‘Jammy’, ‘Wall’ were the nicknames used for Rahul Dravid. But there’s a new addition to the list, which is – ‘Indiranagar Ka Gunda’. This nickname became a sensation after an advertisement featuring Rahul Dravid went viral on the interner. So much so that, on a day when Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) kicked off, some would have been surprised to see the words Rahul Dravid and Indiranagar in the top trends on Google.
A report in the Indian Express mentioned the director of this ad Ayappa KM who said: “Every time Rahul Dravid would scream, every single time he screamed, he would cover his forehead with his hands. Like ‘What am I doing? Why am I doing this?’”
Ayappa also said that it was fun to shoot with Rahul Dravid who was absolutely out of his comfort zone in the ad. “A guy out of his comfort zone… That was so entertaining to watch,” he said. “I think the biggest victory here is that Rahul Dravid looks like a seasoned actor. Let’s be honest, he is known for his cricketing skills much more than his acting skills. So it was very nice to see the feedback that somewhere we’ve communicated the dark side of Rahul Dravid that doesn’t even exist!”
Take a look at the ad once again:
Rahul Dravid took the internet by storm after the ad was put up online. Most users were shocked and pleasantly surprised to see an angry side of Virat Kohli.
“We were not 100 per cent sure of how it’s going to turn out. So, we had planned a lot of back-up physical gags as well. But then we met him in the morning and he seemed very chilled and not very rattled by it. I screamed out a couple of lines to give him a basic idea. And then he got it,” says Ayappa.
The director also praised the Indian batting legend saying that it is difficult for non-actors to ‘explode like that’.