Talking movies with Chalchitra Talks' co-founder Vaibhav Munjal

As he wraps up yet another episode for his YouTube channel, Chalchitra Talks (CCT), co-founder Vaibhav Munjal has enough reasons to feel satisfied at his channel’s slow but steady journey. In the past six years since he started what he calls a “community of pop-culture enthusiasts”, his channel has amassed over 3 lakh subscribers. On Instagram, the number of CCT’s followers is 4.31 lakh.

So what’s it that has made him the pied piper for this huge community that’s increasing by the day? Daily recommendations about films, books, music and OTT shows across CCT’s five YouTube channels since 2018. “We started Chalchitra Talks in October 2018. Initially, I would post one video a week recommending the films I had watched. The response was overwhelming,” recalls Vaibhav.

As the numbers grew, he started inviting other artists on the platform to give their recommendations. “We have had people like Naseeruddin Shah, Anurag Kashyap, Boman Irani, Varun Grover, Manoj Bajpayee, Raj Kumar Rao, Peter Gould (creator of ‘Better Call Saul’) and many more talking about their favourite movies and books. The latest was Arjun Kapoor, who spoke about a lot many things and not just films,” says the engineering graduate who is based in Jaipur.

An embarrassing moment turned him into the movie buff that he is. “During my college days, every semester I would intern with The Viral Fever (TVF) at Mumbai, as I was passionate about filmmaking but my knowledge about films was quite limited. At one of the after-work parties, someone remarked, ‘You look like Steve Carell.’ I had no clue who Carell was,” adds Vaibhav.

The silence that followed pushed him to improve his handicap. “I decided to watch at least one film every day, sometimes even more. I also started maintaining a diary noting down the films I watched every month. After moving to Mumbai in August 2016, I started posting a monthly list of these notings online. By the middle of 2018, I had watched some 1,000 movies. That’s when I realised that we needed a dedicated platform and Chalchitra Talks was born,” says the enthusiastic content creator, who has been posting a recommendations’ reel daily for 551 days now since December 2023.

After the starting few weeks of hosting, Vaibhav invited others to recommend their favourite movies. “While YouTubers would come readily, celebrities refused. They would not even take my calls. Then Varun Grover came in the 25th week and from 2,500, we immediately crossed over to more than 10,000 subscribers. It has been an upward spiral since,” adds the YouTuber, who with co-founder Sorabh Munjal and rest of the team has also launched another YouTube channel called Kitaabi Cabins, devoted only to books, with over 57,000 subscribers.

Not just celebrities or numbers, even brands have rushed in, including international ones like Mubi and Audible. But the brand he is most ecstatic to have worked with is Aamir Khan Talkies, the YouTube channel of Aamir Khan Productions. “I recently hosted a three-part series where Ashutosh Gowarikar talks about the making of ‘Lagaan’.”

In the digital world where shorts and one-minute reels are the new reality, Vaibhav brought back the long format in his show called ‘The Longest Interview’ a couple of years back. Currently into season 3, it is one of the most watched shows. “Because we speak to them beyond films and people see a side of these celebrities they have never seen before.”

The man breathes and lives movies, but does he have any plans to make one? “I don’t want to make films. I only want to make shows because viewers’ preferences have changed. People are watching shows more and more,” adds Vaibhav, who is making an eight-part series on situationships. Ironic for someone who’s made a name recommending movies.