Trending: DU students rope in rickshaw, auto drivers on campus for fest reels

Have you seen the popular reel where two female students of Delhi University ask an auto driver, ‘Bhaiyya St Stephen’s chaloge?’ The auto driver refuses and is again approached to reply to the question ‘Bhaiyya JMC chaloge?’ When the answer remains unchanged, the rattled girls ask, ‘Phir kahan chaloge?’ The auto driver then smiles replying ‘Gargi!’ This is the promotional teaser for Gargi College’s upcoming cultural fest Reverie ’24. Screengrabs of some of the reels where DU students have featured rickshaw pullers and auto drivers to announce news about their upcoming cultural fest. Since DU’s fest season is here, how can new and innovative reels be left behind? In the spirit of creating the most trending and eye-catching reels, students from various colleges are taking to the streets of campus and catching the fancy of everyone featuring rickshaw and autowale bhaiyyas. Discover the thrill of cricket like never before, exclusively on HT. Explore now! The reel posted SRCC students has amassed over 35 million views on Instagram.(Photo: Screenshot/Instagram) “The idea struck when we saw Orry’s (Orhan Awatramani, influencer) reel on Insta on the song Right Round (Flo Rida) of him in a car and falling out of it. And we thought, why not use it in a creative way to announce our event,” says Devanshi Sharma, a first-year student of BCom (Hons) at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC). Sharma is a member of the college’s Enactus wing, and recorded the reel with her peers to announce their Social Entrepreneurship Summit. She adds, “The rickshaw wale bhaiyya was so kind when we requested him to give some OTT expressions. He is the star of the show and it’s because of him that our reel went viral! Because of him and this video not only did our Insta account was blown up but all our other reels also started receiving love from social media users. As a gesture of our gratitude, we gave rickshaw wale bhaiyya ₹300 although he kept refusing to accept it.” Students of IHE gave an auto driver their own watch to strike a pose for the reel.(Photo: Screenshot/Instagram) Gushing about the increase in likes and views on their Insta account, students of Institute of Home Economics (IHE) are confident about the success of their college fest, all thanks to the reel ft an auto driver. “Almost every person from our college shared this reel in their stories as soon as we uploaded it because it struck a cord with them. Before this reel, if our profile’s reach was 20k accounts per month, now it’s almost 500k,” shares Alina Khan, a final year student of BA (Hons) Journalism and president of the college’s PR team, adding, “Usually we’d get posters printed and invest hours in pasting or circulating them to ensure good participation in the fest. But more than any poster, this reel is what has spread the word about our college’s fest, which is right around the corner!” The fest announcement Gargi College students has amassed 140k views.(Photo: Screenshot/Instagram) Since auto and rikshaw pullers have always been an integral part of students’ lives on campus, many felt it was high time to make them feel part of their social lives too. “Some might feel these people are the main characters in our lives, but these are the people with whom we travel every day from the metro station to the college and back. Just upon seeing me, some of them recognise that I’m a student of Gargi College and not KNC (Kamala Nehru College) even though both the colleges are right beside each other,” says Shanti Sehgal, a final-year student of BA (Hons) English and vice president of the student council of Gargi College, adding, “Our comfort level with them is also very high so when we requested them to be part of the reel we are shooting, bhaiyya also enjoyed, laughed and had a great fun! We did get a few judging stares from some standers or outsiders but don’t care what the world thinks.” A BTS shot of Moti Lal Nehru College students while they shoot their reel. The success idea is simple — go viral or go home! So when it came to students of Moti Lal Nehru College’s civil services society, they decided to hop on this trend to spread info about their upcoming inter-college quiz. “We wanted to announce our event for all civil aspirants about how the quiz is quite interestingly based on the prep that’s much needed for prelims, mains and interview rounds. But we didn’t want to sound boring or preachy. After all, the UPSC aspirants also know how to have fun,” says Digvijay Sulekh, a second-year student of BA (Hons) Economics, adding, “We were so grateful to the bhaiyya who agreed to shoot with us that we gave him some chocolates and ₹50 as a token of our gratitude, though he kept refusing. When we told him he’s going to be viral, he told us that he feels like he was born to be a star (laughs)!”