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This paper reads Indian influencer Urfi Javed as a paradigmatic case of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) celebrity, arguing that her notoriety is a processual enterprise rather than an accident. Situated at the intersection of subversive creativity and platform capitalism, Javed's DIY fashion functions simultaneously as aesthetic dissent and a strategic mechanism for converting structural precarity into viral capital. Drawing on qualitative analysis of her output and press coverage, the paper identifies three mechanisms: bricolage-based DIY as low-cost, high-impact visibility labour, algorithmic amplification produced through paparazzi co-production and engineered controversy, and a postfeminist performance that alternately enacts empowerment and attracts patriarchal scrutiny. Her trajectory reveals how attention economies facilitate the monetisation of ‘subversive frivolity’, potentially challenging Bollywood's class-gender hierarchies while contributing to the commodification of selfhood in digital culture. Ultimately, this study underscores how Javed's blueprint – transforming affective labour into durable brand power – can reshape contemporary DIY celebrification, influence, and self-representation.
Ashonshok Kachui (Wed,) studied this question.