If it wasn’t the case already, Instagram has made it quite clear that visual storytelling is where it’s at — even if it is motivational quotes in pixel form. For pretty much any category (or subject that defies categorisation), there’s a whole swathe of Instagram accounts, with ‘influencers’ putting out content to millions of followers. Exotic cars are a common and popular subject, but I wasn’t quite prepared for what was lurking in my figurative backyard when I started doing some digging for this story.
Let me give you some perspective: a Porsche 911 Turbo S — a relatively ‘pedestrian’ exotic car — costs about Rs 2.86 crore in India; that’s more than double what it costs in the USA. So when I’m scrolling through exotic car owners in that country, or in Europe or the UAE, those owners are literally spending half as much as having them over in India. And yet, I found a bunch of home-grown collectors that have a dedicated following on social media, and from what I can see, who take Instagram pretty darn seriously. It’s not just the cars themselves that had me gaping, but the sheer un-self-conscious effort they put into producing content for their accounts.
A popular Instagram account – and a name that easily pops up when discussing supercars in India — is that of ‘Bren Garage’. It’s run by Boopesh Reddy, whose actual name is also fairly well-known. He’s the owner of the only Porsche 911 R in the country, and the only TechArt GT Street R in India (a VERY souped-up Porsche 911). His Instagram account also shows several Ferraris, Lamborghinis, a lurid-green Mercedes-AMG GTR, and an Aston-Martin DBS, among others. An unofficial list I unearthed has about 14 exotic cars.
Reddy, by any benchmark, is killing it on Instagram. His follower count as of writing this is over 92,200, and the account is absolutely packed with pictures of exotic cars. But here’s where it gets more interesting — a lot of the photos are professionally shot, the captions are carefully-worded, the hashtags curated (Reddy is partial to ‘#brenspec’, to describe his particular configuration of cars) and consistency maintained. He even appears to do giveaways for his fawning fans — most call him ‘sir’ in the comments.
In my search for other such ‘sirs’, I discovered Ranjit Sundaramurthy (#RSMSpec) who, in comparison, appears to have taken the Insta game to the next level. With 653k followers when we checked, his account is approaching 2000 posts. From his photos, Sundaramurthy appears to spend much of his time abroad, and his collection of cars is properly in the exotic territory, with several Ferraris, at least one McLaren that we can see, a Rolls-Royce Ghost and possibly many others. With nearly 2000 posts, there’s a lot to see.
The owner of #RSMSpec cars isn’t bashful about his lifestyle, either – there’s plenty of professional portraits, motivational quotes and fitted apparel. Of particular note are his video posts. One of them, starring his Ferrari 458 Spyder in Bengaluru, plays out like a Hollywood production, complete with drone shots and a theatrical ending breaking the fourth wall. And there’s plenty more professionally shot, slow motion, square-jawed, fitted-tee exotic car filmography on display.
Sundaramurthy also seems to be ticking all the right boxes in terms of engagement with his audience. Every post has hundreds of comments (and many more ‘likes’), photo captions often solicit opinions or captions and the hashtag game is on point. He’s even let his fans drive his cars on a test track. Sir, please accept my friend request.
Continuing my exotic tour of the south (what is it with the South and supercars?), I chanced upon Naseer Khan of Hyderabad (@naseer_khan0054), who is at 35,100 followers with just 150 posts. A quick bit of sleuthing shows that Khan has a solidly-engaged audience to go with his well-wheeled garage. We see several Lamborghinis and Ferraris, among other pose-worthy automobiles. While there are a fair number of pro-shots on the page, they tend towards the baroque (prancing horse and actual horse).
Where Khan differs is that there’s a bunch of phone-shot videos of him letting rip on public roads, as well as some typical selfie/friends/family stuff that the other accounts tend to avoid. It’s a bit more genuinely personal, rather than meticulously curated. This is also the first time I’ve ever seen an owner stand ON THE ROOF of his Lamborghini Aventador (we’ll let you compose yourself for a moment).
If I were to be judgemental, I’d say it’s all a bit self-indulgent, but then, that’s what social media is about, right? In terms of the game, our supercar superstars are definitely doing it right – they’re social celebrities for their inherent lifestyles, rather than it being a celebrity for celebrity’s sake. Sirs, please accept my friend request.
