26 April,2026 07:25 AM IST | Mumbai | Debjani Paul
Sewashree Boruah stretches comedy to the very edge of sanity with her improv videos. Pic/Atul Kamble
A week before we meet Instagram's newest darling, Sewashree Boruah (@shreeecreates), one of her videos pops up on our feed in a perfect encapsulation of her particular brand of humour. "You are acting crazy," reads the top line on the video accusatorily, with the creator's defiant reply underneath: "I'm not acting." As evidence, there's a montage of clips in which she does increasingly bizarre things: a goofy dance; running around with a rifle; some more running while messily spurting milk into her mouth; growling at the camera through a mouth full of food; and then taking the camera - and us - straight into her gaping jaws.
It's not what we're used to seeing from creators, whose grids are usually carefully curated, polished. How is one to describe Sewashree's content? The comment section has a ready answer. "That was unhinged," writes one woman, followed by, "I love it!"
What surprises us more than Sewashree's unfiltered videos, is how hard they seem to hit her 2.2 lakh followers, most of whom are women. Comments on her other, equally unfiltered videos have the same vibe: "What is wrong with you? Do it again", or "She's not pretending to be crazy; the rest of us are pretending to be normal".
And honestly, we get it. There's no woman alive who hasn't been slapped with some version of "Mad o' what" or "Pagal hai kya" for the most innocent infractions - from going to the kirana store with messy hair, to speaking to an unfamiliar boy, to saying âNo' to an elder or any figure of authority. After generations of pressure to conform and "act ladylike", it's hard to take your eyes off a woman so consciously leaning into the "crazy woman" trope.
So, when we head to a Bandra cafe to meet her, the question that's on top of our mind is: Is she like this in real life? Or is it an act?
She greets us with a smile that's as cheerful as the butter yellow shirt cinched above her denim shorts; perfect summer chic. Her makeup, too, is on point. Then, a flash of whimsy - mismatched Pokemon socks (Pikachu and Squirtle). "People think that I behave the same way I am in my videos even when I go outside," she chuckles knowingly, "Sure, I can be that way with people I am comfortable with, but my persona on Instagram is an exaggeration."
Sewa is one of Instagram's breakout stars of 2026. She's been making content for years though. "I started off with full-on cinematic videos. I am a film studies graduate and wanted to be a cinematographer. But I realised no one was watching such content," she recalls.
A long-time fan of improv and comedy, Sewa is also an India's Got Latent winner.
Inspired by some of her comic heroes are Liza Koshy, Conan O'Brien, and Emma Chamberlain, she decided started uploading improv sketches, or what she calls "chaotic" content.
"Kaan khujarahi hoon, ya naak khujarahi hoon [I'd be digging my ear or nose], I just decided to not edit it out - these are things we all do. And then people began to comment âThis is me!'"
Sewa quite unabashedly calls her content "brain rot". She was, in fact, taken aback by how much it touched women's hearts. "I get overwhelmed by the emotional DMs from women who say âwhenever I feel sad, I watch your videos'. I can't believe people feel so much for my comedy."
The first video that really blew up was Sewa's choreography to a trending song, Kithe Reh Gaya. It's a romantic song in which a woman begs her lover to return for their "ring ceremony", saying she's dressed up and put on pretty earrings for him. Sewa flipped the script. "I looked at the lyrics and thought this is a woman abandoned by her lover, she should go full scorched earth." Sewa glares at the camera, flings her earrings off, and chokes herself with her dupatta. It's one of her first videos to cross 1 lakh views. Once again, a woman comments: "[This] is my mental state."
Her unhinged choreos consistently perform the best on views, although that's also where she gets the most hate (usually "cringe" or "crazy woman").
"I'm not too obsessed with comments; I've gone through a lot worse. I reply to all comments with an emoji, just for fun," she says. "There are some unsaid norms in society, and if you break those, people react with hate. I think what unsettles people is that I bring my internal monologue, my inside thoughts, outside." She quickly adds, "I think a little hate is required; it keeps you humble."
Brand collaborations have also started pouring in. Surprisingly, brands seem happy to go along with her chaotic format, although she admits it was slow going at first. "Now that some of my brand videos are out and have done well, other brands realised they can trust me."
She calls her content "trauma monetisation". An interesting description given how much of her online persona is given to relationship trauma. One of her recurring formats features her as a toxic wife to an invisible husband she's constantly yelling at to make dinner or clean the house - yet again flipping the script on gender roles.
We ask how she's doing, mental health-wise. "Haha, this has been great. Bye now," she jokes. Then, more seriously, "I am doing okay. I feel a lot. I lost my dad recently, and since then I have felt a bit hazy. I am trying to find a good therapist, but it's like dating; you need to find your person."
Plus, there's the pressure to stay relevant. It's not easy to keep the beast of the algorithm sated for long; what's fresh today is stale tomorrow. Already, Sewa sees copycat accounts coming up. "Eventually, I will have to switch up my content again. The only way to stay fresh is to keep evolving."
As one ardent follower says on her posts: "Aur kitni evolve hogi, Sewa?"
Dr Itisha Nagar, feminist, psychologist
MORE than relatability, I think what draws us to these women, these characters is their audacity to be themself. And that in itself is a very quiet challenge not just to patriarchy but also to other social structures. Some of these women hail from communities we don't come across too frequently on social media. Sewashree, for example, flaunts her Assamese identity on her page as well.
As for the âpagal aurat' trope, madness and pagalpan is a social construct. Madness is a deviation from the norm. And the norm, for us, is patriarchy, caste and class dynamics. When a person transgresses these norms, and does it unapologetically, it challenges our worldview. So then, we label their behaviour as crazy.
This isn't new. Back in the days of witch-hunting, they would gag women who were found speaking out a lot. In ancient Greece, spirited, outspoken women were labelled as âhysterical', [which scholars of that time ascribed to a âwandering uterus'. Symptoms included an unwillingness to marry or bear children]. Now, we get to see women in their mid-30s living happily without marriage, or just a life that has decentered men. For many women, seeing such examples gives them hope of it being a possibility for them too.
Not everyone will enjoy such content, but that is where feminism comes in. I might not agree with your content, or even be comfortable with it, but I'll still fight for your right to have your voice."
Rakhi Sawant
(@rakhisawant2511) is the OG woman who owned the "crazy lady" stereotype with her funny and frank videos
Meghranjani Das
(@meghranjani_das) makes crazy mom sketches that we'd be terrified to show our mothers
Reenu Debnath
(@reenu_debnath) turns gender stereotypes on their head with her impersonation of "tharki" men or creeps
Creator Mamta Kumari has made a career out of playing a ditzy woman who's sneakily self-aware
Yet another creator who is tired of playing the "perfect lady", and has gone in the opposite direction is Mamta Kumari (@simply.mamta). Formerly a model, she now makes satirical content. On her page, she often plays a "ditzy" woman who is sneakily self-aware. So much so that one can't always tell whether she's poking fun at herself or the rest of us.
Embarrassing moments from her life make for comedy fodder, such as the time she auditioned for Snow White in a school play but was cast as a squirrel. We can't imagine anything farther from the manicured image of a model.
"A few years ago, I could have never done this. The Mamta you see now is the version that I love. The other version that was into modelling: she was polished, but it felt a little fake. Models have to behave themselves, which is something I don't like doing," she says.
"I love writing, so I first started with horror films for a production house," she says. "Then I also began writing comic skits for Instagram."
Her following is evenly split between men and women, and both indulge in playful banter in her comment section. "Aap meri bhai se shaadi karlo, Mamta, woh naa nahi bolega. Woh gunga hai," posts one woman. Another follower, a man, quips: "You should go on the radio; I never switch it on."
Mamta takes it all in stride and laughs along. "I have reached a point in my life where I am not insecure about myself. What I am very careful about though, is to never hurt anyone's feelings, which is all too easy in comedy. That's why my roasts are never directed towards anyone but myself," she says.
Tellingly, she calls her page an "online pagalkhana". "Only a paglait would follow a paglait like me," she laughs. That makes 1.4 lakh "paglaits", including several celebrities.
"Gen Z and Alpha are here for brain rot. My older followers, though, appreciate the intelligence needed for satire. They also recognise that humour comes from trauma, so they connect with me more emotionally," says Mamta.
One comment that stays with us is from Sana Mohammed, founder of Welt Concierge in UAE: "I love whatever is wrong with you."
"I love how snarky she is," Sana tells us over a call, "It's a twisted kind of humour. The irreverent humour is not something an âaunty' would approve of. That's why I like her. We traumatise society with how outspoken we are."
Viraj Sheth, CEO & Co-Founder, Monk Entertainment
Q. What prompted your agency to sign @shreeecreates?
She's not trying to be perfect or even âlikeable'; she's just being sharply honest in her own style. That's hard to fake. Content that breaks format has higher retention because it feels unpredictable. It has stronger recall because it doesn't look like everything else on the feed. Over time, these creators build cult-like audiences.
Q. Is it harder to pitch such chaotic creators to brands?
Initially, yes. But Monk-E has built a name for itself for scouting shapers of culture. So once brands see it work, the conversation flips. They start asking, "How do we fit into her world without breaking it?"
