It won’t be a surprise if you, an English newspaper reader, have never heard of Aaryan Kelvin. Known as Aman Pandit in real life, the 22-year-old influencer has become the darling of the Hindi heartland with his videos on the absurdities of working-class life.
One of his slice-of-life skits, ‘Raj Mistri Kelvin’, is about the comical relationship between a taskmaster client and a lazy contractor, with plenty of gags and canned laughter. Think slapstick, physical comedy that cracks up many in northern India.
Those videos have become insanely popular. On the back of such content, Kelvin built a substantial following. His most popular reel has been viewed more than 300 million times, while his average views range between 50 million and 70 million. In May, he gained 6.5 lakh followers from one post, and on average was gaining 2 lakh followers every day.
With his unique brand of humour attracting millions, this Instagram sensation from Dhanbad, Jharkhand, has also acquired the title of the ‘algorithm king.’ Ostensibly, all it takes for a reel to go viral is mentioning his name in it.
Kelvin, who has been making videos for Instagram, Facebook, and, more recently, YouTube for the past five years, has had an eventful couple of months.
He had a robust following of 2 million on Instagram in April. But something suddenly changed, pushing his account to 19.2 million followers.
From that high, things came tumbling down last Friday when his account was suspended for the second time in two months. That is quite the ride for the young influencer who pays a fee these days to his friends and gully boys to help script, shoot, and edit his videos.
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Small-town India has embraced Kelvin. Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Chennai only account for 7.5% of his audience; 90% of his viewers sit in the Hindi belt, with Gen Z males forming his biggest audience.
His agent, Deepak Jorwal, founder of influencer marketing agency BrandzUp Media, attributes this growth to his high engagement rate. The average engagement rate from reels by mega-influencers (upwards of a million followers) on Instagram was a measly 1.24% in 2025, as per a Sprout Social report. Jorwal says Kelvin’s is 47–55%. As per Instagram analytics tracker InsTrack app, Kelvin’s average engagement rate is 23%, down due to, Jorwal claims, multiple account suspensions and deletion of 25 of his best performing reels. Brand Equity accessed Kelvin’s Instagram dashboard and the numbers appeared impressive.
Jorwal says Instagram’s algorithm has been pushing his content to non-followers. Over 70% of his 4+ billion views come from accounts that don’t follow him.
Kelvin’s growth has spawned an urban myth – if you utter his name in a post, use his photo, or even slip it in a hashtag– your post will go viral. Some such conspiracy reels have millions of views. Prapti Elizabeth, a Dubai-based Indian content creator, has never seen Aaryan Kelvin’s videos but she has heard of the ‘algorithm king’: “People mention his name and their video does well.”
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So why was his Instagram profile taken down? Jorwal alleges this is due to people reporting his videos for copyright infringement.
Every creator gets three strikes, after which their account is automatically disabled pending human review, which takes time. For creators like Kelvin, who are just starting to get seven-figure brand deals, this translates into lost earnings.
Then there are users that accuse Kelvin of buying engagement with videos showing how followers, views, likes, and comments can be purchased.
Jorwal dismisses such allegations. “They’re just jealous.”
One thing is certain, though. Aaryan Kelvin’s rise is emblematic of the extraordinary levels of engagement outside India’s urban centres.
But his recent suspensions highlight a vulnerability. As platforms become stricter about copyright violations, creators operate in borrowed spaces where audience growth, brand deals, and revenue can disappear overnight.
For now, Kelvin is riding the fame wave: “People look at me differently now that I have a car… With fans camped outside my house, I haven’t stepped out in days. I knew if I made my face valuable, money will follow.” It seems to have worked.
