“Veg biryani is not biryani” is just one of the relatable and amusing lines from the peppy and upbeat viral parody of Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You. The Biryani Anthem, which features almost all the stand-up comedians from Bengaluru, was created by Ahmed Shariff and is going viral on social media. Clearly, there is no higher love for people than the love for biryani!
While we have seen a number of romantic and dance-worthy recreations, this parody of the song has won hearts of foodies all over the country. “Shape Of You is one song that caught on like crazy and you can’t help but groove to it. I really love the song and wanted to do something with it,” says Ahmed who is known for biryani videos with comedians Praveen Kumar and Sanjay Manaktala who also make appearance sin the viral video. Also featuring a fake Pablo Escobar, Jon Snow and Donald Trump, it has also caught attention of a number of fandoms!
“Everybody in the video was a standup comedian, I actually got lucky with the lookalikes because Aditya did the Pablo role and aced it and Tim was the only white guy I knew who played Trump. The challenging part though, was to find the right props for the video. I spent around three hours running all over commercial street looking for the perfect red tie for Trump. And I cut the fingers of my gloves off which was a really sad thing because those things really kept me warm in winters,” recalls Ahmed who even sported a similar hairdo as Ed, for the video.
While a number of comedians were featured in the video, Sanjay Manaktala who has also made his own parody of the popular song titled Hope of You, was also a huge part of the video. “Though Ahmed and I discussed this concept around two months ago, we only started shooting last month,” says Sanjay. And while people find it hard to hold conversations on a topic, how hard was it to come up with an entire song about biryani, we want to know. “That’s the beauty of comedy. While people think a topic can only be covered in one sentence, we are able to find different angles to it that are equally relatable,” says the comedian who is known for his biryani reviews. “I think the video is doing well because it’s not sexual or political and can be viewed and is relatable to everybody. Also biryani is more than a fun dish. It’s one of those Indian things that are taken for granted. And I think the question of whether veg biryani is really biryani or not, is the question of our generation,” jokes Sanjay.
And while most people wonder how Ahmed managed to sound like Ed, The Stage finalist Abhijit Gupta was the face behind the voice. “Though I didn’t relate to it, it was a really fun project to work on. I had no idea it would attract so much attention, though” confesses the local musician. “Ahmed is a perfectionist and told me that while most Indian parodys have Indian accents, he wanted this to sound exactly like Ed’s voice and bring in the whole unpredictable factor, which had many people taken aback,” Abhijit says, signing off.
