On the reality show The 50, social media star Mr Faisu opened up about a challenging period in his career after TikTok was banned in India, describing it as a moment when he felt everything collapse. Faisu, who earned fame and a massive fan following through the platform, gave viewers a candid look into how the sudden shutdown affected his life and work.
Faisu talks about the TikTok ban
Faisu explained that his journey began long before TikTok’s peak popularity. He recalled, “Back then, even we didn’t fully understand what we were doing that made people go crazy for us,” referencing his early experiments with content creation on platforms like Dubsmash and Facebook. He said that simple strategies, like making sure “every third video that the audience saw should be ours,” helped him grow a loyal audience. Over time, he had created an astonishing 7,500 videos, building a massive digital presence.
However, everything changed when TikTok was banned. “Then TikTok got banned, and when that happened, we lost it all,” Faisu shared, underscoring the abrupt loss of his primary creative platform and audience source. At one point, he was “number one in India,” and even ranked as the “third most followed person in the world” on TikTok, with his videos collectively earning 1 billion likes, a milestone no one else in India had achieved at the time.
Calls his career setback a dark phase
Faisu added that after his account was banned, he and his team quickly pivoted to Instagram, urging his followers to “follow me on Instagram,” which helped him reclaim some of his fan base. Alongside him, his friend and fellow contestant Adnaan Shaikh reflected on how difficult the period was, saying they were “emotionally broken, and we thought our careers were over.”
Despite the setbacks, Faisu spoke about resilience and support systems. He mentioned how the agency he signed with stood by him, helping him grow not just professionally but personally. “They groomed us so much, and we could understand that it was making us better human beings,” Faisu said, emphasizing how that guidance helped him move forward.
His reflections on the show offered a rare glimpse into how the TikTok ban impacted individual creators, particularly those like Faisu who built their careers around the short video platform.
