In 2017, an idea struck comedian Bhuvan Bam. His short videos, filmed on his phone’s front camera, and presenting glimpses of the lives and conversations of an urban teenager with his friends and family—all played by Bam himself—had garnered much popularity. Bam knew that his characters of middle-class father Babloo ji and his pesky brother-in-law Titu Mama were well-liked—his YouTube channel BB Ki Vines has over 21 million subscribers. “I wondered, why can’t I create a universe of my own?” Bam does just that in his upcoming web series on YouTube titled Dhindora, where he plays nine characters.

While the switch between characters comes easily to him, costume and makeup helped set them apart. “I have shown the Dhindora trailer to so many people and I have had to tell them that this was all me,” he says, over a telephonic interview. “And then they would watch it again.” A lot of effort went into making each character’s body shape and walk look different, with Bam wearing a tummy pad for the father’s character, and a bra and a bum pad for the mother’s character.