The Story of ‘Pissu Kanna’ (පිස්සු කන්නා)

Social Media’s Newest

Revelation!

New Age Media has always been something of a revolution since the time of its inception in 2005. It was a platform that quite literally took the world by storm.

Over the years, however, social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and now TikTok have managed to produce some of the world’s most iconic and influential ‘digital’ celebrities. That being said, we reached out to Instagram’s most loved personality of 2020, ‘Pissu Kanna’. An average Sri Lankan boy who became an overnight Instagram sensation.

“I am hungry af’ & “Where’s my phone?”

A Digital Media Producer by profession, based in Melbourne with an impressive international portfolio so to speak, was no stranger to the digital realm even prior to his overnight fame. Pissu Kanna, a humble bloke from sunny Sri Lanka (kotthu kaala, theh beepu) and a much-loved celebrity with a name that might get one’s parents’ giving more than just a frown or two, was successful at taking the digital world by storm.

Pissu Kanna who claims to have started off his Social Media journey on the Chinese social networking and video sharing service, TikTok, while in search of a potential promotional social media platform for RMIT University. “I had all this time on my hand so I started making TikTok videos. I cannot dance to save my life so, I started with little comedy sketches. At first, I got 300-800 views on my videos which I thought was really impressive. I was slowly realizing the power of this app as my view count grew significantly.” Said he.

The global COVID-19 pandemic subsequently took its toll on Pissu Kanna, as he was informed of the country’s momentary retrenchment policy, which probably might have been a good thing since his love for the digital world took a turn for the best. Not many could take pride in saying they’ve managed to acquire 400 followers and 2000 likes in a span of a fortnight but Pissu Kanna, is no ordinary bloke, this is a man with a versatile talent for creativity.

His experiment with sketch comedy enabled him to reach this ‘really impressive’ milestone he tells us.

Courage doesn’t always roar it simply needs a change in perspective

Suffering from fatigue and despair with all to lose as and nothing to gain, Pissu Kanna, tried his luck at dubbing a clip from the animated movie ‘The Lion King’ initially to release his recently accumulated stress and frustration. He quotes “I felt so relieved to finally settle down after three weeks of traveling, disappointment, isolation, and disappointment again. I felt so angry and frustrated so I wanted to release that on to something. I downloaded a small clip from ‘Lion King’ and dubbed it over in Sinhalese, released it on Instagram and fell asleep.”

Yeah okay, almost everyone releases crazy stuff online, it’s no big deal, right? Let me stop you right there! You could never be more wrong!!! If you’re a Sri Lankan or maybe the occasional Aussie (who loves rice, curry and Lankan ladies) you’d know what I am about to write next.

The ‘Big Bang’

“The next morning when I woke up, I had more than 10,000 views on the video and over 1000 followers on my Instagram. People absolutely loved it and I was getting at least 20 messages per minute. I was so motivated so I kept going. I downloaded random videos from YouTube and started dubbing over them; people went crazy over them. Within just a day I had over 21k reach on my account and 87k impressions made so I continued creating content. I was on a roll and I felt like that I am at the top of my game.” Says the Social Media revolution.” He quotes

Seriously though he must have done some next-level good stuff in his previous birth or kissed lady luck in ways we’d only dream of.

His dubbing clips hit the social media world like a hurricane, reaching every corner a Sri Lankan was to be found. “The viewer count kept on growing by the minute. As a growth strategy, I reached out to some famous celebrities in Sri Lanka to collaborate with me on a couple of videos and it was so successful that it exploded my viewer base. Within a week, I got 20k followers and close to 3 million impressions. What mattered to me the most was how much people loved my content and how genuinely thankful they were for helping them cope up with the stress of this pandemic. This meant so much to me.”

His ‘Such a fuckface’ & ‘Pina is in trouble’ skits with the popular YouTube duo Gehan Blok & Dino Correra were a massive hit, (both acquiring 84,556 and 64,129 views respectively)

even bigger than any of Chris Gayle’s proverbial monumental hits.

He tells us of another accomplishment ‘Chain Panna Mata’, a contemporary Sinhalese Rap song that was produced by Pasan Liyanage of Redfox. The song currently trends on YouTube with 13,442 views within a brief period of just 3 days!!! Oh, did we tell you about his YouTube following? Pissu Kanna gained 3000 subscribers overnight. Yes, you read it right, Overnight!

Despite rising to fame literally overnight, Pissu Kanna remains as one of the country’s most-humble Social Media Influencers to-date at an era when fame taints the minds many. He finally shares an inspiring quote “I just wanted to share what I did to survive adversity, while being isolated and I am proud of what I’ve achieved in such a short time. I urge you to go and do what you always wanted to do. You will surprise yourself and the others around you!”

Pissu Kanna is a Sri Lankan professional Digital Media Producer, based in Melbourne, Australia. 

The writer Lev_S, has intentionally refrained from divulging Pissu Kanna’s identity as requested by him for reasons of privacy concerns.

Pissu Kanna Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pissukanna/

Pissu Kanna YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAwE7N-WJi9cqI0DfKOkKWw?view_as=subscriber