There’s a certain calm in Raj Shamani’s demeanour, eyes fixated on the person opposite him, as if reading his guest in silence. His podcast room is put together minimally, a table with speakers on both ends and a few book shelves on the dark painted walls, to keep the focus on the conversations. Shamani sits across casually, as if in for an informal conversation over coffee, no matter who the guest is. Perhaps that is why when he dropped the ‘podcast of the decade’ he remained unflinched even as India’s most wanted personality—Vijay Mallya—sat in front of him, answering questions that have remained unanswered for years. The podcast garnered 26 million views and is one of the longest podcasts stretching to four hours. Shamani manages to do what Indian media and even the government couldn’t do in more than a decade—get Mallya to talk about his side of the story. This episode becomes a turning point not only in Shamani’s career but also in the overflooding podcast genre where everyone is a podcaster and content is being supplied more than it is being demanded.

In a world where content creators are churning out content minus quality and relevance, Shamani’s YouTube channel has the biggest leaders in the industry sharing their stories and discussing facts rather than fluff—the reason why the likes of Bill Gates, Martin Garrix, entrepreneur Viraj Bahl, Anupam Kher, Aamir Khan did not hesitate for a bit to sit down over long conversations with Shamani. In seven years, he has managed to churn out relevant episodes with hundreds of guests week after week, strengthening his following among the audiences.