If the year 2016 had to be summed up through images and videos that went viral on social media, then probably these would be the ones. Check them out:
Fake pic of Amma on ventilator
Since the time former CM J Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospital in Chennai, there was much secrecy regarding her health condition. As speculation over the health condition grew, rumours spread like wildfire over the Internet. In October first week, a photo of a woman lying on a ventilator surfaced on the social media and Whatsapp. It showed her resting with her eyes closed in a hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while connected to lots of tubes. Some Twitterati claimed that was Jayalalithaa. But eventually it turned out to be a fake photo.
Panels flying off Hyatt Regency during Cyclone Vardah
Cyclone Vardah swept across Chennai, India, on December 12, bringing winds of up to 130 km/h (80 mph), and reported gusts of up to 140 km/h. As the cyclone made a landfall, one of the city’s popular five-star property bore the brunt. A video showed a panel from the hotel’s façade being blown-off in the winds while another video uploaded on YouTube by Addictive showed eight to ten panels flying off in the cyclone. The video was shared across forums and made it to the news channels as well.
Horrific video of Bhadra being thrown off terrace
The abusive video of two medical students throwing off a dog from the terrace of a building caught the attention of people across India. The video showed a man, grinning maniacally, held the little brown dog over the edge of the terrace and then dropped her. It ended with the sound of the dog crying in pain. The video enraged Chennai after it went viral on social media. The city’s animal lovers crowd-sourced information to identify the men. The man in the video was identified as Gautam S, a final year MBBS student from Madha medical college. When the police, accompanied with activists, went to arrest the duo, they were found absconding. They were arrested later and let out on bail. The animal rights activists from the city went to the location and found the dog with a fractured leg. He was named Bhadra by them. Vets treated her and she was declared out of danger.
Thala’s major bike-stunt left fans asking for more
Thala Ajith always manages to stun his fans by doing something new and has a knack of reinventing himself. He was shooting in Bulgaria for an untitled Tamil flick till December mid and was shooting high-octane action sequences. A 29-second video clip featuring Ajith Kumar doing a daredevil stunt on his high-end sports bike without breaking a sweat, went viral on the Internet. While director Siruthai Siva suggested that they use a body double, we hear Ajith wanted to do it himself. The director of the film is attempting a James Bond-esque thriller in Kollywood and Hollywood’s one of the best bike stunt choreographers, Jorian Ponomareff has been roped in to give the audience some adrenaline rushing visuals.
Sofia Ashraf, the rapper, attacked casteism and patriarchy
Indian parents equate ‘good news’ to someone being pregnant. Sofia Ashraf’s video titled Any Good News on Culture Machine’s digital channel Blush, was a satire on a typical south Indian mother’s euphemism for ‘Are you pregnant?’. As the conversation between the mother-daughter duo unfolded, the video cracked you up with parental expectation. Sofia became popular after rapping in the viral song video Kodaikanal Won’t, which gave a corporate giant many sleepless nights. She had also released a video as a part of Culture Machine’s digital channel Blush called Tam-Brahm boy, as part of their new series called Sista from the South this year itself. ‘Any Good News’ is a question that plagues any married woman’s life. It’s sad that no matter what women achieve; they are expected to bear children. The video intended to challenge this mindset and became extremely popular.
