Akash Banerjee

Akash Banerjee
Banerjee at the FoE Con 2023
Born	(1980-03-31) 31 March 1980 (age 44)
Nationality	Indian
Alma mater	La Martinière College Hindu College (BA (Hons) in History) St. Stephens College (MA in History)
Occupations	Journalist Radio jockey YouTuber Political satirist
Years active	2002–present
Known for	Caricature Bhakt Banerji
YouTube information
Channel	The Deshbhakt
Genres	Politics Satire Interviews
Subscribers	5.22 million[1]
Total views	855 million[1]
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 1,000,000 subscribers
Last updated: 8 December 2024

Akash Banerjee (आकाश बैनर्जी; born 31 March 1980) is an Indian YouTuber, journalist, radio jockey and political satirist. He is known for his YouTube channel "The Deshbhakt" a satirical show focusing on social, political and environmental issues and his caricature "Bhakt Banerjee". As of September 2024, he has over 4 million regular viewers and over 5 million subscribers,[2] with The Washington Post calling Deshbhakt "one of the biggest YouTube channels in India".[3]

Career

Initially working in Radio Mirchi and Times Now, Banerjee started working in India Today as a senior correspondent covering stories like the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and the Naxal insurgency. Disillusioned by TV journalism he moved back to Radio Mirchi where he worked till 2018.[4]

While working in radio; Banerjee was inspired to start his YouTube channel as a satirical show mixing humour with political commentary.[5] One of Banarjee's popular caricatures is Bhakt Banarjee who is portrayed as a fervid supporter of the BJP government and often berates the opposition and people critical of the government.[6] Bhakt Banarjee is often seen interviewing journalists like Ravish Kumar, politicians and other YouTubers like Dhruv Rathee.[7][8]

He has also authored the book "Tales from Shining India and Sinking India" in 2013 about events that took place in recent India and the inner-workings of broadcast television in India.[9] In a review, the Sunday Guardian described it as "lacking substance" and "self-aggrandizement",[10] while Rekhta described it as a "realistic and detailed account on how broadcast media works in the country".[11]

Bibliography

• Tales from Shining India and Sinking India (2013)[12]

See also

• List of Indian journalists
• List of Indian YouTubers

References

1. "About The Deshbhakt". YouTube.
2. Bansal, Varsha. "India's Government Wants Total Control of the Internet". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved December 6, 2024.
3. Verma, Pranshu (September 26, 2023). "He live-streamed his attacks on Indian Muslims. YouTube gave him an award". Washington Post.
4. Munjal, Dhruv. "This DeshBhakt Questions Everything". Rediff. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
5. "This poll season, Akash Banerjee hopes to take political satire mainstream" by Dhruv Munjal, Business Standard, Apr 05 2019.
6. Ghosh, Devarsi (February 3, 2019). "The Indian YouTube wars: Political video influencers are heating up the internet in election year". Scroll.in. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
7. Scroll Staff (August 22, 2019). "Watch: I'm not anti-Modi, I'm pro-journalism, news anchor Ravish Kumar tells satirist Akash Banerjee". Scroll.in. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
8. Nair, Roshan H. "Political comedy is no joke". Deccan Herald. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
9. "Akash Banerjee's Tales from Shining and Sinking India". The Times of India. February 20, 2013. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
10. swati (January 11, 2013). "Book Review: Banerjee's essays are a banal mish-mash of sound bytes". The Sunday Guardian Live. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
11. rekhtabooks.com. "Tales From Shining And Sinking India – Rekhta Books | Best of Hindi Urdu Literature Books". rekhtabooks.com. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
12. Banerjee, Akash (2013). Tales from Shining and Sinking India. Amaryllis. ISBN 978-93-81506-21-9.