Posting a self-made video on YouTube and having it go viral is nothing new for UC Berkeley students.
Last spring then-freshman Derek Low made news with his Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm room, and in the fall of 2010 the men’s varsity soccer team became the subject of significant attention for their rendition of Chris Brown’s “For Ur Love.”
And now a new group of students has gained YouTube popularity, this time by posting a music video made by their very own production group, much of which is composed of UC Berkeley students.
The group, called Kunal Agarwal Productions, was started by Agarwal, who is a UC Berkeley senior, along with UC Berkeley seniors Shayan Fakurnejad and Justin Nguyen and Bay Area DJ Sanjoy Deb. The song in the popular video is called “Tonight I Believe” and reached an astounding 1 million views within just 48 hours of being posted on the site Aug. 9. It currently has over 1,045,000 views.
The video combines Bollywood music with electronic dance elements and was cochoreographed by UC Berkeley sophomore Anisha Babbar, who is a part of campus Bollywood dance group Azaad. The main singer in the video is Neeraj Kohirkar, 2012 UC Berkeley graduate.
While Kunal Agarwal Productions has made many videos before, this was their first time creating a video entirely from scratch.
“In the past, the songs have been remixed, but this time we had to create the vocal melody,” Agarwal said.
Agarwal attributes much of the video’s success to the group’s reputation in the world of Bollywood dance.
“We put on a contest in the Indian dance team circuit to see who could share it on Facebook the most number of times, and the winner would get a free dance mix from me and Sanjoy,” he said.
Since it gained popularity on YouTube, the production group has responded to fan feedback, both positive and negative, by creating an instrumental version of the song and a recut version of the music video.