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Three trends suggest India is adding short to its video-first market

Three trends are making short video apps the YouTube of internet

Rangoli artist Pavan Rathod has 20 million followers on short-video app Josh. With  more followers, he is getting more work
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Rangoli artist Pavan Rathod has 20 million followers on short-video app Josh. With more followers, he is getting more work

Vanita Kohli-Khandekar Pune
Pavan Rathod loves making rangolis, the art form that makes colourful patterns on the floor or tabletop. Gods and goddesses, flowers, the letters of someone’s name — he can make a rangoli of anything. “Shauk hai (it is a hobby),” he says.

By the time Rathod was 18, he was being invited to homes, clubs, and hotels to make rangolis. Soon he could make a living from it.

Then came TikTok. Starting with his first post on the short-video app in 2018, Rathod quickly gained 1.2 million followers. By the time India banned TikTok in June 2020, Rathod was familiar with the