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Thugesh, whose birth name is Mahesh Keshwala, is an Indian social media personality, comedian, actor, and talk show host. He was born on September 9, 1996, in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Today, this young man is a popular figure in the online community, both in Mumbai and across the country.
In 2014, he uploaded a few humorous Thug Life compilation videos to his YouTube channel and appeared as a promising content creator. In the following years, he discovered his unique style of speaking, made “Thug Life” roasting videos, and gained millions of followers. His brainchildren included video essays, commentaries, and humorous takes on Indian Bollywood, news, and other topics, as well as social media trends. His videos are filled with sarcasm, humour, and Mumbai slang. He always speaks in a friendly and understandable manner, avoiding any offensive language.
Over time, Thugesh evolved from an up-and-coming star to a multi-channel online personality. His main YouTube channel now has a large following, while his other accounts create content in the formats of vlogs, free talk shows, and short clips. In 2023, he launched a popular YouTube Originals series named “The Thugesh Show,” and he regularly invites guests to a talk show, where they try to outdo each other in roasts and hold a humorous conversation.
Prior to achieving Internet stardom, he engaged in modelling and acting. He also appeared as a runway model during fashion week shows. However, doing video content allowed him to evolve as a person and find his voice. Currently, his online persona is known for his ability to entertain and empower his audience without crossing any boundaries. People who enjoy his channel affectionately refer to themselves as the “Thugsena.” It can be said that Mahesh Keshwala enjoys immense popularity among his countrymen and manages to represent himself creatively and accessibly to millions of viewers.
Early Life and Education
Mahesh Keshwala also known as Thugesh is an Indian social media personality and a YouTuber. He was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India on 9 th September 1996. He grew up in Mumbai and today lives in the city. Although they are natives of Porbandar, Gujarat, Mahesh and his family spent a lot of their time in Mumbai. Coming from a middle-class Gujarati family, he had an interest in entertainment and social media from an early age and gradually started gaining popularity for his short video content and became a massive social media personality. Today, he has a great number of followers on different social media platforms as his content gains more and more popularity across the country.
- Full Name: Mahesh Keshwala
- Nick Name(s): Thugesh, Mahesh
Profession(s):
- YouTuber
- Talk Show Host
- Comedian
- Actor
- Producer
- Date of Birth: September 9, 1996
- Height: 6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
- Weight: Approx. 78–82 kg (172–180 lbs)
- Eye Colour: Dark Brown
- Hair Colour: Black
- Home Town: Porbandar, Gujarat, India (Born and raised in Mumbai, Maharashtra)
- School: St. Xavier's English High School, Mumbai
- College: K.J. Somaiya College of Arts and Commerce, University of Mumbai
- Education Qualification: Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) and Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.)
- Religion: Hinduism
- Food Habit: Vegetarian (Deeply fond of home-cooked traditional Gujarati dishes)
- Relationship: Married
- Marital Status: Married (Tied the knot with Jigisha Bhanushali on November 22, 2025)
- Siblings: One older sister
- Language Known: Gujarati, Hindi, English, and Marathi
- Mobile: Not publicly disclosed
- Whatsapp: Not publicly disclosed
- Email ID: officialthugesh@gmail.com
- Favourite Actor: Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan
- Favourite Colour: Black, Navy Blue
- Favourite Beverage: Cold Coffee, Traditional Indian Chai
- Favourite Cricketer: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli
Family Background
Mahesh grew up in a traditional and nuclear family where his parents valued education and financial stability. They had a phase in their life when they faced extreme financial challenges which motivated them to make a lot of sacrifices to see their children grow up healthy and educated. Mahesh shares a great bonding equation with his parents and has an older sister who is married. In November 2025, he tied the knot with his long-term girlfriend Jigisha Bhanushali, after being together for a few years.
Schooling & Higher Education
- Schooling: He studied at St. Xavier's English High School, Mumbai and completed his junior college from St. Xavier's Junior College.
- Graduation: He joined University of Mumbai and graduated from K.J. Somaiya College of Arts and Commerce with a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.).
- Law Degree: After completing his graduation, Mahesh went back to the University to pursue corporate laws and regulations and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.).
The Corporate CS Struggle
Mahesh had it upon himself to get into a great corporate firm and spent almost three years preparing for the Company Secretary (CS) examinations before he finally passed away. He prepared for almost 12 hours daily and remained undeterred by the setback before he eventually passed away. However, before he could clinch the much-awaited victory, he faced multiple challenges, including having to sit for the elusive tests on six occasions before he passed away by one or two marks on several occasions.
Due to these difficulties and financial challenges, Mahesh had to resort to working in a Mumbai call centre at night and test his skills as a fashion model before he became a social media personality and a renowned digital creator.
Career
Mahesh Keshwala (Thugesh) has managed to carve a niche for himself as one of India's most prominent internet roasters, showrunners, and producers. A successful multi-channel digital media empire has emerged out of this unknown corporate aspirant.
The Genesis & "Thug Life" Viral Phase (2014–2019)
- The Initial Scrapped Channel (2014): Inspired by early internet pioneers Bhuvan Bam and CarryMinati, Mahesh had decided to join YouTube. He filmed a video on his phone and uploaded it on a channel named "Top 10 list- India". But he had no editing skills and gave up.
- The Birth of Thugesh (2016–2017): While working grueling shifts at a Mumbai call centre and simultaneously studying for his law exams, he stumbled upon a wave of popular internet meme edits called "Thug Life" videos. Thus, the channel Thugesh was born.
- Chris Gayle Breakthrough: He uploaded his first ever video titled "Chris Gayle Thug Life". It initially had no views, and he assumed all his efforts were in vain. When he appeared for his corporate CS exams, he logged back in on YouTube and found that the video had organically acquired over 500,000 views and fetched Google Adsense revenue of $122, which was the primary motivation to channel his efforts towards content creation full-time.
Multi-Channel Diversification (2020–2022)
While the pandemic lockdowns of 2020 saw Keshwala diversify his content, moving away from meme edits and towards analysis, roasts, and critiques of Bollywood, social media sagas, and news bias, he was able to build three successful hubs of entertainment:
- Thugesh (Main Channel): As the roasting, society-commentary and general criticism channel with 6.63 million subscribers
- The Other Two Sub-channels: Real Thugesh (4.43 million subscribers ) and Thugesh Unfiltered (3.01 million subscribers ) host his personal travel vlogs, lifestyle content, gaming videos, and comedy sketches.
- Music Video Debut (2021): Having used his modelling experience, he made his formal media debut with a music video for Yasser Desai's hit song Mukammal (2021) as an actor, which starred him as a lead.
Mainstream Showrunning & OTT Dominance (2023–2026)
- The Thugesh Show (2023–Present): Breaking the norms of a traditional creator, Keshwala managed to produce and host his late-night style chat show on YouTube. In this high-production content, he conducts unfiltered interviews, roasts, and skits with India's biggest internet stars like CarryMinati, Harsh Beniwal, and Ashish Chanchlani. It garnered an unprecedented 90 million collective views and the Global Excellence Award for the Best Talk Show has named him the Comedic Critic of the Year.
- Industry Recognition (2024): Being one of the highest commercially successful creators, he has been featured on the Forbes India 100 Digital Stars List and has bagged the Comedic Critic of the Year Award.
- Thugesh Vs The World (2025–2026): He has also begun to diversify his shows on Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming networks, with JioHotstar hosting a flagship competition series. The show is a hilarious take on how Thugesh's amateurish domestic skills fail against professional boxing matches, with the star pitting his skills against WBC Asia Champion Neeraj Goyat.