At some point in our lives, while having a drunken hang with our gang, all of us have uttered the phrase “man, this could be a podcast.” Most of us wake up the next day with a splitting hangover and a backlog of work and forget all about such ideas. But not Amin Jazayeri. He decided to go for it, drafting in close friends Stuvi Krishnan, Yug Patil and Krishna Vasisht (who goes by the alias Hari Sundari) for the Untriggered podcast, where they share wild takes on pop culture, current affairs and random absurdities. The show, which kicked off two years ago, hit the 100-episode mark last month.

“I think most people have a group of friends with whom they love to shoot some shit and they’re very comfortable doing that,” Jazayeri told DeadAnt. “Our podcast is pretty much the same thing, except we put it out for the world to see.”

When the podcast began in September 2020, it was hosted solely by Jazayeri. He’d noticed a gap in the market—there were few Indian comedy podcasts in the vein of, say, Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant—and wanted to see if he could fill it. In the beginning, he reached out to his contacts and brought on people with modest social media followings, but the COVID-19 crisis made it difficult to get guests into the studio. “I tried to do it solo for a while as well but it wasn’t as much fun,” he said.

That’s when Jazayeri reached out to his oldest and closest friends. After recording individual solo episodes, the entire gang sat together for an episode and released it in September 2021. Jazayeri had finally found a format and a team that clicked. Since then, they’ve brought on some of the biggest names in the country as guests, including comedians Kunal Kamra, Jose Covaco, Aaditya Kulshreshtha aka Kullu, podcaster and internet personality Ranveer Allahbadia, musician Ritviz, actor Jiya Shankar and most recently, rap duo Seedhe Maut. 

“After the four of us got together, we saw some rise in the numbers,” said Jazayeri. “We would get 1000-2000 views in a day, which isn’t big but for a bunch of nobodies just having fun, it was great. And after we started bringing guests on the show, a small chunk of their fan-base would migrate to our channel. We’re growing slowly but steadily and that’s precisely how we want it to be.” 

That growth is also partly down to Jazayeri and the team’s clever use of Instagram reels. The boys leveraged the growing popularity of short-form content, putting out snippets from their episodes to gain more traction and reach a wider demographic. During a previous chat with DeadAnt where we discussed for our 20 years of podcasting article, Jayazeri emphasised the importance of video for a podcast to grow. “Our reels have always done well for us,” he said. “Every time a reel blows up, we see a small but definite influx of viewers on our YouTube channel.” 

In addition to the 125k (and growing) subscribers on their channel, the Untriggered boys have also cashed in on YouTube’s membership programs. Fans pay anywhere between INR 199 – 1999 to tune in to exclusive episodes that feature the hosts dishing out details about their personal lives. “People who invest a lot of time listening to us are more curious about the behind-the-scenes working of the show,” said Jazayeri. “They’re interested in what’s going on in our personal lives and that’s what they get in the bonus episodes.”

The fact that people are willing to pay for their content has also encouraged them to experiment with the live podcast format, a route to monetisation that is highly under-utilised by Indian podcasts, barring maybe The Internet Said So. “Now we know if we put a show together, people will actually show up,” said Jayazeri. “We want it to be very well-planned and curate the best possible experience for the audience which is why we’re taking our time putting it together.” 

Jazayeri, Krishnan and Patil have also switched base from Pune to boost their productivity. The three of them—along with two editors—have moved into a house in Mumbai and set up a studio for an easier shoot process. “It’s just made things a lot easier,” said Jayazeri. “We can shoot episodes quickly and the editors are right here. So we’re churning out videos at a much faster rate. Workflow and productivity are at an all-time high.” 

Now that they’ve found their audience, the Untriggered team are also contemplating forays into other creative formats. “I’ve always wanted to write a sitcom, so maybe that’s something that we will do in the future,” said Jazayeri. But for now, the focus remains on levelling up with the podcast. “International collaborations [are] something that I will make sure [will] happen on the podcast,” he said. “I want our show to be an outlet for international artists, actors, rappers, anyone who wants to reach out to the Indian audience and see what’s happening in India.” 

Those are big goals for a bunch of childhood friends who found unlikely success ribbing each other in front of a microphone. “I just hope we keep doing this and the boys continue being the boys. Maybe we’ll see 40-year-old versions of ourselves still doing the same thing—having fun.”