Introducing

Main Bhi Influencer

: One Platform To Start Your Food Content Creation Career!

Quick Summary

Fancied joining the league of famous food bloggers, and becoming a food content creator yourself? You can now do that easily with this special programme, Main Bhi Influencer. Your first reel starts here is the motto of this programme, and all you need is your smartphone and love for food. So, c’mon, you foodie, let us get you started on this journey!

Deep Dive

FoodiesOnly, in partnership with ITC, has built this free and structured food-creator programme, called Main Bhi Influencer. It is intended for anyone who cooks and owns a phone, and no, you don’t need thousands of followers, camera gear, or editing skills. Over four weekly stages, participants will learn to shoot food reels that feel as good as being sucked into a Christopher Nolan film-verse, but much shorter. You get to enter re-enterable challenges, get spotlighted on FoodiesOnly's platform, and the top performer each month joins the FoodiesOnly Creators Roster for paid brand work with ITC! The flagship challenge, ‘Meri Signature Dish’, is open all month, for every month, with no skills needed.

Behind the Existence of this Programme

This is especially for people who are stay-at-home parents, whose lives revolve around cooking and feeding their loved ones. From chopping onions like it’s nobody’s business to adding tadka, there is content hiding in every chop, steam, sauté, simmer, and stir. Food bloggers capitalise on this, and what separates them from you is that they are indulging in food content creation and reeling you in from their Instagram reel.

You'll find someone cooking food worth sharing all over, be it somebody’s parent, a railway station, or even your local tapri. All of them are cooks and, with the right push, can be as good as any famous food influencers on social media. What most of them don't have is a way in. Main Bhi Influencer is FoodiesOnly's answer to that gap. MBI was planned to break the belief, ‘people like me don't become creators’. Every part of the programme is designed to answer one question: ‘Why not you?’

What Main Bhi Influencer Promises

While fame is not promised, what is promised is the skills needed for you to get started on your food content creation, so you go from ‘Aaj Viewer. Kal Creator (today a viewer. Tomorrow a creator.) You don't need 10,000 followers, camera confidence, or a past brand collaboration to belong here, because you already do. You need a phone, a love for cooking, and a willingness to hit record.

How the Programme Works

MBI is structured around four stages that take a participant from complete beginner to a working creator with brand experience:

• Learn: A free, structured course, brand-integrated, that teaches the exact craft the challenges test. Modules cover everything from shooting with just a phone to editing, styling, and storytelling.

• Create: A zero-skill entry point through the flagship challenge, meaning anyone with a phone and pride in their cooking can start the same night they sign up.

• Prove: Re-enterable challenges plus a spotlight system, so growth is visible over time, and not a one-off claim.

• Earn: The FoodiesOnly Creators Roster: the top performer each month becomes a real, working creator for ITC brands.

The Course Curriculum

The Learn stage is created around a multi-module series, each featuring a skill that will help you build the portfolio you need to convert your hobby into brand collaborations. Here are some of the modules you can expect to dive into:

Food Content Creation 101 - Before the camera comes out, you work out who you are as a creator. This lesson pins down your voice, your niche, and the mental shift from "I cook dinner" to "I create content" - including how to spot the audience nobody else is serving yet.

Equipment You Actually Need - No fancy gear required. This one's about squeezing pro-level results out of what's already in your kitchen - your phone, your window light, and five plates you probably already own.

Setting Up for a Shoot - The unglamorous bit that makes everything else look good: mise en place, decluttering your counter, getting your white balance right, and keeping food fresh while you fuss over the shot.

Planning a Content Calendar - How to stop scrambling for ideas every week. This lesson turns one grocery run into a week's worth of posts, and shows you how to build a schedule around festivals, trends and your actual cooking routine, not an imaginary one.

Food Styling, Camera Angles & Shot Composition - The visual playbook: rule of thirds, texture shots, when to go overhead versus eye-level, and how to make a humble dal look editorial using nothing but garnish and good bowls.

Scripting Hooks & Storytelling - Because a beautiful shot with no story gets scrolled past. This lesson covers hooking viewers in three seconds, writing captions that double as recipe cards, and weaving in the personal detail that makes people stop and save.

Editing Basics - Turning raw footage into something watchable - mobile editing tools, pacing that doesn't lose the recipe steps, and templates so you're not starting from scratch every week.

Publishing, Engagement & Growth - Getting seen and staying seen: food-specific SEO, knowing when your audience is actually hungry and scrolling, and building real community in your comments instead of chasing vanity likes.

Through videos and helpful articles (like this one), covering everything from finding your voice and rhythm as a creator to setting up a shoot with what you already own, you'll be on your way to influencer success. No fancy equipment needed.

The Challenge Roster

Every 2 weeks, new challenges will be unlocked on the Main Bhi Influencer platform, ready for you to submit your video and compete for the win. This is where you come in, and what will bring you closer to being chosen for the programme. 

• Map out your recipe according to the theme

• Film the one dish you're proudest of

• Make it within 60 seconds

• Shoot on your smartphone. 

There's no skill prerequisite; just your dedication is needed to shoot an Instagram reel, or short food reel, and give yourself a chance to enter. You can submit it any time of the day or month, and can re-enter as many times as you like. Each submission needs to be timestamped, so the growth is visible across entries, and not just a single best video, which is what raises someone's odds of being chosen. The monthly champion is crowned and enters the FoodiesOnly Creators Roster, first in line for ITC brand collab.

Alongside the flagship, FoodiesOnly runs one branded and one non-branded challenge tied to that week's course topic. For instance, a phone-focus challenge built around Aashirvaad, or a shot-sequencing challenge built around Bingo! chips.

What Participants Get Back

Every challenge carries rewards, whether or not a participant becomes the monthly champion:

• Every challenge, every month: gift vouchers for the top three entries, with product hampers added for branded challenges.

• Winners get reposted on the brand's official handle: you get visibility as the reward, at zero cost to the brand.

• The monthly Signature Dish champion enters the FoodiesOnly Creators Roster, unlocking a homepage and campaign-page feature, a ‘Creator Roster’ badge visible to future brand briefs, first call for paid ITC brand collaborations, and reposting across ITC brand handles

Who's Guiding the Journey

A dedicated Mentor Buddy anchors the course curriculum, someone who you might have seen more than once on YouTube as well as Instagram. Meet Ganesh Shedge, who started his journey as a food content creator as a side hustle. He has worked with the likes of Chef Vikas Khanna and Chef Michael Swamy before starting his professional journey as a food influencer. Your Mentor Buddy, along with a few handpicked famous food bloggers, will share their industry secrets and support the winners through course videos, collaborations, and story content throughout the month.

The Content You'll See Roll Out

Beyond the five launch-week modules, ITC brands get their own dedicated video series as the programme continues, with beloved brands like Aashirvaad, YiPPee!, Bingo!, Sunfeast, and Kitchens of India each getting brand-integrated videos that also live on FoodiesOnly as articles you can read alongside watching. New videos keep dropping through the course's run, from September through March, so there's always a fresh lesson to follow!