As the creator economy evolves, it’s getting harder to tell where a creator’s real voice gives way to engineered packaging.
East Midnapore, West Bengal-based creator Pujarini Pradhan, who has over 719,000 followers on her Instagram account @lifeofpujaa, recently came into the limelight facing accusations that her persona is created by her talent management agency through scripting and editing for better engagement. Pradhan and her agency denied the claims, but the controversy led to a debate on how such agencies operate and their role in shaping creators and monetizing their influence.
Pradhan, a graduate, who has been putting out videos about her opinions and daily experiences related to everything—from parenting to cooking, feminism, culture, literature and films since last year—and gaining traction, was criticized on social media by other influencers, who speculated by the editing style of the videos that they were not authentic and claimed that the agency that manages her prompted her to make them in that way.
Pradhan is managed by a Delhi-based talent management agency HereWeGoAgain Media since the past three months. “The only thing we helped her with was streamlining the brand work and speaking to the brand on her behalf. Apart from this, it’s all her—from figuring out what kind of content to put out, scripting, shooting, editing and putting it on the internet,” said Sanchit Bhatt, the founder of HereWeGoAgain.
“Our role as an agency is to amplify that momentum: figuring what brands fit right in terms of tonality, unlocking the right monetization opportunities, and ensuring her time and creative energy are spent where they matter the most,” Bhatt added.
“Our approach has always been simple: find creators who deserve a bigger room, pull up a chair for them, and make sure the right people start paying attention. We bring the money, the structure, the doors. But the face, the voice, the pull? That’s all the creator,” he said. “No agency has the bandwidth to fake something at that level and sustain it. If the audience doesn’t buy you, you’re done."
Pradhan has noted a consistency in her brand deals and a rise in income since her collaboration with this agency, having worked with top brands such as Netflix, Audible, Britannia and Canva. “With my current team, the income graph has risen. There is consistency and growth,” she said. In one of her videos after the controversy, Pradhan had said she earned ₹30,000 per video when she was with her previous agency. She declined to share details about her previous agency and her current earnings.
“I try to do not more than three to four brand deals a month. My team handles end-to-end negotiations and they increase the commercials accordingly,” she added.
The 26-year-old's creator stint took off more as an escape from ‘boredom’. “I was bored from my daily chores, so I used to post cute videos with my son. One day, while cooking I thought of recording something, edited it and posted it, all in 5 minutes. Then, a few hours later I noticed people started following me...” said Pradhan in response to Mint's queries.
Stories such as hers are abounding.
Fully invested
Agency operations closely resemble investors or venture capitalists.
In an age where every other person is putting out content in the hope of being the next big influencer, these agencies' role is not just to work with the ones that are already popular but to hunt for early-stage creators who have the potential to make it big.
“Our teams are chronically online, scouting profiles on social media to look out for creators who have the potential to blow up. We go through up to 50 prospective creator profiles every day to zero in on the talent that we would like to onboard and work with,” said Piyush Agrawal, co-founder of Mumbai-based talent management agency, Create. Of these, the agency onboards 5% influencers, he added.
The agencies factor in a mix of qualitative and quantitative factors to identify influencer potential. “We have been operating in this ecosystem for four years. In so much time, you develop a hunch to be able to figure out which early-stage creators can make it big," Agarwal added. "Apart from that, we also look at metrics like the ratio of views to followers, and whether just one viral video has raked high views for them or they consistently perform well.”
Once agencies figure and set up contracts with an influencer, they aid them in every possible way on their social media journey, but their primary role is to get them deals from brands to increase their revenue. These agencies operate on a commission model, charging 15-25% of their incomes. This gives them skin in the game.
Creator earnings vary widely, from a few thousand rupees for nano influencers to several lakh at the top end, where mega creators (with 500,000–1 million followers) typically charge ₹3-8 lakh per deal, and A-listers with over 1 million followers can command ₹5–25 lakh.
“Agencies catering to creators benefit from them being popular or getting more brand work because they earn commissions off that, so they support them in all ways, by providing them with shoot locations, helping them script, edit or any advice they need,” said Aditya Gurwara, cofounder-brand alliance of influencer marketing Saas platforms, Qoruz. "That said, the agencies aid creators only to a certain extent and likely don't create a persona for them to follow.”
In 2025, India's creator economy expanded 25% to 45,000 million from 36000 million last year, according to India Influencer Marketing Report 2025 by The Goat Agency and Kantar.
Brand factor
Another category of marketing agencies in the ecosystem represents brands and curating campaigns with an appropriate mix of influencers, irrespective of their management agency. These agencies earn revenue from the brand and are more concerned about their growth, unlike the talent management ones.
Gurwara believes the internet is an open space and everyone today wants to share their lives, ideas and creativity online and the algorithm is not as predictable. Anything, irrespective of how bizarre or sensible it is, can blow up on social media for any reason. In that case, it is not usual for agencies to create personas for creators to follow.
“Sometimes, when famous influencers lose their relevance, agencies try to bring them back to the news cycle by pulling off PR stunts, but for the most part, and for an undiscovered creator, it is not an ideal strategy," Gurwara said. "Initially, creators grow organically or get momentary attention because of a viral post and agencies try to cash in by hunting and onboarding such creators to get them in touch with brands.”
Brands, on their part, view agencies as the mechanism that makes influencers sellable. “Agencies aren’t just intermediaries—they analyze algorithms, package creators, and design influence to scale," L. Muralikrishnan, cofounder and chief marketing officer at food chain Wow! Momo. "In short, influence today is engineered. Agencies study algorithms, reverse-engineer audience preferences, and package creators into formats that are predictable, scalable and monetizable.”
“For brands, this is efficient. It brings structure, predictability and measurable outcomes,” he adds.
However, there is a catch—if the agencies standardize influencers too much as per the algorithm, the uniqueness of each individual will fade. And if all influencers are similar, the industry will not grow, Muralikrishnan said.