Why do some Indians like taking photographs with foreigners? This pressing question has been asked several times on travel blogs, forums, sites like Quora and more – but no satisfactory answer has yet been agreed upon, although the trend continues. So pervasive is this this trend, in fact, that in 2017, union minister of state for tourism KJ Alphons asked Indians to leave foreigners alone, pointing out that asking them for pictures is an intrusion of privacy.
But the craze for taking photographs with foreigners refuses to die down – and one of the world’s most popular YouTubers got to experience it first-hand after he landed in India recently.
MrBeast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) landed in India for his first visit to the country earlier this week. With 103 million YouTube subscribers and some of the platform’s most-watched videos to his credit, MrBeast is a well-known figure in his own right – but that’s not why he was stopped for a picture in India.
The 24-year-old American YouTuber recounted his experience of walking around in India and being stopped for a selfie in a hilarious tweet Wednesday.
“I was walking around in India and someone asked for a picture. So I asked my translator to ask him what his favorite MrBeast video is and he said that he doesn’t know what a MrBeast is and just wanted a photo with a tall white guy lol,” he wrote.
Turns out that the passerby who wanted a picture with MrBeast had no idea he’s a famous YouTuber – all he wanted was a photo with a tall white man!
The post has amused thousands on the microblogging platform, with many Indians apologising to the YouTuber and others offering to show him around the country. Still others requested MrBeast to collaborate with them for a video.
“Cool seeing all the love from India, might have to film some videos here sometime,” the YouTuber wrote in an update this afternoon.
MrBeast is the man largely credited with popularising expensive stunt videos and big-budget productions on YouTube. His videos rake in millions of views each with a consistency that is rare even for the biggest YouTube stars.
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