Keralite Makes £10 in 10 Minutes Selling Instant Photos in London — Then Police Shut Him Down

LONDON May 31: A young Keralite’s creative attempt to earn extra cash on the streets of London turned into a viral social media story after he made £10 in just 10 minutes—only to be stopped by authorities for operating without permission.

Twenty-five-year-old Vishnu Vijayadharan, a Kerala native working in London, shared the experience on Instagram, where the video has already attracted hundreds of thousands of views.

The idea was simple. Armed with a Kodak instant camera worth £110 (approximately ₹14,000), Vishnu headed to a busy tourist area and offered instant Polaroid-style photographs for £5 (around ₹640) each.

“Let’s see how much money we can make by selling Polaroid pictures in London,” he says at the beginning of the video. To attract customers, he held up a handwritten cardboard sign reading: “Cute £5 Polaroids.”

The response was immediate. Within minutes, a woman purchased a photo and appeared delighted with the result. Moments later, another customer approached.

“After two seconds, we got another customer,” Vishnu says in the video. Encouraged by the quick sales, he began imagining a profitable side business.

“At that point I genuinely started thinking we were going to make millions,” he joked. But his momentum was short-lived. “The next customer turned out to be the police.”

Council officers informed him that selling goods or services on public streets requires official permission from the local council. His pop-up photography venture was classified as unauthorised street trading.

“Apparently we were supposed to take permission from the council to do this, and I had no idea about it,” Vishnu explained. Although the officers stopped the operation, the entrepreneur still managed to pocket £10 before being shut down.

Reflecting on the experience, he said that anyone with the proper licence could potentially earn significantly more. “If you have permission from the council, you can easily make £100 an hour here,” he claimed.

The video has since gone viral, drawing a mix of praise and criticism online. While some viewers admired his entrepreneurial spirit, others pointed out the importance of following local regulations before starting a street business in the UK.

 

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A post shared by VISHNU VIJAYADHARAN 🌏 Travel and Lifestyle (@vishnu_vijayadharan_)

Despite the unexpected intervention, Vishnu’s brief venture proved one thing: sometimes a simple idea can attract customers almost instantly—provided you have the right permissions to make it legal.