In July 2024, internet personality Bobby Saputra posted a video of himself living it up at what appeared to be the star-studded, ultra-lavish wedding of Radhika Merchant and Anant Ambani, the youngest child of Indian billionaire and Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani.
Social media magic: How a former chef became Bobby Saputra, the internet's favourite billionaire playboy
His videos — which have netted him 2.5 million followers across different social media platforms in under a year — are pure over-the-top fun, packed with lavish yachts, flashy cars, opulent mansions and plenty of beautiful women, capturing the wildly extravagant life of a self-proclaimed "crazy rich Asian".
Here's a bit of backstory. Although his parents are Chinese Indonesian, Sumadiwiria grew up in Germany and London. It was not until he was an adult that he started spending real time in Indonesia, and he was floored by the wealth of many of the Chinese Indonesians he met. "The first couple of years were tough. But when you're 15 or 16 and someone talks bad about you, you just punch him in the face. It becomes very straightforward and that almost translates to life, right?" adds Sumadiwiria who took up judo and martial arts as a kid."It made me uncompromisingly incorruptible. I will not be bullied, I will not be bought. I would not be subject to any easy distraction that would take me away from a goal or a path.
By 2015, he was working as an in-flight executive chef for Etihad Airways, "cooking on a plane" as he describes it. Although he enjoyed the experience, he soon felt the urge for more creative freedom. "I think everybody knows a Bobby, a spoiled, entitled little s*** doesn't enjoy working, lives off his parents and who's just a bit toxic, obnoxious, racist and misogynistic. And I thought, why don't I just represent him?"However, he will have you know he is very different from his online persona.
Indeed, for someone who claims not to know much about Chinese Indonesians just a year ago, his videos are very on point. Followers of Bobby Saputra are often intrigued by the eye-popping yachts, Ferraris and luxe mansions featured in the videos. "And I err on the side of being able to joke about everything because if we joke about nothing, everything turns grey and I don't enjoy that."Sumadiwiria knows his videos are "on the controversial spectrum", yet he aims to keep them edgy but not offensive. He shrugs when asked if he has received backlash, especially for videos poking fun at Singapore.
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