The commendation letter to Zareen Khan from YouTube

MUMBAI 20 JULY 2020: YouTubers are a passionate lot – the aspects they communicate to those who share the same likes and thoughts are at times topical and important; at times a bit of ‘this and that’ – something which is about sharing thoughts.

Among the new passionate YouTubers is a glamourous personality, who hails from the world of entertainment: Zareen Khan. She comes across in her YouTube channel not just as an actor, but also as a human being who cares for humankind.
What sort of content would you expect to see on the YouTube channel of someone largely perceived to be a ‘glamour gal’, a Bollywood hottie like Zareen Khan? For her fan following, there’s loads, but the YouTube channel’s content has turned out to be the right mix of things that are serious as also light hearted matters – a combination which makes for the ‘perfect recipe’; just like her ‘cooking during the lockdown’ episodes, aptly titled, ‘Lets Pakaao with Zareen’. No, it is not pakao as in ‘bug someone’, but as in ‘lets’ cook’. Over the past couple of months, viewers kept logging on, the number rose – and when the magic number of 100K viewers was crossed, guess what? YouTube awarded her with the ‘silver button’!
“The silver button came as a total surprise, it has been just three months since my digital team launched the channel,” gushed the young and beautiful entertainment personality, whose film career so far reflects some serious cinema – with more to come. “It is even more important given that in these Corona times, one would not expect to reach the coveted mark of 100K viewers in just three months,” she says. Her YouTube channel touches upon issues like ‘Cybercrime’ and ‘Girl Child Empowerment’. These topics are relevant to all netizens, and the numbers of those logging on and doing the ‘like – share – subscribe’ have her as surprised as her digital team.
CEO of her digital partners HashNTag Media, Aqeel Merchant, explains: “YouTube Creator Awards, commonly known as YouTube Play Buttons, are a series of gifts from YouTube that aim to recognize its most popular channels. While they are based on a channel's subscriber count, but these are only offered at the discretion of YouTube. Each channel is reviewed before an award is issued, to ensure that the channel follows the YouTube community guidelines,” he explains.
So, having breached the 100k – mark, what’s next? Zareen smiles: “YouTube has created a tradition of sending its creators a special plaque for every big milestone, including the Silver Play Button for 100,000 subscribers. Next is the Gold Play Button for a million, Diamond for 10 million and the Custom Play Button for 50 million – and we are on the way,’ she says with a twinkle in her eyes. Aqeel Merchant and his team at HashNTag Media are already working towards the next award.
“I guess her appeal goes beyond just being a leading personality from the world of entertainment. Her episodes have been on topics which are a mix of serious and light hearted – and if her fan following on YouTube is anything to go by, she is not just about glamour, but also topics that make one think – plus, the friendly, family person which comes across on YouTube,” adds Aqeel Merchant.
It obviously helps that the topics on Zareen Khan’s channel are relevant to all netizens, and the numbers of those logging on and doing the ‘like – share – subscribe’ have been the biggest surprise so far, with the numbers growing to reach the next milestone.