“Battlegrounds Mobile India will definitely be helping the PUBG Mobile community revive itself”: Prajwal “Red Parasite” Kali

The PUBG Mobile ban in the nation has indeed hit many professional players and content creators hard. Many had to adapt to keep their audiences entertained and latch onto the hope that the title on which they built their career around will eventually make a comeback.

Now, with Battlegrounds Mobile India finally live on Android devices, it would seem that it has lived up to its hype and expectations. Kannada streamer Prajwal “Red Parasite” Kali has been one of many who loved the amount of work Krafton put in to get the title finally released in India.

In an interview with Abhishek Mallick of Sportskeeda Esports, Prajwal opens up about his channel’s formative months, what inspired him to seek a career in content creation, and the potential that Battlegrounds Mobile India has in the nation’s esports scene.

Here is an excerpt of the conversation:

Q. Prajwal, can you tell us a bit about yourself? What’s life like outside the YouTube channel of Red parasite?

Prajwal: Hello! My name is Prajwal, but I am popularly known for my ign “Red Parasite.”

I have always been crazy about video games, and I have been very serious about gaming ever since I was 16 years old.

The first game that I ever played was Counter-Strike 1.6 and then Dota2, to which I got very much addicted. As I am passionate about trying new games on different platforms, I have created content on a variety of titles, including PS4 exclusives on my channel.

About my life outside of streaming, there is not much to tell because even in my free time, I play games. However, now and then, I do hang out with my friends and play games with them as well.

Q. How did you get into content creation? What were some of the hurdles that your channel faced when starting out?

Prajwal: Before starting out, I used to watch a lot of PewDiePie streams, and then one day, while surfing YouTube, I stumbled across the content of many South Indian streamers.

I realized then that there are no streamers in Kannada, so I started streaming in my mother tongue, and today I have built an incredible YouTube family of 84K. When I started, all I wanted to do was entertain people, and though I started my journey with PUBG Mobile, I eventually introduced more games to my channel.

There is one unfortunate incident that I never told my audience; it is that when I began my career, my mother fell very ill. So It was very difficult for me to focus wholeheartedly on my content, and moreover, as I was the first Kannada streamer, getting viewers and subscribers to my channel became quite difficult. But I was eventually able to get there, and my channel has been growing every day.

Q. What’s the atmosphere like back at home? Are your parents supportive of your career choice as a content creator?

Prajwal: Even though both of my parents are serious professionals in the field of “Law,” they have been quite supportive of what I wanted to do in life, and that’s especially true for my mom.

Sure, in the beginning, my father would scold me a lot, saying, “why are you playing this cartoon game” but my mother always had my back and supported me.

She used to give me INR 10 so that I could go and play games in the game zone. She also bought me my first Xbox, and it’s because of this love and support from her that I became what I am today.

Q. Why did you choose to name your channel “Red parasite”? Any interesting story behind the naming?

Prajwal: My in-game name initially was “Stark,” which was inspired by Iron Man as I am an incredibly big fan of his. But I soon realized how common this username is. And when starting new games, I was never able to place this as my ign because it would always be taken.

As I needed a unique name, I thought of keeping “Red Parasite,” whose Idea I got from watching an anime called Parasyte, and I put the Red in front of it to signify danger.

No matter the game, this ID was always available for me.

Q. Battlegrounds Mobile India is finally here for the Android platform. What have been some of your expectations from the game, and how much of it would you say was met?

Prajwal: Obviously, I am very happy that Battlegrounds Mobile India is here because small content creators like us had a really hard time keeping our audiences entertained after PUBG Mobile got banned. So BGMI will definitely help the community revive itself.

Q. Skyesports has come up with Streamers Showdown, which is the first licensed third-party competition on the game. What are your personal opinions on it?

Prajwal: The Skyesports Streamer Showdown has become a platform where we can meet other South Indian streamers and work together to get more exposure in the title’s community.

Q. Streamers Showdown is creating a platform for regional content creators in the region to get some more recognition from the community. What is your take on the unique format that Skyesports introduced in their tournament?

Prajwal: Skyesports is indeed doing an incredible job in bringing many of the South Indian content creators and esports personalities to the spotlight. It’s a fact that video games personalities from this part of the nation do not get as much recognition and exposure as their Northern counterparts.

This is why Skyesports’ Streamer Showdown is indeed a monumental step that the organization is taking in helping out these YouTubers. It has finally shown that South India, too, has some incredible talent when it comes to Battlegrounds Mobile India.

Q. What’s the future like for Red parasite? What can fans expect from the channel in the coming months?

Prajwal: In the coming months, I would love to introduce more games to my channel and not just create content on the titles that I already play.

I always try to keep my audiences entertained and give them what they want. Hence I will be announcing a few new games that I will play on my channel in the coming days, but till then, what I play will be a surprise.