Name: Kittu
Profession: Stay-at-home rat? Princess treatment recipient? It-girl?
What the hell is going on? To paraphrase Charli XCX, I think the influencer economy is dead, so now we’re making rats famous.
And why exactly are we making rats famous? I should clarify: Kittu is actually a Jaipur-based mouse, better known as @kittu_ki_duniya14 on Instagram, where he has gained a large audience over the past few months along with collabs with Instamart, Google India, and more.
So, this is a famous mouse with a cat’s name? With a name that nods to cats.
Are cats passé now? No comment. I’d rather not be on a cat person’s bad side. But, I will say, I think too many people hitched their wagon to cats as mascot for loneliness and being “different”, so it seems to have turned the corner and become basic. The rat (sorry, mouse) seems to have emerged as a new contender to disrupt the cat person, dog person binary, managing to be kind of alternative yet pure of heart.
And Kittu is the poster child of this movement? Certainly a key figure, standing next to the legions of Aashiq Rats. Like a modern-day Grumpy Cat figure. Updated to reflect our times.
Keeping the cockroach and the pigeon company? Yes, that seems to be the trifecta.
Why does Gen Z’s taste favour the rancid? Careful, you’re not allowed to speak badly of us anymore. It’s a bad look.
Is it a brain rot thing? Sure, the algorithm pushing mice onto our feeds can read like brain rot, but people are genuinely captivated. Some of Kittu’s videos get between 200 to 500k likes alone, not to mention the thousands of comments. So many young actors would kill for that kind of engagement.
Why are people so captivated? Kittu seems to be doing what influencers do best— presenting an aspirational lifestyle.
How so? Being admired by thousands of people—about 45k—getting a regimented minimum of 12 hours of sleep in block-printed sheets and waking up only to be served your favourite meal (paneer)... What a life. Receiving princess treatment all day. Each post has at least one comment that says “Kittu’s life is better than mine”. What makes it perfect aspirational content is that it can never be achieved for the viewer, with the exception of one fan, who also happens to be a mouse.
But why do people care about a sleeping mouse? Um, star quality. Kittu has so much personality, which his human, Shivani Chauhan, captures and articulates to us. She knows how he oversleeps and that the rustling of a wrapper will pique his interest, and that a piece of Kurkure will be rejected because Kittu’s above that. I may not be, but Kittu is.
What does Kittu eat then? Mostly paneer. Lots of peas, carrots, corn. Kittu stashes his favourites in his tokri (basket) for later, but the paneer is the uncontested favourite. Paneer is to Kittu what lasagna is to Garfield.
What’s the paneer all about? Kittu has to hit his macros. It’s not easy living in the scrutiny of the public eye.
Are we naive for thinking Kittu loves it? What if Kittu hates living in this Kardashian-esque nightmare with cameras on him all the time? We all are, to some degree, living in a post-Kardashian “pics or it didn’t happen” nightmare. But I wonder if it feels like The Truman Show for Kittu. Dancing for his daily paneer.
