The meeting happens every morning, either over a conference call or via group WhatsApp. Harshit Gupta, Suvansh Sharma and Sumit Raput dial in from Bilaspur, Agra and Delhi, respectively. Topic of discussion: What will the Bakchod Billi account on Instagram, a social media platform, post through the day? Brainstorming over what constitutes a funny post often leads to serious disagreements among the three stakeholders but all that's offline. Online, they set their creative differences aside and keep their followers entertained. "The number of likes and comments per post indicates our degree of success. The more the merrier," says 23-year-old Harshit.

In a country where the most innocuous of comments can draw the most virulent of reactions, this snarky Facebook page-cum-Instagram account has become a phenomenon. Most of the visuals, known in social media parlance as memes, have a feline constant - grinning, grimacing, making sheep eyes, pointing a gun, riding a scooter - and text smattered with expletives. The cat has something to say on everything, from GST to existential woes, status updates to social media behaviour, Bollywood, cricket... you name it.

Bakchod Billi is not the only one in the game. Other successful meme-makers of India with million-plus followers include Insta Desii, Super Chutya, Just Indian Things, Daily Over Dose and Trolls Officials.

Most meme-makers prefer to avoid religious posts. But not politics; politics and politicians are fair game. So you have a meme showing Narendra Modi's photograph in place of the "airplane mode" on the mobile scroll-down menu. Another of the Andhra chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu, asking his son, "What is GST?" and Nara Lokesh replying, "Goodnight, Sweet dreams, Take care."

Insta Desii put out some posts pegged on Modi's recent trip to Israel. A photograph of Modi looking annoyed as he looks on at an Israeli official in conversation with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The text on it reads: "When someone tries to get too friendly with your best friend." Modi, for some reason, is a hot favourite among meme artistes; probably his penchant for getting differently and profusely photographed helps.

What started out as a way of having fun on the Internet has suddenly become a rage. Ludhiana-based Ajay Sharma claims he knew this was coming two years ago, when he launched Insta Desii and notched up around four lakh followers out of nowhere. Today, the account has more than a million followers. "You can call me a bit of a star in the Instagram community of India," he boasts.

Ajay posts punny and sarcastic one-liners spun around just about anybody in the news. Sample this. A picture of an angry Virat Kohli gesturing to a batsman and mouthing an expletive and the following accompanying text - Censor Board is the reason why we can never have a biopic on Virat Kohli. The post has against it 50,000 likes and hundreds of comments. It also went viral on Facebook and was shared many times over on WhatsApp. In other words, mission accomplished.

A diploma holder in engineering, Ajay zips around Ludhiana in his car, a recent acquisition. Of late, Ajay and his ilk have also started earning some serious bucks. "I am being offered jobs by companies to manage their social media accounts, not because of my diploma but because of Insta Desii," he chuckles. But the 23-year-old is not interested as of now. He is having fun and also getting to be his own boss. "Most important of all, I am earning handsomely."

Much of the earnings come from brands, big and small, who have discovered the benefits of piggybacking these meme-makers. Harsh Bhadresa of Just Indian Things is based in Rajkot. He calls himself a "digital influencer". Insta Desii's Ajay prefers the moniker "force multiplier". He says, "One post on my page reaches out to a million people and brands pay what is for them pittance, but good for me." Indeed, earnings vary from anything between Rs 2,500 and Rs 6,000 per post, with about 6-10 brand promotions thrown in per week. "We are generally approached on weekends by large retail chains, electronic gadget companies, filmmakers, new mobile apps and even singers," says Mumbai-based Manthan Doshi of Daily Over Dose.

Social Beat, a Chennai-based company, acts as a bridge between brands and such "digital influencers". Its co-founder, Vikas Chawla, is of the opinion that for businesses with a large digital audience, it makes sense to leverage more digital influencers. Bigger brands that have traditionally looked to celebrity influencers and never worried about the expense have also turned to meme-makers. Automotive manufacturer Hyundai's India arm recently engaged hundreds of them to amplify its brand presence. Puneet Anand, who is senior general manager and group head - marketing at Hyundai Motor India Ltd, tells The Telegraph: "Memes are the best way to grab attention. They are easy to create, easy to consume and also topical."

The meme force, like its following, is mostly made up of fresh graduates. Some of them would like to do this full-time but their dreams are reined in by an awareness of the fickle nature of the Internet. Not one to take any chances, Harsh Bhadresa of Just Indian Things has just completed his degree in mechanical engineering.

But if you think it is all easy money, think again. "Content and only content matters. Unless people like what you are posting, they will not return to your page. There is a lot of smart thinking and hard work involved," says Dixit Sheth of Super Chutya.

The idea is to keep the followers in splits, be mischievous and yet not be offensive. This is also one of the reasons why most meme-makers tiptoe around religion. "We in India get offended very easily," says Harsh Gupta of Bakchod Billi. "Sometimes political memes land me in trouble in the sense that some of my followers are Modi fans and they don't like it. But most of the followers just have a good laugh," Ajay says.

Creativity and playing to the gallery don't always go hand in hand. But meme-makers seem to be making it possible and profitable too. The more heartening thing, however, is this: young India knows how to laugh at itself. And others.