The Soap Boy Who Made Presidents Sit Down

In 2025, a young man from Indore went out for a walk in London.

On the street he spotted a face that India had not seen speak for nine years. It was Vijay Mallya. Once he was called the King of Good Times. Now he was one of the most talked about businessmen in the country, living far away from home, facing big money charges he denies.

Top TV channels had tried to get him on camera for years. None of them could.

The young man walked right up to him. He asked, "Sir, do you know who I am?"

Mallya said no.

So he tried again. "Do you know what a podcast is?"

Again, no.

Most people would have said sorry and walked away. This young man did not. He kept talking. A few weeks later, the two of them sat down for more than four hours on camera. The episode crossed 20 million views in just four days.

The young man was Raj Shamani.

He was not a journalist. He had no big TV channel behind him. He grew up in a Hindi speaking home. He was once so scared of the stage that he forgot his whole speech in front of the world.

So how did a boy who once sold dish soap door to door end up in a room with Bill Gates, the Prime Minister of India, and the President of France?

It started with a family emergency, a small loan, and two plastic buckets.

A house in Indore that went quiet

Raj Shamani was born on July 29, 1997, in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

His family was a normal middle class trading family. His parents had moved to Indore years earlier to build a better life. Money was never easy. Reports say his father once sold coconuts on the street before building a small business trading chemicals used to make soaps and cleaners.

Raj was not a topper. He has called himself an average kid. He studied in Indore, spoke Hindi at home, and was not strong in English. Big stages were not in his dreams. He was just a boy trying to get through school.

Then, in 2013, everything changed.

Raj was 16. His father had a severe diabetic attack. He could not work anymore. The chemical trading business, the thing that paid for food, school and rent, stopped almost overnight.

Hospital bills came in. Money did not.

There was no rich uncle to call. There was no backup plan. There was a family that suddenly needed someone to step up.

A 16 year old looked at his father in bed, looked at the bills, and made a choice that would shape the rest of his life.

He would not wait for someone to save them. He would build something himself.

Two buckets on a terrace

Raj asked his father for a loan of ₹10,000.

It was not a lot of money for a business. It was a lot of money for a family in trouble.

He did not know how to make soap. He had never been trained. So he did what millions of Indian kids do when they want to learn something. He opened YouTube.

He watched video after video about how dishwashing liquid is made. Then he went up to the terrace of his house with two buckets and started mixing chemicals.

The first tries were not perfect. He kept changing the mix until it cleaned well.

He gave his product a name that sounded like a promise: Jadugar Drop. Jadugar means magician.

Now came the smart part. Big brands like Vim and Pril were selling their dish liquid at around ₹110 for 500ml. Raj priced Jadugar Drop at just ₹45 for the same size.

Same job. Less than half the price.

For a middle class family counting every rupee, that was real magic.

Same job. Less than half the price. That was the first thing Raj ever sold.

Knock, knock. No. Knock again.

Making soap was one thing. Selling it was a whole other fight.

Raj did not have ads. He did not have shops lined up. He had his legs and his voice.

So he went door to door in Indore's housing societies. He rang bells. He showed people how Jadugar Drop cleaned dirty dishes right in front of them. Many doors closed in his face. Many shop owners said no.

He kept going.

One of his boldest moves was his free samples. Most companies give a tiny sachet for free. Raj reportedly gave away full 500ml bottles. It cost more, but it made families actually use the product for weeks. Once they liked it, they came back and paid.

Slowly, families bought it. Then small shops started to stock it. Within months, Jadugar Drop was moving across Indore.

The lesson Raj learned on those streets would follow him forever. People do not buy because you shout louder. They buy because they trust you.

In 2015, Raj joined his small soap brand with his father's chemical trading business. Together they became Shamani Industries.

The company grew into a maker of soaps, detergents, floor cleaners, toilet cleaners and hand sanitizers. Raj took care of marketing, sales and hiring. His father looked after buying and operations. Reports today put the company's turnover at around ₹200 crore, selling across Madhya Pradesh and nearby states.

The boy with two buckets had helped rebuild his family's business, while he was still a student.

But there was one thing money could not fix. Raj was still terrified of speaking in public.

The boy who was scared of the mic

Here is a secret about the man India now calls its top podcaster. For years, a microphone made him nervous.

Raj knew that if he wanted to grow beyond Indore, he had to fix two things. His English. And his fear of the stage.

So he joined groups that would push him. He joined Toastmasters, a club where people practice public speaking. He joined AIESEC, a student group that sends young people to work and learn around the world.

Through that world, he heard about a chance to speak at a United Nations youth event connected to UNIDO in Vienna, Austria. Thousands of young people applied. Raj was picked.

He later admitted he did not even really know what the UN was when he applied.

Then the big day came. Raj walked into a room full of young people from every corner of the world. Many of them spoke several languages. He felt small.

"I was so nervous and felt so inferior, I forgot my entire speech."

His mind went blank. So he started mumbling in Hindi. And then, out of nowhere, he said two words: "Jai Hind."

There were two Indians in the room. One of them started clapping and laughing. Soon the whole room was laughing with him, not at him. That laugh broke the ice. Raj caught his breath, found his thoughts, and finished his talk.

After the speech, people walked up to him and told him how emotional that "Jai Hind" moment felt.

The boy who forgot his speech had just learned the most important lesson of his career. You do not have to be perfect. You have to be real.

"I was so nervous and felt so inferior, I forgot my entire speech."

That lesson would one day turn into a book, a stage career and a podcast watched by millions.

A fight at the factory, a phone in his hand

As Shamani Industries grew, so did the pressure at home.

Raj and his father started to argue about the business. The fights began at the factory. Soon they followed them home to the dinner table. Raj has said openly that it turned into an ego fight between the two of them. His mother was stuck in the middle.

Raj made a hard call. He was young. He had time. Instead of fighting his father for control, he would step back and build something of his own. His father agreed. The fight cooled down in about three months, and the family stayed together.

Around this time Raj was watching a lot of Gary Vaynerchuk, the American businessman who teaches people to build brands using just their phones.

A thought hit him. What if he could share what he had learned on the streets of Indore with every young Indian who wanted to start something?

Raj has said that 2016 was the year he decided to try. In his words, "I wanted to test it and try to become a digital builder."

He started posting short videos and posts about business, money and mindset on Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Nobody knew him. Views were small. He kept posting anyway.

At the same time, he kept saying yes to stages. College events. Business summits. Then TEDx talks. By 2018, at just 21, he was giving TEDx talks, including one at his own college in Indore. Over the years, reports say he spoke more than 200 times across 26 countries.

The boy who once went blank in Vienna was now teaching rooms full of strangers how to build.

Build, don't talk

Raj had a simple rule that he kept repeating to his audience. Stop talking about your dream. Start building it.

In 2022, he turned that rule into a book called Build, Don't Talk. It became a bestseller. The book is packed with short, sharp lessons from his own mistakes, written for young people who feel stuck.

One line from the book sums up his whole way of working:

"Ten minutes over a long time compound into one big useful thing."

That was exactly how he had grown. Not in one big jump. In small daily steps that added up.

"Ten minutes over a long time compound into one big useful thing."

Raj also moved deeper into business. He co founded House of X, a company that helps creators launch their own consumer brands. He started investing in young Indian startups as an angel investor.

He was named in the Forbes India 30 Under 30 list. He also launched a fragrance brand called Blanko together with pop star King.

Life looked good. But Raj still had not found the thing that would make him a household name.

That thing was a simple conversation.

The show that almost did not work

In 2021, Raj launched a podcast called Figuring Out.

The name said it all. He did not pretend to have life sorted. He wanted to sit with people who were further ahead and learn from them, out loud, in front of everyone.

His early tries at podcasting did not take off. So he changed the recipe. No fancy scripts. No shouting. No cutting people off. Just long, raw, honest conversations where guests were allowed to talk.

He also did something many creators skip. His team read the comments. Every day, they spent time going through what viewers were saying, what they loved, what they hated, and what they wanted to hear next. The audience was not just watching the show. They were helping build it.

Guests started to get bigger. Founders. Actors. Cricketers. Politicians. Doctors. Fitness experts. Episode by episode, Figuring Out grew into one of the biggest business and self growth shows in India.

The kid who forgot his speech was now the one asking the questions.

The day he opened for the Prime Minister

On March 8, 2024, India held its first ever National Creators Award at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. It was the first time the Government of India honoured online creators on a national stage.

Raj was chosen to speak and introduce Prime Minister Narendra Modi in front of the country's top creators.

Think about that for a moment. A boy who once mixed soap on a terrace in Indore was now standing on a national stage, handing the microphone to the Prime Minister.

Raj later said he was still overwhelmed that the government had recognised content creators for the first time.

For millions of young Indians making videos from their bedrooms, it was proof. This was real work. And it could take you anywhere.

Sitting across from Bill Gates

In March 2025, Raj sat down with one of the richest and most famous men in the world, Bill Gates.

Raj did not hide his nerves. In the intro to the episode, he told viewers you could see the fear on his face at the start. He had grown up hearing stories about Gates and Microsoft.

"To be sitting in front of him, it was surreal."

But as the talk went on, the podcaster in him took over. They spoke about India, business ideas, children, the future of AI, and what Gates is still afraid of.

It was the same pattern from Vienna. Start nervous. Stay honest. Find your voice in the middle.

The walk in London

Remember that walk in London?

In June 2025, Figuring Out released its episode with Vijay Mallya. It ran for more than four hours. Mallya talked about his childhood, building his empire, the rise and fall of Kingfisher Airlines, the loans, his exit from India in 2016, and the IPL team Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

It was his first long public interview in about nine years.

The internet exploded. The episode hit 20 million views in four days. It became Raj's most watched video.

Later, on Netflix's The Great Indian Kapil Show, Kapil Sharma asked Raj how he got an interview that even top agencies could not. Raj told the story of the walk, the two questions, and the two "no" answers. The audience laughed. But the story showed something serious about Raj.

He does not wait for permission. He walks up and asks.

"Sir, do you know who I am?"

The heat that came with the light

Big success brought big criticism too.

Many viewers and commentators said the Mallya episode let a man facing serious fraud and money laundering charges tell his side without enough hard questions. Memes called it a "whitewash." Raj was accused of giving a stage to someone who owed banks thousands of crores.

In 2025, actor Anupam Kher publicly criticised Raj, saying parts of his advice were cut from his episode.

The same year, Raj faced backlash after hosting a self proclaimed forex trader who some viewers accused of scams. That episode was later taken down.

Before that, in a Delhi High Court case linked to claims about Dettol made by a guest on his show, Raj agreed to edit out parts of the episode.

For a young host with millions of viewers, these were hard lessons. A big platform is also a big responsibility.

Raj has spoken about how he makes decisions when the noise gets loud. He has said his compass is simple: would his mom and dad be proud of it?

"I don't care if the whole world is against me."

Some people love that attitude. Some people think it is exactly the problem. Both groups keep watching.

A president's first podcast

In February 2026, French President Emmanuel Macron came to India for the AI Impact Summit and meetings with Prime Minister Modi.

His schedule was packed with official events. In the middle of it all, he sat down with Raj Shamani.

It was Macron's first ever podcast.

In the teaser, Raj welcomed him wearing aviator sunglasses, a cheeky nod to the viral talk about Macron's sunglasses at Davos. Macron laughed. The clip went viral across Instagram and X.

In the episode, they spoke about AI, technology, India and France working together, students, startups, and Macron's relationship with Prime Minister Modi.

The full episode came out on February 19, 2026.

The boy who sold ₹45 bottles of dish soap had just hosted a sitting president of one of the world's biggest countries.

Where he is now

Today, Raj Shamani is one of the most powerful voices in Indian digital media.

In Spotify Wrapped 2025, Figuring Out was ranked India's number one podcast, even ahead of Joe Rogan's show among Indian listeners. By early 2026, the show had crossed 540 episodes and roughly 14.8 million YouTube subscribers. His guest list now includes Bill Gates, Vijay Mallya, Aamir Khan, MS Dhoni, Karan Johar, S. Jaishankar, MrBeast and Emmanuel Macron.

Behind the camera, he is still a businessman. Shamani Industries keeps making cleaning products in Indore. House of X helps creators launch brands. He invests in startups. And his book still sells to young people who want to stop talking and start building.

He is still in his twenties.

Why the story matters

Raj Shamani's story is not a clean fairy tale. It is a chain of hard moments that he turned into fuel.

His father's illness pushed him into business at 16. Two buckets taught him how to make a product. Closed doors taught him how to sell. A blank mind in Vienna taught him that being real beats being perfect. A fight with his father pushed him to build on his own. Early podcast flops taught him to listen to his audience. And the criticism taught him that a big microphone comes with a big duty.

Look closely and you see the same move again and again. When life slammed a door, Raj knocked on a new one.

He knocked on doors in Indore with soap bottles. He knocked on the door of the UN with shaky English. He knocked on Vijay Mallya's attention on a London street. Each time, the answer at first was some kind of "no."

He kept knocking.

For every young person reading this from a small city, with a small budget and a big fear, the lesson is simple. You do not need to be ready. You do not need perfect English. You do not need a rich family.

You need to start. You need to keep going when people say no. And you need to build, not just talk.

When life slammed a door, Raj knocked on a new one.

The Record

Born: July 29, 1997

From: Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

Studied: BBA, Prestige Institute of Management and Research, Indore (as reported)

First business: Jadugar Drop dishwashing liquid, 2013

Built: Shamani Industries, House of X, Figuring Out podcast, Blanko (with King)

Book: Build, Don't Talk (2022)

Timeline

1997 Born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

2013 Father falls ill. Raj, 16, borrows ₹10,000 and launches Jadugar Drop.

2015 Merges his brand with his father's business to form Shamani Industries.

2016 Decides to start creating content online.

2018 Gives TEDx talks at age 21.

2021 Launches the Figuring Out podcast.

2022 Publishes Build, Don't Talk.

2024 Introduces PM Modi at India's first National Creators Award.

2025 Hosts Bill Gates (March) and Vijay Mallya (June). Named India's number one podcast in Spotify Wrapped.

2026 Hosts French President Emmanuel Macron for his first ever podcast.