Incongruent

Arjun Talks to Grads with Divya Premchand

Divya Premchand Season 2 Episode 10

Spill the tea - we want to hear from you!

As we prepare to launch season 3, Arjun takes time out to speak with our celebrity graddie, Divya Premchand (@divsglam) who is not only one of our top graduating media students, but also a rising social media star. Divya is shortlisted in the Filmfare Middle East Social Media Awards. Our Arjun meets up with Divya and gets the low-down on what it takes to be an Instagram "Beauty Queen" and social media "Rising Star".

Check out https://filmfaremiddleeast.com/socialnight/ for more Divya!

Arjun Radeesh:

Hey guys, welcome to a brand new episode of Arjun alk's To Grads So today we h ve with us a famous person. Sh's been featured on so m ch publications like let's ay BuzzFeed, Khaleej Times and ll those so much things are the e. And it's the one and only Div a. So Divya how are you do ng tod

Divya P.:

Hi there! I'm doing amazing. I am. I'm trending instead of saying I'm good. So, that's my response to it.

Arjun Radeesh:

Okay, so, I mean, I'll jump in straight to a rapid fire session. So this is the deal. you're answering all my six questions as fast as possible. Okay. So here goes your first question. What's your guilty pleasure in food?

Divya P.:

Um, I would say chips. I love chips too much.

Arjun Radeesh:

Which chips? Any particular one?

Divya P.:

Umm, salt and vinegar, and just plain salt is also amazing for me. But kettle chips are like amazing. They are so much crunchy and me like some other ones. So yes.

Arjun Radeesh:

Okay. That's the first time I'm hearing people telling me they like salt and salt and vinegar ones.

Divya P.:

Like, it's amazing. I think I love I like I don't mind the acid literally burning my tongue off. I enjoy it.

Arjun Radeesh:

I love it. Fantastic. Okay, so if you had a period to live in another period, what would you choose? If suppose to be wise? No, no, I'm asking like if suppose you will have to live in another time. Okay, like, say towards the 90s or something like that. What would you choose?

Divya P.:

I would say the early 80s and a little bit of the 70s in between, but that depends.

Arjun Radeesh:

Okay, that's it. Yeah, that seems pretty interesting. Old school.

Divya P.:

Very, very specific. very specific.

Arjun Radeesh:

Okay. What show Do you constantly binge watch?

Divya P.:

I'll be honest, I am not a you know, binge watcher. I don't really I can't sit through a show. It's very difficult for me to sit through a show. But something that I did binge watch, especially during lockdown was Lucifer.

Arjun:

Oh, the Netflix series Lucifer

Divya P.:

Yeah, yeah, that was something that I actually binge watched the first time and I can't believe I went through the entire like, all the seasons like I just couldn't believe was like, I normally cannot sit in front of my laptop or phone. So yeah.

Arjun Radeesh:

Man, like literally last month we lost the new season came out. Okay, and here you here's the next question. Do you have a secret collection of anything?

Divya P.:

That's not a secret, maybe, but I do have shells. Okay, this is a secret. Actually. I do have you know the postal stamps. The post stamps. Mail stamps. Yeah, it's actually not mine is my aunt's. My mom's sister who used to collect them back in the days. And she has an issue. You know? posted I don't know, albums or something. I don't know. What's it called? But I don't even know why I have them. I just took it back from my mom. And I get with it. Not with me in my cupboard. But I know for a fact if I do sell it. I'm gonna earn like crazy. I'm gonna get some good cash out of it.

Arjun Radeesh:

Mm. Interesting.

Divya P.:

Exactly. And the thing is, I live in Hong Kong, so she used to get a lot of, you know, mail from abroad, like different countries. So I have like, like crazy ones. Like it's insane.

Arjun Radeesh:

Okay, interesting. Till now. Okay, when eating cereal, what do you put first milk or cereal?

Divya P.:

Milk, any day milk? Come on.

Arjun Radeesh:

Okay. Okay, so, pick a TV or movie character that represents you

Divya P.:

I can't think of a good one. Honestly, as I said, I don't really watch it when seems but but this is going to be weid, but I was a huge fan of"choda been" as a child. And if there was anyone I ever wanted to be, it was Chutky. It was Chutky. I know. I know. Don't judge me on this.

Arjun Radeesh:

I'm not gonna judge you. I'm not gonna judge you. Okay, so people who don't know "Chota Beam", it's basically like I can say the Indian Superhero. Okay, who eats sweet and becomes like very strong. So in that one she wants to be Chutky. Why Chutky by the way, because to become the right kind of Chota Beam.

Divya P.:

I was very jealous of Chutky because she always got so that means attention. And I know this is gonna sound so weird to people but I had a major crush on Chuta Beam so No, it's a fictional character. I don't even know why I like him, but I get it.

Arjun:

Man. Like, this is the first time I'm getting a person who's like 100% Desi.

Divya P.:

Yes sir I am ver desi.

Arjun:

This is like pure desi. Okay. And the last question I would like to ask you, um, can you cook?

Divya P.:

Yeah.

Arjun:

What's your go to this?

Divya P.:

For me, it's the white sauce pasta. The most easiest of the easiest is tofu and rice. I love tofu and rice. So easy to make.

Arjun Radeesh:

So then we finished with the rapid fire and I think she's done considerably a very good job. So we are going to dig in something more deeper. Okay. So how has been the lockdown this?

Divya P.:

It was good. I would say it was very different. It was a huge break for me or like me going on a vacation because I have worked all three years of my life ever since I graduated from high school. I went from a prom The next day, and the very next day on the first day at work, and ever since and never stopped working. I also did not travel out of Dubai in like four years. Because all these years I was just busy earning you know, so this was like the time like a little vacation for myself. And it was a quite long vacation. I mean, how long did the long, long time even last one month?

Arjun:

Yeah, like two months? I think two months if I'm not wrong. Exactly. Wait, so you haven't travelled outside UAE for four years? Man I feel you.

Divya P.:

I mean, all my my my family members have been out my sister mom, my dad, my mom. They have been, but I just did not. I mean, take up, Jake. I mean, if a cruise counts, that's a different thing. I just went to the Iran water border. That makes any sense. I was in the middle of the scene just for two days. But yeah, that's it.

Arjun Radeesh:

It's so as we said before, like she has been now trending or Instagram, through her, like showing, or doing makeup based on Indian snacks. So, so how this idea got evolved.

Divya P.:

Okay, so I want to just make this clear that this idea is not any new idea. It's not unique or anything because before this back in 2016, there was a guy who a makeup artist who actually started snack based makeup in the US, or the UK, I need to find out I think was the US. So he started with skaters and all the other you know, USB snacks, you know, especially because the US is known for its like candies and you know, chips. It is known for junk food, right? Yeah. But that's how he started off. And then I did see people come up with their own versions of you know, drinks and it was a very common thing in the makeup industry. And I know some of the Indian based makeup bloggers like Ankita create Haman Patel, who came out with Indian snacks, but in the sense she was doing a junket. I was doing Indian snacks on the general general food stuff like let's say Pani Puri, or at least Amara dewclaw, something like that. And I wanted to do something with brands that actually give you nostalgia. You know, it makes me nostalgic. For example, cookery is something I relate class. You know, it's, it's nostalgic to me, especially my dad, for example, Poppins is a huge cult, you know, candy or mango by things like this. So yeah.

Arjun:

Okay, so so those ideas of like, the idea from us came over to India and then all of a sudden you said, Okay, fine, why not I do something like that.

Divya P.:

Exactly.

Arjun Radeesh:

Okay, let me ask you, I'm gonna I'm gonna be asking you a very selfish question. But so I'm going to ask you when you started this, how to like how has been your Instagram following numbers?

Divya P.:

Good question, so I was 4000. Okay. I don't know. Something around that range of 4900. And now I'm at 6500.

Arjun:

Man See? So let me ask did this actually happen just during this march to till this date? Like that did it just increase?

Divya P.:

Yeah, actually, um, in fact, when I started off in, I think, like this year in Jan, I think if I'm not wrong, I was at three K if I'm not wrong, three to four K somewhere between that range. So yeah, I mean, um, the lockdown was like the period that asked me, like, just filled me with creativity because I was very free. As I said, I was not working. I was just at home. And the only things I could really play with is my breakup. So yeah, like the lockdown period was like the main time and I actually blew up specificly the month of August, like July and August.

Arjun Radeesh:

Oh, interesting. As of now she's got 6.5 k followers. Okay. That's like the good. And it's like these things just happened during lockdown. Okay, fine. Moving on from that. How is how has been the last three years in university? What are you having that feeling right now when you're out of university? Um,

Divya P.:

I don't know. I just said when I was in university, I had a purpose. Okay. I had a purpose to get good grades. I had a purpose to do this project. I had a purpose. I had something to do with it. But now since I have graduated, I kind of lost with the whole idea. Like, where is my purpose? What is my purpose? Like, all these years? You know, when you were in school, or when you were in university, you he was striving for a goal, right? Yeah. And that suddenly has like, the major part of you waking up every single morning to go to university and do something. It's lost. So yeah, it's fun.

Arjun Radeesh:

Like, I can just relate this to my exam, like when I finished my board exams, and I'm like, okay, I was first when you're right, going to school, they're like, Oh, God, let school finish fast. After that, when you're off school, you're like, oh, man, why couldn't I go to school back again?

Divya P.:

That's exactly the thing. Same thing with the university. I mean, um, I just miss. Like, being with your friends being in the class eating together, you know, going for like a lot of dance, you know, practices and things. And

Arjun Radeesh:

that's something known. So okay, so what has been your like your major achievement over the past three years?

Divya P.:

That's a difficult question. Okay. Actually not, I think the major achievement would be like me being able to pay off my college fees, at least by myself. So that is a major achievement for the pilot actually kept working on I was earning good grades at school. So yeah, I mean, any college My bad. Yeah.

Arjun Radeesh:

Okay, so it's like, You okay, you told me you started working from the day after you went for prom? Okay, what was your first job?

Divya P.:

My first job was in a makeup ecommerce makeup company called amazon.com. It's one of the ways you know, kneeling place to get you know, makeup. So I was in that company. I bought an Indonesian right after school. I mean, yeah, after school. Actually. As I said, one day after prom. I was working for their social media, and also customer service. So I'm calling creation. So it was a lot of things going on.

Arjun Radeesh:

So it's like turn now how much jobs have you done? How much companies do you work with? over a span of three years in university, she has worked for five to six companies paid half of her salary. Um, okay, this is a wow factor. Because it's like, like, like, seriously, I can tell you this, this has been a very big wow factor, because you paying your own tuition fee is like, something ready. Great. And that's like, some people are still struggling to do that. You did it. I mean, that's,

Divya P.:

I mean, I was again 50%. I wish somehow it was even more than that. But then you I mean, something is better than nothing. Right? And that's

Arjun Radeesh:

exactly the thing, like something is definitely better than nothing like you at least do like the smallest of the smallest contribution. That makes a great difference.

Divya P.:

Yes,

Arjun Radeesh:

definitely. Like, okay, fine. So these are like sort of internships or like, they were like permanent jobs as such.

Divya P.:

So most of these internships, I wasn't intern, because I couldn't do permanent jobs since I was in college back then. Right. Okay. And, but most I treated them all like my full time job, to be honest, because I'm handling Insta accounts is not pretty easy. You know, it's difficult, especially when they are for like beauty platforms or things like these. So yeah.

Arjun Radeesh:

So right now speaking about the present. Are you working right now?

Divya P.:

No, I was working back in March but because of the COVID situation I ate.

Arjun Radeesh:

Okay, so and so, from that day onwards till now you're at home creating good content and

Divya P.:

I have been volunteering also in the past few weeks a month, I guess. Yeah, two months now. So just to let you know, third something up, I do want to sit home and just beyond my bed. It's really frustrating for me, for me, it's a good thing if I stay home for too long. I am. I'm severely depressed. I just cannot I can't I just have mood swings. I, I stopped talking to people and things like this. So I think for me, it's very important to step outside my house and do something. Whatever it might be, you know, not even if it's even washing cars. I don't mind but I still do it. Okay, so

Arjun Radeesh:

how do you classify yourself as an extrovert as an ambivert? As a semi infoway? What's the discipline? How would you classify yourself?

Divya P.:

extrude? No, it's very difficult for me to turn into an extrude with someone who's new, but once I am, I just can't stop talking. I spill all the beans, you know, like,

Arjun Radeesh:

I'm literally out getting them. Okay. I'm like, I am like one of a kind extrovert because like, I want to talk normally. Okay, whoever is there in front of me, I want to talk. See, because Okay, I can literally tell you this. This is the first time I'm literally speaking to Debbie. Okay, it's like, normally it's like I at least see them in universe. This is a person I have never seen inside the university. I can tell you that.

Divya P.:

Okay, well, they can see me on my Instagram channel, which is quite different. I mean, though, I mean, Instagram life is so different from me. But yeah,

Arjun Radeesh:

okay. So when getting this sort of, okay, when people getting featured, and like I can tell, has elevated your status to a celebrity status. What's that feeling? I

Divya P.:

just don't know. Because, I mean, I'm like, I think it is a word to describe it would be like, you know, there are all these questions that people ask you would you rather have favour Would you rather have money? And I think I'm the person right now who has fame but no money. And that kind of person right now. I've been on like publications, but I'm still to reach that says, You know what, I can actually afford a Dior bag, or a Gucci bag. You know, even for an example like, you know, just able to buy me some good pair of shoes.

Arjun Radeesh:

Oh my god!

Divya P.:

That's the thing I wish people understood out there that you know, not everyone who is famous is rich. Everyone who's rich is famous. So, yeah, I mean, I do feel good. Because, you know, I get a lot of messages from people saying, Oh my god, you're amazing and things like that. And when I reply to them, they're like, Oh, my God, I can't believe he replied to me. And I'm like, Well, I just have like, 6000 followers, man, I, I don't have like a million so I'm definitely gonna reply you.

Arjun Radeesh:

Yeah, like, there are like, certain instant like, okay, when I started up, like when I say Instagram, and if someone over the radio calls me, I'm like, Oh my god, these people call me and like, like, it just like, that's just sort of like the I can tell more. It's just like a spark. Because Okay, if a person who's like very popular having a good amount of following just hits you on message, the good part is like, like, they feel like that happens. events that happen is just coming in that way.

Divya P.:

Like, oh my god, this person who just got featured on BuzzFeed replied me. You know, that kind of feelings. So yeah,

Arjun Radeesh:

like it was it was meal. So if someone of your production calibrators comes in, I like this person actually talked to me. Like, seriously, he has had talked to me.

Divya P.:

Yeah...

Arjun:

See it's like, we always like, like, I always respect to every person who I talked to, like, I don't know, but I'll be like, I'll consider them above my grade. So I'll be like, Okay, I need to reach that grade.

Divya P.:

I get it. Yeah, definitely.

Arjun Radeesh:

Okay. So my last question regarding like, okay, your passion is into makeup and also how you look forward towards the future.

Divya P.:

Okay, um, I started off thinking and saying that, oh, one day I'm going to be an entrepreneur, something like that, you know, on my own makeup company. But I feel I'm not a person who can be In the face of leadership, just because I prefer working in a corporate environment, to be honest, I don't want to own a corporate, but I want to work for a corporate, there's two different things in here. And I just feel I want to work with different companies. Just because you get so much from each company, each company is very different. You know, each company has different services, each country has a different, you know, agenda. And for me, I see myself in the future working for a good company, you know, maybe being a creative in the company, or creative strategist or something like that side or advertising. Because I genuinely enjoy all of that stuff. And I want to be I wanted to be in specifically in beauty just because that's something I excel in at something I have. Way too much knowledge about. Yeah.

Arjun Radeesh:

So how so you're having a plan of like, you studied media, right? in university. So you're having like, any idea of like, blending your this passion of beauty and the media together?

Divya P.:

Yeah, that's exactly what I did in the COVID-19, as I said, so when I launched with my Indian snack series, it was something quite out of boredom. And I was wondering, you know, to spice up something on my Instagram, when I finished when it came up to my fifth CDs. What happened was, I had a message from my ex colleague, okay, and she was, she was, she was into PR. So she, I was working with PR company, by the way before this, just to let everyone know. So she told me like your your your, you know, bollywood look, and I had, I had a Bollywood season and Disney series before all of this, she said that this is so amazing, you should go and approach different companies to feature you. And that's what I did. I took my laptop rotor, cute, you know, nice proposal to different PR people, I'm, I knew I didn't even have the email ids. What I did was it stopped them just the way all of us PR people do. Stop people try to find out where the connection is, okay, I want to, let's say approach college times, let's type an email, our approach cost quality and we type an email. You know, that's how it worked out. Unfortunately, my Bollywood C's did not make it, except for one of the editor in college time. So it was interesting. But then it just didn't go forward after that. But then when I started my Indian series, what I did was, I was sick one day, and I was like, You know what, I'm just so bored. Let me pitch my proposal to BuzzFeed. So most of the people think that BuzzFeed approach to me, but that's not the case. I actually went to BuzzFeed approached them, ask them that, hey, listen, this is a series that might interest you, would you like to feature me? And they just told, yes. And the same day I had an article on me. And the following weeks, people just came, you know, about, you know, asking, oh, my God, we wanna read an article about you. So it's more about you know, giving that shot, especially in PR, especially in media. Because I said, I had no confidence with this makeup of this series. In general, I thought it was just another trash makeup. I was doing something that is, you know, trashed. You can be someone's treasure, right. And that's exactly what happened here. I just mixed makeup with a little bit of my PR and media skills. You know, I also learned a little bit of editing, by the way in the drop down. So Xabi, my makeup looks. Yeah, I mean, I wasn't Photoshop, but I just felt Photoshop was, you know, in today's world, when we have iPhones, you know, why not find different apps? So I was googling apps. I was researching apps. I was thinking, Okay, what if I took a shortcut from, from Photoshop to an iPhone app. So I learned editing, I learned you know, photo editing, video editing, email, people, email, PR people. And now I am friends with almost every other journalist.

Arjun Radeesh:

Fantastic. Just imagine in a span of six months, I can say a person just grew from, from like, from an average to a hyper high level. And now she's got this much connections, this much things going on still having an active Instagram feed. Like literally, I continue my Instagram feed. The last post I did was like a lot, okay, two, three weeks ago, like before that, before that I did that.

Divya P.:

No Arjun! It's import nt, you have to post at least li e three, three times a week, fo r times a week, what we eat, what w

Arjun Radeesh:

Yeah, my stories are consistent, consistent. People, people wait for that. In any case, my last last last last last question. What advice would you like to give for the upcoming students to university

Divya P.:

Grab every single opportunity you get. Okay? And that's something I learned from Mr. Stephen King. Okay, who is actually I professor in the media in the media course? Every time there would be something beauty related anything, you know, he would quickly send it to me. And I'm wondering why what do I even do with it? Like, why is he even sending me these, but it's, that's when I realised that the reason is because he wanted me to grab every single opportunity but you know, whether it's to meet a PR person, whether it's to have a quick cup of coffee with them, whether it's to email them by grab every single opportunity you have in university, whether even if it's something you don't like, you know, just do it, you know, somebody or the other, let's say two or three months or years down the line, you will still use that contact in some of the other way. And I have realised that so you know, even if it's a cooking class baking class, in our college, a dance class, you know, going for a seminar, just do it. Do not skimp on it. Please Please take that because in reality, I know people who pay double the amount just to grab that opportunity.

Arjun:

Okay, thank you so much Divya for like, your time. I know like okay, this is like, literally a busy hour. Okay, a busy schedule. Sometimes you will be planning for the next post out there.

Divya P.:

Literally, I am doing that.

Arjun:

Okay, so thank you so much for coming and talking to us. So, this is the end, you can listen to our podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify and all major podcast platforms. Please do like and share. This is Arjun Radeesh signing off.