Akansha is from a very small town in UP. Her mother enrolled her in a dance school and she really disliked it. In her last year of Kathak in 10th grade she got really interested in dance. She participated in a programme on Sankskaar TV and won a competition. She was a huge fan of Hannah Montana and loved Disney shows. Though she loved dancing and singing, these were not viable career options back then. So, she did her B.Sc. in Computer Science from Delhi University. She got a job at Wipro. They sponsored her Master’s as well from VIT.
Akansha’s family is very supportive of her. However, her parents don’t put pressure on her to get married. She thinks her parents also have to be subjected to societal pressure about Akansha’s dance videos on Instagram. During the lockdown, she has gotten closer to her family.
Akansha started her journey on Instagram in 2018. She was going through a tough time in life then and this was a way to cope and feel better. She had future plans of settling and working in the US, but after the elections restrictions were imposed on immigration. This ruined Akansha’s plans and she felt that whatever she had been working for had been taken from her.
She was in Pune in 2017 and was also a restaurant blogger. This is when a friend suggested she do a dance video on Instagram. Her first video got reposted a lot. She feels it was easier to get followers earlier and now the competition is a lot tougher. The algorithm of Instagram also makes gaining followers difficult, Akansha felt.
Akansha’s job helps her invest in her requirements to keep posting on Instagram. Her videos take a lot of effort. There is support but also there is criticism. When she started Instagram, it was just random videos on random songs. But as the competition has gotten tougher, she has to learn new styles and try to be more creative. She spends a lot of time planning content. She currently has 41.4k followers.
The content that viewers consume on Instagram has a lot of work that goes on in the background, that isn’t visible. Akansha knows how tough it is to make videos consistently but wants to keep giving good content to her followers.
She doesn’t want to fail and wants to make her Instagram work. She sometimes feels like she should quit. But she has put a lot at stake and she wants to continue pushing herself. She continues to learn and be inspired by better dancers. There is a fair amount of negativity too but she feels criticism needs to be filtered out.
Akansha’s advice to readers is to be patient and continue pursuing what they are passionate about. She thinks that people who want to succeed on Instagram should have a niche. Akansha also feels everyone should have a basic degree and education even if they want to pursue creative lines.
