Popular from her YouTube channel, ‘Mostly Sane’, Prajakta Koli’s journey to becoming a social media sensation is no less than ‘insane’. Being an extrovert or talkative person since her childhood, she always dreamt of becoming a radio jockey. Little did she know that her ability to talk will take her to the zenith of her career. Although she was raised in a middle-class family, she always had the ambition that she would entertain the masses.
Today, Prajakta inspires everyone who wants to learn how to entertain an audience. She is a born entertainer, who influences several young women to pursue their dreams through her success story. Through her journey, she challenged stereotypes and showed the world that there is no limit to achievement and success even if one is a woman. Prajakta is not only known for her YouTube videos but is also loved as an actor as well.
Early Life
Prajakta Koli was born on the 27th of June, 1993, in Thane and was brought up there as well. Her mother, Archana Koli is a language and phonetics teacher, and her father Manoj Koli, a real-estate businessman who turned into a restauranter. As a child, Prajakta enjoyed a lot visiting her grandparents in Mulund. There she used to spend time with an old, back-dated transistor in which they played FM radio channels all day. No wonder, this helped her explore radios, and various shows, and she finally fell in love with them.
She has always been an extrovert, that is, she has been good with talking since a very young age. As a student, she used to participate in various debates and elocutions in school. She received her schooling at Vasant Vihar High School in Thane and completed her graduation in Bachelor of Mass Media from V. G. Vaze College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Mulund. In her college days, she also actively participated in theatre and acting.
As soon as she completed her third-year final exams, she started interning with Fever 104 FM. It was during her internship that she realized radio shows were pre-recorded. After working for long hours every day for about a year, she got her first show “Call Centre” which was a flop, and the disappointed influencer quit her job. Finally, Sudip Lahiri convinced Prajakta to try out YouTube, which marked the beginning her success story.
The ‘Mostly Sane’ YouTube Journey
In the beginning, Prajakta seemed confused about the genre and content of her YouTube channel. And when Lahiri indicated her forte to be comedy, that marked the beginning of Mostly Sane. Her channel was published in February 2015. Prajakta initially contemplated on disclosing her completely new career path to her parents. Her parents, however, supported her decision and told her to chase her dreams. She uploaded her first video, ‘Types of Singles’ on Valentine’s Day, 2015. Prajakta stuck to her routine of posting regular content without fail and this consistency was one of the keys to her success. Her first video, which went viral, was ‘10 Hilarious Words Delhites Use’. It made her reach 30,000 subscribers superfast. With this consistency and good-quality content, success was sure to come. She reached 1 million subscribers on YouTube in October 2016.
Posting original content three times a week seems mostly insane, but Prajakta did it. Her creativity shows in all her videos. Her content is always relatable to the Indian audience and that is why her videos are so engaging. She consistently gets millions of views.
Present Ventures
Prajakta has been collaborating with various famous YouTubers like Be Younick, Ashish Chanchalani, SuperWoman, and many more. Collaborations helped her reach wider audiences and people loved them. She also has a playlist on her channel called MostlyBollywood where she has interviewed and collaborated with many famous Bollywood sensations like Ajay Devgan, Nawazuddiin Siddiqui, Saif Ali Khan, Ayushmann Khurrana, John Abraham, and so on. She has also interviewed Hrithik Roshan, who has been her childhood crush and role model.
Prajakta has also written and published on her channel a rap song called ‘Shameless’, based on the body shaming experiences that she faced. Most importantly, Prajakta has gotten into acting, and she is really good at it. She started her acting journey with a web series called ‘P.A. Gals’. She also received a life-changing opportunity, getting the lead role in a Netflix series, ‘Mismatched’. This was a huge opportunity for her and she killed it with her outstanding performance. People who did not know her became her fans after watching the series. Needless to mention, Mismatched made its way straight in the audience’s, heart.
Prajakta has also started a campaign on her social media with the hashtag #iPledgeToBeMe to address mental health issues.
Achievements and Future Plans
Prajakta has received the ‘Viral Queen’ award at the IWM Digital Awards. She made her way to The Forbes 30 under 30 and received Cosmopolitan’s ‘Youtuber of The Year’ award. She has achieved a lot and still wants to keep going. Prajakta idolizes comedian Ellen DeGeneres. She wants to go with the flow, continuing to grow her YouTube channel along with the acting opportunities that she gets. Someday we might see her in a popular Bollywood movie. She has already acted in Jugjugg Jeeyo and Khayali Pulao and acted well.
All-in-all, Prajakta’s success story is an inspiration for the youth and all aspiring entertainers. Prajakta’s journey was not the smoothest. She faced a lot of hateful comments and criticisms and continues to face them. She has also faced body shaming. But she never let these negatives affect her life and her performance. Her perseverance, consistency, and positive attitude is the reason for her success. She will keep improving and performing for the people as she is a born entertainer. We wish her success and all her future endeavors.