I grew up with AIB, I watched their sketches, watched their podcast even their (now deleted) On Air with AIB on hotstar. Even though I might not have understood every joke or laughed at all the very real commentary, I loved it and so did millions of Indians who craved for something more, something different other than weird repeated Indian comedy flicks.
I revisit AIB almost every month since starting college. You could say that Honest Engineering Campus Placements has me in a chokehold almost just because it is now a very real reality of mine. Nonetheless, I love watching those old videos again and again.
Also having started my “Wannabe Cinephile” journey back in 2024, I scramble to search for good Hindi movies all the time. One that was on the list for the longest time ever was “Peepli [Live]”, I had never heard of it. But it just sounded interesting. I watched it finally in 2026, even though I loved the mockumentary aspect of it but i was horrified of how less of a change India has observed even in the last 17-18 years.
Peepli [Live] (shortened to as just Peepli from hereon) shows the story of the town of Peepli from fictional “Mukhya Pradesh” based on Rajasthan. It follows two brothers of Natha and Budhia who figure out that if they don’t find the financial help, their family farm would be sold to the banks. This left them hopeless as there was no way for them to find the amount for paying off the debt…..unless Natha committed suicide like the millions of other farmers across India to claim the monetary compensation. This spirals into chaos and multiple shenanigans that end up showcasing the shamelessness of the Indian media.
But one thing that probably even the writers wish would have been fixed in 15 years is the absolutely horrendous state of the Indian media. It can clearly be seen in the movie how desperate the media was for views and TRP, it is still the same. The channels run irrelevant news that does not even need to matter for the average Indian citizen. They refuse to go and run for actual issues and causes, rather they focus more on conspiracies like how aliens invaded ancient India, how UFOs exist atop mountains in the Himalayas and one of the greatest news headline I’d ever seen can be “How big is this politician’s chest size!! compared with other world leaders”. Because to them, these outrageous headlines generate clicks, views and virality online. They do not care for their reputation as a news organization as long as their pockets are being filled, and they will continue to post news such as that that violate the sanctity of journalism and destroy it to the core.
In a very similar way, AIB’s Unoffended, The Great Indian Media circus and many other skits showed this exact absurdity of the Indian media. Where in Unoffended they showed how easy it was in modern India to incite rage with literally any other thing, and one part of it that ironically had the poster-child of rage on Indian television, Mr. Arnab Goswami talking about being calm. It was a funny bit then, it still is now yet it is extremely real and that baffles me. Whatever was some level headed reporting and proper news has now morphed into just brainless nonsense. It has infact become worse than what it used to be, turning into an era of misery for the fourth pillar of democracy.
In The Great India Media Circus, AIB showed this exact hunger for clicks, views and TRP with small issues being turned into massive ordeals with entire protests happening on something extremely insignificant, vague and obvious.
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Now, I would like to ask you guys, the readers, where do we stand?
It’s still the same, if not worse. The fall of NDTV to the hands of people in cahoots with the ruling party was the final nail in the straw for journalism in India. It perished then and there. The news channels run fake PR everyday, all times of the day. Without a single thought for what kind polluted media they are making everyone consume. What we saw those many years ago in the form of “mockumentaries” are our ever so real realities now that we face everyday.
But ever so slightly, there might be a glimmer of hope that still exists for us. Now the ground and grassroots level reporting is done by people who carry the voice of journalism through YouTube and other Social Media platforms.
Unfiltered by Samdish, The Rajdharma, The Lallantop, Newslaundry and many more are ones with the largest of the followings. But even smaller creators with mere thousands of followers reach their own people even better than these established online media agencies. To make their voices heard and to help their own, the people from small towns and villages have taken it to their own to show their conditions, contact other people and force everyone to make a change.
What we need to do is to be loud, make our voices heard. The grasp of the vile and insolent India is something we have grown away from and we should too. Online creator spaces are the new tomorrow and to make noise online what one needs is a mobile phone, internet and a social media account. We need to be fearless, only then can we make this democracy, of the people, for the people and by the people.
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