This story is about Suraj Ganesh Shetty, a 19 year old Tamilian living in the city of dreams – Mumbai. By profession, Suraj aspires to be a successful Automobile Engineer. At present he is a Youtuber, vlogger, Auto modifier and what not. Suraj furnishes simple and cost effective measures to improvise some of the existing vehicles. He adds up some of the very important features that are missing in products manufactured by the automobile giants. Suraj is a source of inspiration for everyone. Despite being an average student at school, he chose to chase his dream and work towards his passion. Suraj has one of the most diverse Youtube channel and is one of the most budget friendly Youtuber. A one man army whose studio is his mobile phone!
Watch this video to see how he plays with bikes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX7jdXRQxVI
Let’s hear it from himself.
Q1. Tell us something about yourself.
A- I live in Mumbai and belong to Tamil Nadu. My native place is in Chennai. I belong to a middle class family and am a student pursuing diploma in Automobile Engineering from S.V.P. Polytechnic, Dahisar. I was an average student at school. Most of the teachers didn’t know me because I was neither a topper nor a naughty kid. I was a silent and shy kid, a very reserved type of person not talking to anyone.
Since my early childhood I had passion for cars and bikes. Always eager to know how the automobiles worked. From there my learning process began. I used to order many books related to cars and bikes and read them all. After my 10th grade my mom said that I should opt for commerce and settle in life but it was not the case for me. We had many heated arguments and finally she got convinced and I got into Automobile engineering. The first year was very good for me. In my second year I failed and had to face a drop of one year. My parents got angry and people again suggested me to opt for the commerce field. I never gave up and stuck to what fascinated me.
Q2. When did you decide to start Youtube? How did it all go?
A- When I faced an year drop, I got enough free time as there was no need of going to college. While at home, I watched videos of many motovloggers and aspired to start something of my own. One fine day my calculator broke. I fixed it and uploaded a video of the same on Youtube. It was a very bad video, people were laughing at me but I was happy from the inside. This was how my first video went up. Then there was no looking back. Me being a newbie on Youtube, my friends used to laugh at me but I always spoke to myself – ‘Never quit’. Days passed and now the people who used to laugh at me appreciate my work.
Q3. Tell us something about your Café racer. Who helps you in all your modifications and how do you understand the circuits?
A- Cafè racer was my college project. We were trying to make a budget friendly modified motorcycle. As of now in India, modification jobs are very expensive. It took around 2 months in building it from scratch.
Sometimes my friend helps me in such modifications.
My passion for automobiles made me read many books from my standard 10th itself. The knowledge gained back then is now helping me understand things.
Q4. How has your journey been on Youtube so far? Tell us about the struggle in reaching from 0 to 46k subscribers.
A- Youtube was tough for me. At the beginning, I was putting in a lot of efforts to grow my channel yet a very handful of people used to watch my videos. I got very depressed and had started to question myself as of why I was doing this. I tried to understand the issues and discovered many problems, rectified them. I never gave up and continued the hard work. Eventually things went into the right place and my hard word paid off. My channel started to grow day by day and now it’s 46k+ subscribers and counting.
Q5. Who is your inspiration?
A- Source of my inspiration is all those Youtubers be it small or big. As learning never stops, I learn all the good things that the content creators make.
Q6. Where do you see yourself after a few years? What are your future plans?
A- I see myself making a great change in India in the field of automobiles. Making simplified solutions for the automobiles. Someday you might see my own automotive company….haha
Q7. Tell us about the future of automobile modifications in India. How much it can grow through Youtube?
A- Automobile modifications in India is growing very fast, particularly the motorcycle industry. Youtube is an excellent platform to reach out to large masses. Youtube helped me and has been helping several others in making people aware in all fields.
Q8. Tell us about your vlog setup- Camera, Helmet mount, Video editing software, etc.
A- My setup is very cheap and affordable. Camera doesn’t matter much. It only matters after reaching a certain level and when the audience demands for it. The only thing that matters is your talent and your content.
For helmet mount, I use my phone as a mount and have made a very simple mount by my own.
I do not use any computer or laptop for the production of my videos. I use a very simple setup being my phone itself.
For camera I use my mobile phone –
Motorola G4+
For editing my videos I use a software – kinemaster. Kinemaster is available for free on google playstore.
Q9. Any message to peers?
A- One must do modification but in a correct way. It must be useful, and should serve some purpose. Any sort of modifications/additions must follow the RTO guidelines. One should never give up in life, if I can do it you can also. Ride safe!
Suraj Ganesh Shetty’s Youtube channel
