‘Born on Instagram’ launches in Kolkata to discover and grow creative Instagrammers in the State

Instagram today launched the ‘Born on Instagram’ program in Kolkata, to discover, showcase and grow the most creative content creators in West Bengal. The program will give creators the knowledge to best leverage Instagram and hone their storytelling capabilities. 

Instagram has over a billion people using it globally and its mission is to bring you closer to the people and things you love. In India too, it’s immensely popular for its vibrant community, cultural relevance and visual expression, and it boasts of users from Priyanka Chopra to ViratKohli and Deepika Padukone. Popular Bengali personalities like Sourav Ganguly, Jeet, Nusrat Jahan, Mimi Chakraborty, Ritabhari Chakraborty, Srabanti Singh and Jeet also use the app. 

Creators have a huge role to play, as they epitomize the platform for their creativity in content and amazing social video moments. It is for this reason the app announced a ‘Born on Instagram’ program that aims to onboard creators in a series of 15 events, including one in Kolkata, and subsequently provide a bouquet of benefits over the rest of the year including one-on-one partner management, sessions on best practices of the platform, video storytelling techniques, mentorship by celebrated creators, create-together opportunities and other useful resources.

In the words of Manish Chopra, Head of Partnerships, Facebook India, “‘Born on Instagram’ is a program that recognizes the creativity in content that we’re witnessing all across India - in big and small cities. Kolkata has always been known for its cultural vibrancy and this is exemplified in the city’s content creators. While we build on our strength of visual storytelling and launch innovative features for enhancing safe self-expression, programs like these will help us in further identifying and mentoring the next big digital content creators of India.”

The highlights from the day-long event at Kolkata included a fireside chat with 

Indrani Biswas a.k.a Wonder Munna, a prominent Bengali creator with 84k followers, who shared her invaluable insights on leveraging the platform. The event also saw the presence of the well-known Bengali actress, Ritabhari Chakraborty (1.4million followers), known for films Pari, Sheshthekeshuru and upcoming Brahma janengoponkommoti. Speaking about her Instagram experience, Ritabhari Chakraborty said, “From my movies, to my new looks and my travels, my social ventures in order to make a difference in society. Instagram is a place that enables expression for me. I especially use the Feed, Stories and IGTV respectively, to share my red carpet to everyday moments. I hope more people join this program and collectively hone their Instagram skills, and be authentic while doing so. What better

platform than instagram to share who you are and also influence people for the good.It works for me, and I'm sure it will for you too.”

The event in Kolkata was a commencement of the program and the creators in attendence will thereafter be in close contact with the Instagram team. Through sustained engagement, they will benefit from online and offline resources and continual consulting to grow their community. 

This launch comes close on the heels of a global update to Boomerang, one of the beloved beloved camera formats on Instagram, that now gives you new ways to express yourself creatively. It now sports new creative tools - SloMo, Echo, Du, Trimming and Classic - to turn everyday moments into something fun and unexpected.