TikTok Is Taking Over India
NEW DELHI—On a hot afternoon on the lawns of a lavish country house south of India’s capital, Ronak Bhatia waited patiently for his shot at fame. He had followed an online ad posted by Celebrity Face, a New Delhi event company that holds regular talent hunts and celebrity shoots, and he was surrounded by hundreds of other contestants. Each of them had paid a registration fee of 1,000 rupees, or about $14, and filled out an application. Many had traveled from across the country just for this audition.
They eyed one another warily as Celebrity Face volunteers called out names in batches. Only about a dozen at a time got inside; bouncers were otherwise physically blocking the crowd from entering. Outside, dressed in a denim jacket, white shirt, and blue jeans, a look he had styled with spiked hair, aviator glasses, a handlebar moustache, and a goatee, Bhatia sat in a plastic chair and stared at the posters of teenage celebrities plastered across the walls enclosing the lawn. He knew everything about them. He was there because he believed that if he, a 19-year-old who had just graduated from high school, worked hard enough, his face
