With Vicky Kaushal’s song Tauba Tauba creating a real buzz online, we take a look at male actors who are giving stiff competition to item girls

Sheetal

Bad News song Tauba Tauba has crossed 75 million views and over 2 million reels have been made by social media users already! An original number by Punjabi singer Karan Aujla, it has challenging choreography that everybody is trying to perfect. Now that male actors are giving stiff competition to the item girl phenomenon, which ruled the industry for long, it’s worth looking at the emerging trend.

There was no conscious thought to break the stereotype. It took so many people to put the song together and just because I am the face of it, it doesn’t mean we are promoting a particular idea like positive masculinity or anything. But it is good that many noticed this about Tauba Tauba — that poster songs can also feature a male lead! If it has to bring any change, I hope it’s for the positive. — Vicky Kaushal, Actor

Before Tauba Tauba, it was Heart Throb with Ranveer Singh playing the item boy in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. Such poster songs often do not add to the narrative of the film, but are added in between or at the end to gain traction. Seems more like an afterthought! But they serve the purpose as these songs create a real buzz.

Nidhi Kumar, dancer and digital content creator, says, “It is truly refreshing to see a male taking the lead in an item song, rather than the female. We recently saw Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff doing Jai Jai Shivshankar (War). But somehow Tauba Tauba feels different because the beats of the song are quite different from anything we have seen in the past.”

Tiger Shroff and Akshay Kumar were also seen grooving together in Bade Miyan Chote Miyan in an all-male title song.

Coming back to Tauba Tauba, the choreography was by Bosco Caesar, who is known to have given the most viral hook steps known to Bollywood! This one was very new and it almost felt like it paid homage to Michael Jackson’s moonwalk. Nidhi says the reason of Tauba Tauba being a success goes to Vicky Kaushal, “To see him dance like this was so refreshing and so different, hence, it became even more viral because this was never seen before.”

Celeb talk

I have been loving the whole Tauba trend, and the way it has united the dancing community once again is amazing. It’s been a while since a Bollywood song has been able to do so, which makes it even more special. Its success could really change the game for male Bollywood stars in terms of dancing. — Nidhi Kumar, Choreographer

When I first saw Tauba Tauba, I didn’t even know it was from a new movie. It’s very attractive and instantly makes you want to listen. I welcome this change where poster songs can also be about a man. If women can be directors and technicians, men can be the ‘item’ in a song too! After it went viral, many people made reels. However, we shouldn’t say that something becomes successful just because it goes viral. Success depends on various factors. — Nitin Goswami, Actor

I believe anything unique and different tends to go viral. Our audience today loves stuff that is atrangi and Tauba Tauba is one of those unique songs. The song is definitely visually appealing and attractive. Its unique dance step is one of the reasons it has gone viral. The success of Tauba Tauba shows that people appreciate originality and creativity. It also proved that audience prefer to enjoy fresh and unique content. — Shivangi Verma, Actress