The Reactorverse Podcast Ep. 02: CinePals / CineDesi's Jaby Koay & Achara Kirk

In 2006, a channel debuted on KZbin called Jaby Koay, featuring its titular personality performing stunt reels, comedy sketches and the occasional movie review as a way to book potential acting jobs. The movie reviews, he noticed, got a lot more attention and in 2013, he pivoted to making reaction videos, adding cohost Achara Kirk two years later.
Though initially focused on American content, Jaby and Achara found a surprising data point: their audience spiked whenever they reacted to Indian film trailers. Legions of new fans began subscribing to the channel.
In 2017, Jaby and Achara decided to create a second channel, Get Jaby, for their reactions to Western film and television, revamping the original channel to focus exclusively on Indian and South Asian content.
In 2023, they rechristened the channels as CineDesi and Cinepals. Today, CineDesi boasts over 2 million followers, and collectively, both channels have garnered 2 billion views.
In this episode of the Reactorverse Podcast, Jaby and Achara talk to host Eric Rodriguez about their journey to becoming one of the largest reaction channels in the world, the difference between American and international fandoms, and how they mastered the learning curve of Indian cinema.
Host: Eric Rodriguez / nerdchronic
Guests: Jaby Koay and Achara Kirk from CinePals / CineDesi / @cinepals / / @cinedesi / / thecinepals
The Reactorverse is hosted by Passionfruit video editor and community organizer Eric Rodriguez. Every week, he interviews a different KZbin reaction channel who share their experience of building a brand from watching new movies, tv shows, trailers, and more in real time. These are the stories of those who have succeeded in turning their passion project into a day (and most likely night) job.
Passionfruit is a news site, multimedia brand, and community space for creator labor issues. In an industry estimated to be worth half a trillion dollars by 2027, the majority will go to platforms, distributors, brands, and other corporate interests that rely on creators to produce an endless stream of new content. We are dedicated to advocating for the rights and fair treatment of online content creators, provide resources, news, and advocacy. Every worker in this space deserves Sustainability, Accountability, Equity, and Transparency: a SEAT at the table of the creator economy.
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00:00:00 Coming up
00:00:52 Intro
00:02:17 Early KZbin experience
00:04:46 Familiarity with reactions
00:05:42 Achara joining the channel
00:07:03 How did you meet?
00:08:30 Starting second channel
00:11:21 Managing two channels
00:13:20 Rebranding channel
00:18:38 Building a channel roster
00:22:33 Obstacles in expanding
00:25:41 Discovering Indian cinema
00:27:50 Achara and Indian cinema
00:29:59 Copyright issues
00:36:35 Experience with Indian community
00:44:22 RRR
00:50:22 Indian movie recommendations
00:55:34 Most rewarding part of the channel
01:05:20 Final questionnaire
01:15:56 Outro

[@PassionfruitCreators]

Visit the Passionfruit website: passionfru.it and join us on Discord: discord.gg/z8gke27hcT And hey, if you're feeling generous, sign up for our brand new PATREON. We have great perks like early show releases, bonus video and editorial content, exclusive creator discord channels, and Friday night live streams! Plus, you're supporting independent journalism, so that's a plus. www.patreon.com/passionfruit4us/

[@ImAlsoMerobiba]

I haven't watched that many of Cinepal's reactions but it'll still be very interesting to hear this interview.

[@PassionfruitCreators]

Right? International cinema has the added benefit of not being from a Hollywood studios being struck atm.

[@rosunrajkumar876]

Here for Achara❤ She has been team IndianMovies since day one. One of the most kindest, smartest human beings you will find on the internet.

[@PassionfruitCreators]

🥰🥰🥰

[@kiranmayeem4864]

Been watching them since the beginning..so lovely to see how far they've come. ❤

[@PassionfruitCreators]

so cool!

[@sewaligoswami781]

What a journey it has been so far with jaby koay 🎉 brilliant

[@ashokbantawarai5310]

Achara is awesome . Much love

[@Aaryavartah]

59:48 Don't you dare say you know only one language JABBYYYYYY, you been in the process of learning Hindi for ages now 😂!! Even "Western Food Bloggers" have shown more progress in learning Hindi than you Jaby😂 1:13:37 Thats a really solid advice #Jaby, I too shall implement it in my life from now on. Thanks for this amazing podcast #Pasionfruit.

[@derf1600]

Would LOVE if Jaby and Achara put up a Letterboxd Channel for the Movies the Cinedesi channel viewed, with links to the reviews. Thanks guys, love you and all you do.

[@priyankadigraskar9441]

I loved this interview.. u asked all the correct questions and let jaby and achara express freely.. this I think is best interview of our Jaby and Achara❤️

[@lazypaulreact]

48:07 noted! Thank you.

[@PassionfruitCreators]

*takes notes*

[@JW-wx3qj]

Much love

[@ShailendraSVK]

Been following jaby from the initial days.. Subscribed to passion fruit now 👍

[@PassionfruitCreators]

Welcome! Great to have you :)

[@rockyamour2704]

Nice podcast

[@Sachin_C10]

Drew Grant. This is awesome, this will help you're channel big time. Completely unexpected to see Jaby koay & Achara Kirk to have this interview. They are insanely popular in india.

[@PassionfruitCreators]

This is all Eric Rodriguez/Nerdchronic. Drew just lets him use the spare room to film.

[@Sachin_C10]

@@PassionfruitCreators ✌️👍, gotcha. Fun interaction, Do check out Indian cinema. Do watch movies like Kaithi (2019) 1st, Vikram (2022) 2nd, Vada Chennai (2018), Kgf (2018), Kgf 2 (2022), Thalumaala (2022) etc.

[@AmanKumar-wu3ej]

love achara and jaby

[@harshita7432]

Aaaeee jaby and achara❤

[@sahilsahu4323]

Jaby koay and achara are the celebrities in India😅 They are insanely popular And what a wonderful interview 🙏 Even this is most viewed video on your channel Congrats

[@JW-wx3qj]

Jaby and Achara much love from India🇮🇳

[@lazypaulreact]

Connections 😊

[@Nwl079]

Here for Our JABS🤣💓

[@j_u_n_e_d_bagban]

Hello jabs and chacha ❤

[@ranveervaghela7030]

Hi Jaby!!

[@jordaneshwar5317]

It's been 10 years since I am watching Jaby. Damn man time flies. ❤️ from 🇮🇳

[@mojoJojo-dheeraj]

Damn me too

[@sewaligoswami781]

10 years!!

[@PassionfruitCreators]

Wow! A fan from the beginning!

[@rebelfly]

Leaving comment for the Algorithm Gods :)

[@thenerdywave2007]

👍

[@deveshkapoor6552]

I'm almost an encyclopedia on Reaction Channels. Reel Rejects was a part of the Big 4. It had Tyrone Magnus and Akasan as well, who are still into reaction videos. Gator Martin was the remaining Big 4, who in fact was the unofficial originator of the genre in the style you see today. FBE/REACT will have you think otherwise but they is not the case.

[@manjunathan595]

ms dhoni :the untold story , would be a great addition to your indian movie watching list , it's a sports movie and also biography of an legend. And would also introduce to the world of cricket. and also a movie called jersey(telugu)

[@shadestorm3995]

they ev watched em all

[@ruchika_pal_kaur]

🙂👍

[@praveenpillay4329]

Achara will never forgive Jaby for not remembering her...I knew it was coming.😁😁😁

[@paragpevekartiss]

Kudos is a patient and quite engaged as a host . Much love .

[@avinabaroychowdhury959]

26:26

[@lazypaulreact]

22:43 the truth and nothing but the truth

[@DhruvMalikk]

Time stamps plz

[@PassionfruitCreators]

We’re having trouble adding them in! We can put in timestamps in description and pinned comment but it doesn’t translate into actual clickable actions.

[@MrCool842]

Hey Cinedesi

[@ClipHypeBuzzMoments]

3 idiots was 100 times better than Gully boy jaby.

[@sellouts4249]

I have noticed that certain individuals may not always keep their promises, especially when it comes to their Patreon. I have brought this to their attention multiple times, as they had advertised a video being available on their paid Patreon, but it was not delivered as promised. Additionally, they deleted my comment when I raised this issue. Specifically, I am referring to their Jaws watch-along. They did not address what happened to the full watch-along and continued with their business. It seems that this individual's content may be geared towards Indian viewers, as that demographic seems to be their main audience.

[@greeshma359]

Omg, Jaby recommending GULLY BOY seriously? I literally walked out of theatre while watching that movie. There are more amazing movies.

[@NikZ500]

He also said Gangs of Wasseypur and Eega

[@luckyl4135]

It's a very digestible film to foreigners

[@sewaligoswami781]

I loved the movie. It's a great watch IMO