When Vishnu, a fisher from Azheekkal, started vlogging, he was just one among many wide-eyed teenagers smitten by the bug.
He started off with some amateurish stuff, but four years down the line he is Kadalmachan, a YouTube icon.
His channel now has over 6.3 lakh subscribers and most of his fishing adventures garner millions of views and comments online. And it’s not only curated, algorithm-friendly content that Kadalmachan offers.
A range of casual vlogs showcasing his home and family too draw a broad audience.
“I belong to a fisher family and venturing into the sea was part of my routine from childhood. I used to accompany my father in a ‘kattamaram’ and I started working in Azheekkal harbour when I was a Class X student. Basically all my vlogs are reels out a fisher’s life and almost all videos I upload on my Facebook page get an average 1 million views. I still don’t know how this happened as I never expected my channel to become this popular,” says the 21-year-old.
While his latest vlog on mackerel harvesting garnered over one million views in few hours, some highly-rated uploads feature the seafood recipes of his mother.
A second-year psychology student, Vishnu says his vlogging expeditions come with their own share of risks.
“I had to venture into the sea under scorching sun for five days straight to shoot the conch vlog. All five days I had to travel to Tamil Nadu and extracting the conch from seabed is no easy task.”
Another popular vlog that shows a pod of dolphins was shot after 16 futile trips to the deep sea.
“I waited for nearly a year for the visual that features thousands of dolphins. Each time I travelled up to 100 nautical miles and stayed overnight to capture the visual. Cameras getting damaged due to the wind and salinity is another challenge,” he says.
When his volg was grabbing steady attention, Vishnu introduced his mother Sandhaymma who runs a tea stall. Her warm and cheerful demeanour became an instant hit and very soon Vishnu started livestreaming family vlogs featuring his mother and sister Pearl.
“I know nobody can learn cooking by watching my vlog, but today Sandhaymma has more fans than me. One of her live cooking sessions had around 25 lakh viewers.”
Another vlog that showcases their modest tin-roofed house on the beach too recorded an impressive number of views.
“Now a lot of people who visit the Azheekkal beach stop by to meet us,” he adds.
Though vlogging offers him a steady income, Vishnu says he hasn’t zeroed in on it as a future profession.
“I am basically a fisher and I still consider it as my main occupation. Though it means hard labour, fishing is my passion and I shoot my vlogs with so much of involvement. Even after four years I am uploading only limited content on my channel and right now I have no plans to become a full-time YouTuber,” he says.
