Aseno Ayemi gets candid about career, inspiration and Bollywood debut

DIMAPUR — Known for her comedic take on accents of various Naga tribes, Aseno Ayemi has become a household name in Nagaland for portrayal of characters such as Naro, Rokono Ama and Savili Ama, to name a few.

In a conversation with Eastern Mirror, Ayemi, who goes by the stage name Aseno Vili Angami, shared about her journey as a full-time comedian and ‘influencer’.

She has so far garnered about 67.3 k followers on Instagram and 143k subscribers on YouTube. Her content genre is mostly comedy but she also wants to share ‘fun facts’ through the videos in the future.

Born and brought up in Kohima, she lives with her mother and brother. She completed her high school from Minister’s Hill Hr. Sec. School; secondary school from Little Star Hr. Sec. School; while she completed her bachelor’s degree from Baptist College, Kohima.

How it started

Ayemi started making videos during the COVID-induced lockdown in April 2020 ‘out of boredom’. She said she first started cooking watching YouTube videos, but “had enough of it”.

Later, she made a video in an Ao accent about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and circulated it among her friends through WhatsApp. Her friends encouraged posting the video on social media, and it was received well by the audience. 

‘Since the audience seemed to enjoy it and even demanded more acting’, she made more videos in different accents of the Naga tribes. She “thanked” the pandemic for giving her the opportunity to expose her talent.

During her childhood days, Ayemi recalled she would actively participate in skits in Sunday school and also perform in the church and mimic others. She said she was not inspired by anyone but had “God-gifted talent”.

“It was God who led me till here,” she added.

Ayemi not only enjoys her profession but receiving positive messages from people inspires her to keep going.

Even though there are times when she thinks her videos are not good enough, she shared that she learns that the videos have inspired others in a good way, and that makes her feel happy.

“Being an influencer, it is my responsibility to influence others positively, and even the haters who hated me for my appearance before have also started feeling sorry for what they did; and also I say ‘I love you’ to my haters, I try to bring out positivity”, she expressed.

It may be mentioned that her video of Rakhi Sawant went very viral and Sawant herself shared the video on her Instagram story.

Privacy

Speaking about the least favourite thing about her profession, she shared that in life, some things need to be kept private.

“We do not have a private life anymore because people start to keep an eye on you and whatever you do, people will take photos and share in social media”, she said, citing an incident when she was in a thrift store, and someone took photos of her and uploaded it on social media.

Some of her good friends asked her to stop doing it, but had the support of her family and did not want to give up, she maintained.

Sponsorship and earnings

She shared that she is earning “more than enough” from her profession as she gets a lot of sponsors from outside the state.

Highlighting that most of her sponsorships are from outside Nagaland, she said even though she wants to support and promote local, local sponsors do not negotiate or call her back after knowing the price, and some do not even pay her.

Bollywood debut

She has made her Bollywood acting debut in ‘Paatal Lok 2’, a Hindi and Nagamese web.  She opined that the series will probably be released in November or December 2023 on Amazon Prime.

Ayemi said she wants to pursue acting in the future and expressed gratitude for the opportunity to make her debut in a web series.

Future aspirations

 “Growing up from a middle class family, my mother struggled so much for our family as my father passed away while I was young”, she shared. So, her biggest dream is to provide her mother with everything she wants, apart from travelling the world.

Upcoming projects

She does not have any specific upcoming projects but she wants to collaborate with other Naga influencers and make content like comedy along with vlogs. She mentioned that every month she gets sponsorships so she has to think of content for videos.

Ayemi shared she gets her content ideas mostly from “colony aunties” as she sits and listens to them discuss various issues. Sometimes, the “aunties” share their ideas and ask her to make videos based on it, she shared.

Message to her followers

‘In this world, everyone has their own talent. I learnt that a government job is not the only job and social media is a big platform where anyone can really earn,’ she said.

She urged everyone to utilise their talent to earn money and encouraged parents to love and support their children.

“Loving others is better than hating because love can conquer everything. If someone has talent and is doing something good, appreciate their talent and work instead of hating. Nagas should love one another”, she concluded.