On the day where India’s biggest news story was the merger of Jio and Hotstar, the most widely discussed and shared video on social media in Kerala featured an 81-year-old actor known mainly for his villainous roles in Malayalam films.
Hundreds of brands create content around Valentine’s Day, but the clear winner this year was Asianet’s ‘Happy Villain-tine’s Day’ film, a 2-minute film that saw over 500k reshares on Instagram alone, effectively making it one of the most viral branded content pieces ever created in Malayalam.
What’s even more shocking was that the brand spent nothing on media – the content went viral on its own, bouncing off not just the official asianet handle but dozens of meme pages across social media.
TG Ravi has long been typecast as the antagonist in films, often playing the villain even in love-related storylines. Despite his desire to portray romantic roles, Malayalam cinema consistently relegated him to dark, menacing characters. The ad cleverly reflects this, showing TG as a lifelong single, unable to find true love.
TG Ravi’s son, actor Sreejith Ravi, plays a younger version of TG in the video. The ad also features TG’s grandson, Ritwunjay, and Sanju Sanichan, who portray TG’s school and college versions respectively.
“The video is rich in references to TG’s filmography, including mentions of a girl named Bhavani, the movie ‘Chakara’ (in which the villain’s wife falls in love with the hero), and Opol (Balan K Nair, another famous villain in malayalam cinema, plays a positive role in this film). We knew that audiences would catch these references, which contributed to the chatter around the film” said Raju Menon, MD, Maitri Advertising
“In addition to references engaging older audiences, we targeted younger viewers by making TG Ravi speak GenZ slang – the contrast of an octogenarian saying “Very nice my pookie” and “Oh my skibidis” sent the comment section wild.” – commented Francis Thomas, GCD, Maitri Advertising.
To tie the film to Asianet’s own characters, the film brought in the iconic villains from two of
Asianet’s serials, Prakash from Mauna Ragam and Akash from Ishtham Matram, to commiserate with TG Ravi, giving the film a seamless brand connect.
This two-minute advertisement, created by the team at Maitri Advertising for Asianet, was directed by filmmaker Mridul Nair, who also acted in the film.
Agency Credits:
Managing Director: Raju Menon
Account Director: Sumith G
Executive Creative Director: Venugopal Ramachandran Nair
Group Creative Director: Francis Thomas, Vincent Vadakkan
Copywriter: Ajeesh Raman