Filmmaker Sriram Srikanth (right) and Geela Anil Kumar spoke to NDTV about their viral video.
They didn't jump out of moving cars, or stopped the traffic with their daredevilry. Instead the simplicity of their Kiki challenge made the dancing duo from Telangana internet darlings. Actor Geela Anil Kumar, 24, and 28-year-old farmer Pilli Thirupathi can be seen moving and grooving while knee deep in mud. The multitaskers are dancing as they are ploughing the field with a pair of bulls in the viral video that was shared by comedian and TV show host Trevor Noah on Instagram.
Their brief was simple, "just follow the bulls". No one got hurt and everybody had fun.
The video was conceptualised and uploaded by filmmaker Sriram Srikanth on his YouTube channel "My Village Show", which showcases "culture, development, festivals, awareness programmes, short films" about his village Lambadipally in Karimnagar district of Telangana.
Mr Srikanth was clueless about the challenge. Then he saw a message from the police advising against dancing alongside a moving car. He hadn't even heard of the artiste, but the whole lot of hoopla around it intrigued him. He decided to shoot a safe yet fun version.
"We make YouTube videos in Telugu and upload them on our channel. We wanted to do the Kiki challenge in a different, village-oriented way. We all belong to farmer families, so we thought why not do a video around farming," Mr Srikanth told NDTV.
The filmmaker discussed the idea with the duo from the village and they loved it. Soon they were practising, but when they shot it, the best moments came from their impromptu moves. Geela Anil Kumar, who aspires to be an actor and often features in Mr Srikanth's videos, enjoyed dancing to the peppy beats of rapper Drake's hit song "In My Feeling".
"It took two hours to shoot the video. We didn't really choreograph it. My brief to them was just dance and follow the bulls and they did. The video was an instant hit," Mr Srikanth said.
The internet loved their "awesome way of life". An Instagram user said, "This is everything. How do we beat this?"
Actor Vivek Oberoi was among the many celebrities who shared the video.
The newest trend on social media, which involves jumping out of a slow-moving car and dancing alongside, the Kiki challenge was taken up by tonnes of trend chasers.
Some videos of the dangerous challenge uploaded on the internet show oblivious dancers crashing into poles, tripping on potholes, getting hit and even falling out of cars, which prompted the agencies to issue warnings against it.