It all started with a simple tweet and escalated into a Twitter spat of epic proportions. On Monday, author Chetan Bhagat and actor Ranganathan Madhavan had their followers reaching for the popcorn as they traded insults on the public platform. Their burns, however, were soon revealed to be a publicity stunt for the new Netflix show Decoupled. In the show, Madhavan plays the second-bestselling author in India, while Chetan Bhagat, in a special appearance, plays himself. The two are shown to be rivals - and that is pretty much the role they played on Twitter yesterday.
It started when Chetan Bhagat responded to a tweet from Netflix India which asked people to choose between books and movies. Chetan Bhagat responded to the tweet and said "My books, and the movies based on them," and that in turn led Madhavan to say that he preferred movies over books.
Chetan Bhagat replied: "Have you ever heard anyone ever say the movie is better than the book?" To this, Madhavan shot back: "YES! 3 Idiots."
3 Idiots is a hit film from 2009 starring Madhavan as an engineering student. It was based on Chetan Bhagat's novel Five Point Someone.
"You're flaunting 3 Idiots to ME?" Chetan Bhagat then asked Madhavan. "Don't try to preach to the choir, maybe you should go actually read my books."
Here's how the actor responded:
That, however, was not the end of the exchange. Chetan Bhagat immediately called Madhavan out for the "unsubtle plug" and added: "Maybe it's just me, I prefer a Pulitzer over a pan masala branded award show."
"Well I prefer the 300 Crore Club over Bestseller," was Madhavan's savage rejoinder. Take a look at how the author of Five Point Someone hit back:
It continued in this vein until Chetan Bhagat brought up his Netflix debut:
In the end, Madhavan confirmed what many were beginning to suspect - the whole back-and-forth was a publicity stunt for Decoupled. "Chetan Bhagat is my bro... we are just doing the publicity drill," he wrote.
But scripted or not, Twitter users were still amused by the banter.
Decoupled stars Madhavan as a misanthropic writer on the verge of divorce with his wife (played by Surveen Chawla).
