In pictures: On the banks of the Ganga in Mirzapur, enter the world of Chotta Bruce Lee
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The courtyard of the two-room home in which 25-year-old Ramdas lives and shoots his videos is situated off a dirt road in the village of Madguda-Gopalpur in Uttar Pradesh.
They depict him delivering flying kicks as he makes blood-curdling cries, aiming rapid-fire punches at a metal basin held by his sari-clad wife and twirling a set of nunchakus.
Upending the notion that the key to success is location, location, location, the man from Mirzapur district has notched up 484,000 followers on Instagram and attracted 270,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel since he started posting in early 2023.
His followers, like me, are fascinated by the unlikely story of how Ramdas transformed himself into India’s Bruce Lee – or Chotta Bruce Lee, as he’s known to fans both in his village and on the internet.
I have travelled from Kolkata to do a photo shoot with him and find out more about how he decided to style himself like the Hong Kong martial arts film hero who died in 1973.
“I have watched all his films and liked all of them,” Ramdas said, as he drove me to his home on his scooter. Many of the people we passed nodded at him appreciatively. Some even waved and called out “China” or “Bruce Lee”.
“People will...