(Exclusive) Who Knew How Great It Would Be When An Italian and Indian Came Together: Meet AamAndBasil

Can you believe that there are almost 200 Million + content creators around the world right now? In this massive digital crowd, one couple (AamAndBasil) stands out for their unique blend of cultures and comedic flair. Meet Suprateek Banerjee (Mango/Aam), a Bengali-Indian man, and Daniela Barone (Basil), his Italian wife. Together, they’ve carved out a niche exploring cultural differences and similarities through their Instagram and YouTube channels.

The Reelstars had the pleasure of talking with this charming and extremely friendly duo behind AamAndBasil to discuss their journey, creative process, and future plans:

You’ve been creating intercultural content together for a couple of years now. Can you share some of your favourite memories from this experience?

Mango: “The favourite memories come from the bloopers, the behind-the-scenes moments. We also post some videos of all these bloopers on Mondays.”

Basil chimed in, laughing, “It’s mainly me. Usually, I am not able to say the line because it’s extremely difficult for me to keep the character until the end of the video because of this anxiety performance.”

Mango added, “For me, those are the best parts. If we would have been professional, then these last moments for us would not have come. Yes, but we run into these loops, retakes, retakes, and that is very funny.”

Basil explained further, “This also means that if we have like a weekend to shoot everything that will come the week after, then because of me mainly, we can take one full afternoon just to shoot one video because I’m not able to stay in the character. I just keep breaking it.”

What advice would you give to other couples who want to create content together?

Mango: “The first advice would be start observing your own life and see what is special, what you would like to share. You can actually make content on anything and everything, you just have to think how to package it.”

Basil emphasized the importance of uniqueness: “You have to be a little bit different than others because if you just start doing like normal content… if you’re looking for creative fulfillment, if you’re looking to create something that you yourself would like to watch and you would not cringe, then maybe put some thought into it.”

They both agreed on one crucial point: “Prepare yourself for the work because it might look like, oh, it’s really easy but the ones who are making you feel that it’s really easy, they are doing a good job. One video, two videos, three videos, maybe yes, you can easily do it but if you have to keep doing it week after week, day after day, then it’s a lot of hard work.”

What are your future plans for your channel? Are there any specific projects or goals you’re working towards?

Mango: “We would definitely like to take the channel in a cultural exploration just through anything and everything that’s an integral part of culture. So basically we want to explore more cultures, not just Indian and Italian, but we want to see more of other cultures so that we can find even more similarities and we can embrace the differences.”

Basil added, “We would like to explore food as well because food is an integral part of a culture. We slowly have started to put videos on our German experiences because we live in Germany.”

Mango concluded, “Maybe whenever we go somewhere, we will try to show the local culture, but also always it will be with our eyes, in the mango and basil flavor. Someone comes and someone explores different cultures of the world but always with some kind of comedic hint or comedic let’s say masala of AamAndBasil.”

Can you share some of your favorite things about each other?

Basil: “The real Mango is actually a very sweet person, extremely sweet. He’s extremely supportive and has a lot of patience with me. Sometimes the self-confidence is quite down, but he’s always there to support me and give me a lot of strength. Really, I just hit the jackpot.”

Mango: “The real Basil is actually a very sweet person. If you meet her ever in person, then you will automatically know. She’s like that person who’s your instant friend, very warm human being in my opinion.”

Mango added an interesting insight: “Being in character, we somehow can ignore the hate comments because it’s not us, it’s just two different characters. If you will meet us in real life, we are quite different as people than Mango and Basil. So it helps us to separate ourselves from the people that we are portraying.”

Last one, What are your favourite dishes from each other’s cultures?

Mango enthusiastically listed several Italian dishes: “The standard thing will be there of course, pizza. I really like pizza, but over a period of time now I have realized what real pizza tastes like. Then there is parmigiana with aubergines, lasagna is there. I love porcini mushrooms and Calamari is really nice. These days, I really like the pasta with zucchini alla nerano. That is one of my favorite dishes right now because it keeps changing.”

Basil, on the other hand, struggled to pick just one Bengali dish: “I just like all meals I can eat in all shapes and forms. Posto Bora, Aloo Posto..anything with Posto! I really like mutton, that’s the first dish we always eat when we land. Then, uh, Ilish Bhapa, Islish mach-er Jhol… (Mango chimed in: Anything Ilish..I’m not a big ilish fan, so my mom is very happy to get her as a daughter.) Then yes, dal… I mean, is it Bengali? I like the Kolai Dal. I struggle with the names, but I basically like everything I eat in that house.”

As our conversation drew to a close, it was clear that Mango and Basil’s charm extends far beyond their on-screen personas. Their genuine love for each other and passion for exploring cultures shines through in every word. With their unique perspective and comedic approach, they’re not just creating comedy content – they’re building bridges between cultures, one video at a time.