The Hot List 2016: Mallika Dua (Comedian)

“It’s challenging to keep your mojo up all the time,” says comedian Mallika Dua. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

It hasn’t even been a year since her first viral video got us falling off our chairs (you have to be living under a rock to have not watched Shit People Say: Sarojini Nagar Edition or the Girliyapa series) and barely six months since she started tickling us with her Makeup Didi Snapchats, but Mallika Dua is already on her way to Internet stardom of epic proportions.

A copywriter and theater artist, Dua finally moved to Mumbai from her hometown New Delhi a few months ago after management agency Only Much Louder signed her. “Life has gone from being an employee in a big company to an individual responsible for and answerable to just herself,” says Dua, who is currently working on a web series, an indie film, a few sketches and videos””“the usual.”

Dua’s Snapchat sass might be exclusive to her, but there’s a good chance she’s inherited a bit of it””she also happens to be the daughter of veteran journalist and arguably India’s first news anchor (not newsreader) Vinod Dua, who, with his onscreen wit and charm, has gripped viewers across generations. Ask her if it’s daunting to live up to everybody’s ROFL expectations and she says, “It’s challenging to keep your mojo up all the time. There are days, weeks when I’m too exhausted to make anything but I get requests and messages and then I feel like a guilty sloth. Living up to expectations of humor isn’t hard, it’s the frequency of uploading that is hard sometimes.”

Watch one of Mallika Dua’s Makeup Didi Snapchats below: