Vivek Sharma sits at the desk in his childhood bedroom in Ottawa, iPhone mounted on a stand and angled toward him, LED light on.
The 23-year-old is getting ready to record a new video for his more than 190,000 followers on TikTok where he goes by @vivekksharmaaa (no relation to the author) — an audience amassed since he first created his account at the onset of the pandemic.
Sharma’s no-frills videos range in genre from reaction posts and rants to sketch comedy, singing and trends like “get ready with me.”
The one thing they all have in common is the language — they’re almost all entirely in Punjabi.
Sharma was born and raised in Ottawa but Punjabi was his first language, thanks to his parents and grandmother speaking it at home.
“Until the age of four, I only knew Punjabi and I actually [only] learned English when I went to school,” he said.
Due to his family’s background, he learned a more traditional form of the language, mostly spoken in rural areas.
“It’s known as theth Punjabi,” Sharma explained.
For him, the words evoke nostalgia for a Punjab he’s never visited — the Indian state in the 1970s, which is when his family left their home country for a new life in Canada.
Sharma says it’s a feeling he hopes to inspire in his fans throughout the diaspora, especially those whose parents emigrated around the same time.
A cultural heritage that transcends oceans
The language he uses stands out against today’s Punjabi which Sharma describes as more “posh” or “professional.”
“I’m the complete opposite,” he said. “My Punjabi [is] something that people [everywhere can] understand … and resonate with.”
While he says most of his fans on TikTok are from Canada or the United States, Sharma also gets comments from as far as Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom, from people bonding over words they recognize in their own Punjabi households.
But on Instagram, the demographic is different.
Sharma says to his surprise, most interactions on that platform, where he goes by @sharmeyandamunda (or the Sharmas’ boy), are from people who actually live in India.
“Most of the time it’s just them appreciating that even staying here in Canada, I can speak the language and appreciate the culture, too,” he said of the comments he gets from those fans.
“I always took that as the biggest compliment.”
Unlike Sharma, Prabhjot Parmar is unsurprised by the reach of his content and the makeup of his audience.
The University of The Fraser Valley professor says Sharma’s content straddles generations both in India and across the diaspora, resonating with them “because of how he speaks.”
“There is a certain lilt, there’s a certain tone, which has come because of his living in the diaspora,” said Parmar, who specializes in South Asian literature and cinema, and migration and diaspora studies.
“I find his style to be quite approachable and accessible.”
But Parmar adds that Sharma’s videos also have a certain appeal for Indians, including those of her older generation.
She was especially enamoured with one of his cooking videos.
“What I found most endearing was that while making whatever recipe it was … he sang this couplet, which, you know, the dadis (grandmothers) and others used to [do while cooking] when I was little in the early 70s in Punjab,” she reminisced.
“He’s maintaining the traditions of language.”
Punjabi-Canadian content creators who paved the way
Sharma grew up watching early video platform stars like Jus Reign and Lilly Singh, whose comedy videos imitating their parents in Punjabi and English struck a chord with people of Sharma’s generation.
He says the success of those videos is what empowers creators like him today to make content with a Punjabi audience in mind.
“One thing that I loved about watching … all those Punjabi content creators back in the day was that there was representation. That was my main thing,” he said.
“It was very nice to see someone … speaking the language, in whatever way they did.”
Kiran Rai is glad to hear it.
The Toronto-based actor, filmmaker and co-founder of The Kollective, a production company focused on underrepresented artists, also started out as a YouTube personality before the concept of “content creators” really took off.
“There was no blueprint when I was starting out, there was no path to follow,” said Rai, whose videos ranged from sketches, vlogs and interviews with prominent Punjabi-Canadians to short films shedding light on social issues within the community.
“That’s kind of what we wanted … to pave the path for this new generation [and] to make it easier for them because it wasn’t easy for us,” Rai said.
She says Sharma’s videos are proof that’s been working.
“Being able to see more and more wonderfully creative folks that are coming from the … South Asian diaspora, it’s been really, really inspiring.”
Plus, she added, “he’s hilarious.”
For Rai, Sharma speaking Punjabi with pride is a way to keep the language alive and help people feel more connected with the culture and their identity.
“They see their own families in what he puts out there,” she explained. “It’s not often we see that.”
Sharma credits his own family for being game to participate in his videos. He says his mom is the one who encouraged him to keep posting when he first got started on TikTok.
“I’ve heard a lot of other influencers saying that their desi Punjabi parents were very upset because that’s not what they wanted them to do,” he said.
“I feel like I was lucky enough where my parents never had a problem with it.”
But unlike Raina, Singh and Rai, Sharma doesn’t see himself making a career out of TikTok and Instagram.
Currently completing his doctorate in pharmacology at the University of Toronto, Sharma says making videos online is a hobby with the added benefit of making people smile.
[Knowing that] just being myself … has genuinely helped a lot of people go through a tough time … I feel fulfilled,” he said.