepali things. But I want to get out of that set template. My future contents will be more satirical and political. I’m thinking of making rant videos where an animated version of me will talk about everyday issues. I’m also working on making short sketch comedy videos with animated characters. For all that I’m teaching myself proper animation.
If you start earning enough from YouTube, would you switch to full time Youtubing and leave your law practice?
That thought has never come. I’m passionate about my law career as much as I’m about Youtubing. To be honest, I’ve only made $120 from YouTube. There are other Nepali YouTubers who are making lot more than me but since my content is designed for Nepali users, the money I get from Google Ads is very little.
But if I get a lot of subscribers and start making a sustainable amount of money, I’ll definitely be a full-time Youtuber. However, I’ll also continue practicing law part time.
