Deepak Char, the business partner and talent manager behind India’s biggest solo creator Ajey Nagar, widely known online as CarryMinati, revealed the inner commercial mechanics of managing a premier digital brand during a podcast appearance on The Creator Room.
Speaking about his seven-year journey steering Nagar’s commercial affairs through Alacrity Digital Entertainment, Char explained how the team transitioned Nagar from demonetized gameplay streams to multi-million-rupee brand partnerships, major campaign appearances, and a playable avatar inside Battlegrounds Mobile India.
He outlined how strategic deal positioning and commercial discipline helped scale Nagar’s enterprise while keeping the creative output separate from operational friction.
When Char joined Nagar in 2019, the YouTuber already commanded over seven million subscribers, but his channel struggled heavily with copyright claims and yellow dollar icons, the platform symbol signifying that a video has been demonetized for advertiser-unfriendly content.
Char, who previously handled corporate software sales at a multinational firm, addressed the operational leaks first by auditing video analytics and clearing music licensing rights with record labels to ensure Nagar received his ad revenue.
The manager emphasized that creator monetization in India has moved away from rigid per-view formulas, which historically ranged between 20 paise to 50 paise per view.
Instead, Char urged mid-level and rising talent to package brand integrations with usage rights, meaning the brand’s legal permission to run the creator’s video clip as paid digital advertising, and exclusivity clauses, which bar creators from partnering with direct competitors.
For creators negotiating brand deals, Char advised charging an additional mark-up, often eight to 10 percent of the base deliverable cost, for usage rights rather than handing them over for free.
He warned creators against selling standalone social media story updates at low price points, pointing out that such low-ticket executions dilute an influencer’s face value without providing sustainable business leverage.
Char also noted that strategic positioning sometimes means taking commercial pay cuts for long-term credibility, citing Nagar’s campaign with cricket icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni for travel platform Cleartrip.
Rather than maximizing immediate margin, the team prioritized high-production visibility that strengthened Nagar’s corporate portfolio.
To safeguard cash flow against the industry’s notorious 60 to 90-day vendor payment cycles, Char outlined a strict negotiation policy where Nagar’s agency demands up to 50 percent advance payment on contract signing and the remainder upon creative approval, prior to content going live.
For upcoming creators stuck on next steps after reaching milestones like 100,000 subscribers, Char stressed that consistency and continuous uploading remain the ultimate bedrock, noting that business development can only succeed when the creator continuously delivers compelling content.
Ajey Nagar, who currently reaches more than 40 million subscribers on his flagship YouTube channel alongside 12 million subscribers on his live gaming vertical, is exploring scripted narrative formats, proprietary products, and animated projects as the company plans its next growth phase.
Deepak Char noted that his personal benchmark remains cracking an individual creator partnership worth over 35 crore rupees, a milestone that would eclipse his largest corporate enterprise deal.
