In an interaction about Bollywood awards shows hosted by comedian Tanmay Bhat, his fellow comedians Sahil Shah and Sapan Verma recalled the story of a brand launch with Ranveer Singh, which went viral for all the wrong reasons.
The gag basically involved Ranveer attempting a parody of the popular Korean song Gangnam Style, but with lyrics that ticked off features of a Samsung phone. Everyone involved was convinced that they’d hit a home run, but things took a turn for the worse just hours after the event, when the video of Ranveer performing the parody song was shared online.
Sapan said, “We were sitting at Yash Raj, and the CEO and all these corporate people are sitting with us for a formal interview with Ranveer Singh. Cut to, Ranveer Singh entering with some Govinda song playing on his phone, just shimmying into the meeting. And the CEO is like, ‘What the f**k is going on?’ That’s how Ranveer enters the meeting.”
He continued, “That time Gangnam Style had just come, so we jokingly pitched a parody of that called Samsung Style. And the problem with Ranveer Singh is, you don’t know when he will take your joke seriously. And he says, ‘Done!’ The agency people were trying to stop him. They were like, ‘Guys, we can’t do this.’ Ranveer threw everybody out of the room. He said, ‘I don’t want anybody here, just three of us.’”
Sapan said that they proceeded to write the parody song in the next two hours, and they even have BTS footage of the actor grooving and clapping along to what they were coming up with. “We thought it’s going to go viral. And it did, for all the wrong reasons,” he said.
At the event, everybody was pleased with what they’d done. “When Ranveer performed that day, we were all happy. The client was happy, we thought we’d killed it. Then, two hours later, Sahil and I opened Twitter…”
Ranveer Singh is known for his loud public persona, which he often brings to events and interviews. The actor was last seen as former India cricket captain Kapil Dev in 83, and has several films lined up. These include Jayeshbhai Jordaar, Cirkus, Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, Baiju Bawra and others.