Dhruv Rathee

Submission 978

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About

Dhruv Rathee is an Indian YouTuber known for making content about politics, culture and environmental issues. Rathee began posting vlogs to YouTube videos in 2014, before shifting to more analytical and political videos. He is known for his critical perspective on the Modi administration in India, and features in various Indian memes including "Aaj Mood Nahi Kar Raha Hai."

Online History

On June 11th, 2014, Dhruv Rathee uploaded his first video to his YouTube^[2] channel. The upload is titled, "Crazy German Water Park: Filmed on iPhone 5s," and gathered over 530,000 views in nearly nine years (seen below, left). On September 16th, 2016, Dhruv Rathee uploaded his earliest known political video to his YouTube,^[3] titled, "BJP IT Cell Exposed: How lies and propaganda are spread | by Dhruv Rathee," which gathered over 1.4 million views in six years (seen below, right).

In 2018, Dhruv Rathee crossed 5 million subscribers on YouTube and faced backlash for his videos criticizing the Indian BJP regime. On March 22nd, 2018, he posted a tweet^[8] noting the various hacking attempts on his social media (seen below, left). In May 2022, Dhruv Rathee married a German national and posted an image of his ceremony to Twitter,^[9] gathering over 80,000 likes in a year (seen below, right).

Aaj Mood Nahi Kar Raha

On August 6th 2022, Dhruv Rathee posted a video titled, "Stop Wasting your Time! | The Scientific Way | Dhruv Rathee."^[4] At the 0:37 second timestamp, Rathee says, "Aaj mood nahi kar raha, isse kal dekhte hai, iss kaam ko. Abhi kya hai abhi mein phone uthakar Instagram par relax karta hoon, scroll karta hoon, youtube par koi comedy video dekh leta hu." This translates to, "I don't have the mood now, let's look at this tomorrow. Now let's pick up my phone and relax on Instagram, do a little scrolling." The video gathered over 6.9 million views in eight months (seen below).

In March 2023, the video gained virality on Instagram meme pages, with pages @baekoof,^[5] @indiansoninternett^[6] and @basbhuthua^[7] posting memes using the clip. BasBhutHua posted a video using the clip on March 14th, 2023, gathering over 3,000 likes in a month (seen below).

Personal Life

Dhruv Rathee was born and raised in Haryana before he traveled to Germany to get his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, as well as a degree in renewable energy from the same institution.^[1]