Kiki Challenge Telangana Version Stroms The Social Media

• Two Indian farmers have ‘won’ the kiki challenge.

• Meet the Telangana farmers whose Kiki Challenge is winning the internet.

• Two farmers from a small village named 'Lambadipalli' of Jagityal District near Karimnagar, Telangana state recently took up the Kiki challenge in which one has to jump out of a moving car and dance on 'In my feeling' song, but with a twist.

• In the video, which has won over the internet, Anil Geela (24) and Pilli Tirupati (28) are seen dancing into a muddy paddy field next to a pair of bullocks.

Srikanth and Anil run a popular YouTube channel 'My Village Show' that showcases life in an Indian village, the humorous way.

• The video showing Geela Anil Kumar (24) and Pilli Thirupathi (28) dancing with gay abandon as they plough a rice field with bullocks has attracted more than 16 million views.

The only #kikichallenge that I approve of! Desi style and completely safe! Mera Bharat Mahaan! #InMyFeelingsChallenge #DesiKiki #Kiki #KiKiHardlyAChallenge pic.twitter.com/HiTXl5bucR

— Vivek Anand Oberoi (@vivekoberoi) August 3, 2018

Telangana/Hyderabad:

• People around the world have attempted the kiki challenge which involves dancing alongside it to Drake’s hit “In My Feelings” but it’s two Telangana farmers who’ve won over the internet.

• The video showing Geela Anil Kumar (24) and Pilli Thirupathi (28) dancing with gay abandon as they plough a rice field with bullocks has attracted more than 16 million views. Not only that, comedian and Daily Show host Trevor Noah has posted the video on his Instagram page, declaring them winners of the keke (or ‘kiki’ depending on who you ask) challenge. It has also been posted by Bollywood celebrities like Vivek Oberoi.

The video, shot on August 1, was uploaded by movie director Sriram Srikanth on his local YouTube channel “My Village Show”. He says got interested in the challenge when he saw a message from police not to indulge in it since it involved dancing alongside a moving vehicle. “So I went online and was amazed at the number of people dancing to Drake’s song. I’d never heard that song or that artist before. But we loved it,” he says.

Local TV channels and a few producers have expressed interest online in hiring the two talented youngsters.

“But we wanted to show people that it was something fun at the end of the day and need not be done in a dangerous way. So we considered 2-3 ways in which we could shoot it. We even thought that maybe children could do the dance as they hit a tyre with a stick, but we finally decided to do it in this manner,” he adds.

Anil (L) and Pilli (R)
When asked if he expected the video would become so popular, Anil says they had no idea. “We had some expectation that people may like it, but we never thought it would spread like wildfire. Lots of people have been posting it on their social media accounts and it makes me very happy. Many are praising farmers and appreciating their lifestyles as well.”

A USP of Anil and Srikanth’s video was that it brought the Indian rural landscape into pop culture, which does not happen very often. And that’s what the duo hope to do with ‘My Village Show’ as well.

Started by Srikanth (28) in November 2012 to make and popularise educational content within the villages, it wasn’t until 2016 that his YouTube channel gained popularity. “In 2015, we changed the name to 'My Village Show' and decided to do videos with a touch of humour that highlighted village life in general,” Srikanth tells TNM.

If you go to the YouTube page of ‘My Village Show’, you’ll see a number of videos with trendy titles – reaction videos (elders reacting to animojis, burgers), skits with types of people (like types of workers), expectations vs reality videos, honest videos (like honest mother’s day) and so on. There are also videos which show village life like a series on village elections, festival celebrations etc.