Many among India’s Gen Z may not see Narendra Modi as a good friend. But the Indian prime minister is making an attempt to discuss to them like one.

The 75-year-old chief – who has lengthy cultivated a strongman picture through scripted speeches, formal broadcasts and fastidiously choreographed appearances – has in current weeks adopted a more informal type on Instagram, the photograph and video platform in style with younger folks.

Modi’s timeline, which until a month in the past featured fastidiously curated posts, now also contains more “candid” content material, such as a get-ready-with-me reel and several selfie-style addresses to younger folks, whom he calls “friends”.

In one video, he even refers to a phrase in style among Gen Z, saying, “first in my bloodline, exterior to construct a rocket, a chip and a drone” while addressing college students at a commencement ceremony in Delhi.

Modi has more than 106 million followers on Instagram, making him one of the most-followed political leaders on the platform.

But the tone of his communication on the platform was never central to his group or the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) social media technique, despite the social gathering’s popularity for acing the digital playbook that helped it win the 2014 elections.

However, issues modified after the youth protests in India this 12 months.

Led by the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), the motion unfold through memes, livestreams and Instagram reels before evolving into a power sturdy enough to make a federal minister resign.

The CJP started as a joke, but its capability to flip on-line consideration into avenue mobilisation and political stress appeared to catch the BJP off guard.

For more than a decade, the Hindu nationalist social gathering has constructed one of India’s most formidable political forces on-line utilizing WhatsApp teams, Facebook pages and X accounts to amplify its message, says writer and commentator Anurag Minus Verma.

But younger Indians eat content material and politics in another way.

More than 60% of India’s inhabitants is under 35 and Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) is expected to type one of the nation’s largest voting blocs by the 2029 common election, consultants say.

Winning them over means reaching them on platforms such as Instagram, where private and unfiltered content material can resonate more than conventional political messaging.

That shift was evident when Modi’s posts first appeared on Instagram. Young customers were fast to reply with sarcasm.

Many folks mocked his first selfie-video reel, exterior – in which he broke his silence about the youth protests while they were still ongoing. But what actually caught their consideration was a lengthy pause after Modi said, “friends”.

Versions of it quickly trended on-line, with customers including edits and jokes and mocking the lighting and digicam angles in his video.