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IIT BHU engineer Saurabh Bothra, who has gone hugely viral on WhatsApp with his 21-day challenge, has drawn almost a crore of registrations
Move over Baba Ramdev. What the Patanjali founder did to make yoga accessible and affordable with his famous camps and TV shows, now a bunch of social media savvy yoga-preneurs are doing through Zoom, Youtube, Whatsapp and Instagram. They are getting a whole different set of Indians to roll out their yoga mats through catchy reels, peppy Youtube shorts and daily notifications on WhatsApp.
Scroll through Instagram and chances are you will encounter the likes of Dolly Jain Yoga, Sarvesh Shashi, Purnima Joshi, Iris Vatrana making yoga look simple. Literally everyone has big plans for International Yoga Day on June 21. Some are tying up with malls, others are coordinating with RWAs to motivate people to gather together to do some stretches and balancing acts.
But in the run up to the International Yoga Day, it is IIT BHU engineer Saurabh Bothra who has gone hugely viral on Whatsapp with his 21 day challenge, that at last count, according to him, had drawn almost a crore of registrations. “We are making a World Record together,” promises his Whatsapp message. Through a combination of tech, rewards, discounts and persuasive prompts and nudges, Bothra who counts CEOs as well as stay at home moms as his students, is trying to change behaviour and make yoga a daily habit – and not just a one-day show up on Yoga Day. Indeed, his yoga venture, co-founded with his sister Trishala and IIT classmate Anshul Agrawal is called Habuild.
Almost all yoga teachers businessline spoke with talked about lack of consistency among practitioners, and the high rate of drop offs. For the yoga-preneurs themselves, as a business proposition, it is challenging. Sarvesh Shashi, who at one time had studios in 92 locations, had to scale down majorly and is now down to eight locations.
Privileged background
Bothra openly admits that his privileged background – he comes from an affluent business family from Nagpur – allows him to offer highly affordable annual rates. “If the intent is to do this as a startup, and look at monetisation and growth, it will be very challenging. But if the intent is to generate value for others and you are in a giving zone, then you will get back,” he says.
Bothra started out catering to moms in their 50s, who would not be too comfortable with apps. “We built a support group of 200 people for them on WhatsApp,” he says. Eventually, when the moms joined, the whole family joined in,” he says. Well, let’s wait and see if he makes it a world record.
Published on June 20, 2025
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