‘Born on Instagram’ Flagged off in Kolkata

Instagram, founded in 2010 and acquired by Facebook Inc. in 2012, which has over a billion people using it globally, across its many surfaces - Feed, Stories, IGTV and Live, on Friday rolled out the ‘Born on Instagram’ programme in Kolkata. The programme aims at discovering, showcasing and growing the most creative content creators in West Bengal. The programme promises to give creators the knowledge to best leverage Instagram and hone their storytelling capabilities. 

Its mission is to bring one closer to the people and things one loves. In India too, it’s immensely popular for its vibrant community, cultural relevance and visual expression, and it boasts of users from Priyanka Chopra to Virat Kohli and Deepika Padukone. Popular Bengali personalities like Sourav Ganguly, Jeet, Nusrat Jahan, Mimi Chakraborty, Ritabhari Chakraborty, Srabanti Singh and Jeet also use the app. 

 

Quite interestingly, creators have a great role to play in this case. Because they epitomize the platform for their creativity in content and amazing social video moments. It is, for this reason, the app announced a ‘Born on Instagram’ program that aims to onboard creators in a series of 15 events, including one in Kolkata, and subsequently provide a bouquet of benefits over the rest of the year including one-on-one partner management, sessions on best practices of the platform, video storytelling techniques, mentorship by celebrated creators, create-together opportunities and other useful resources.

 

Manish Chopra, Head of Partnerships, Facebook India, said that ‘Born on Instagram’ is a program that recognizes the creativity in content that they’re witnessing all across India - in big and small cities. Kolkata has always been known for its cultural vibrancy and this is exemplified in the city’s content creators. Programs like these will help them in further identifying and mentoring the next big digital content creators of India, while they build on their strength of visual storytelling and launch innovative features for enhancing safe self-expression, he said.

 

The highlights from the day-long event at Kolkata included a fireside chat with Indrani Biswas a.k.a Wonder Munna, a prominent Bengali creator with 84k followers, who shared her invaluable insights on leveraging the platform. The event also saw the presence of the well-known Bengali actress, Ritabhari Chakraborty (1.4million followers), known for films Pari, Sheshthekeshuru and upcoming Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti. Speaking about her Instagram experience, Ritabhari Chakraborty said that from her movies to her new looks and her travels, her social ventures in order to make a difference in society. Instagram is a place that enables expression for her. She especially uses the Feed, Stories and IGTV respectively, to share her red carpet to everyday moments. She hopes more people join this program and collectively hone their Instagram skills, and be authentic while doing so. What better platform than Instagram to share who one is and also influence people for the good. It works for her, and she’s sure it will for others too, she said.

 

The event in Kolkata was a commencement of the program and the creators in attendance will thereafter be in close contact with the Instagram team. They will benefit from online and offline resources through sustained engagement and continual consulting to grow their community. 

This launch comes close on the heels of a global update to Boomerang, one of the beloved camera formats on Instagram, that now gives you new ways to express yourself creatively. To turn everyday moments into something fun and unexpected, it now sports new creative tools - SloMo, Echo, Du, Trimming and Classic.