The hook
The first three seconds do one thing: they start a movie, not a spec sheet. Rohit Saraf and Pratibha Ranta meet by chance, and the Bollywood track ‘Yaar Bina Chain Kahan Re’ sets the tone immediately. For a budget 5G phone, that is a deliberate signal: stay for the chemistry, not the chipset.
The structure of the film
The ad is built like a music video. A simple encounter becomes an imagined relationship that moves through romance, adventure, conflict and connection. The Virat Curve 5G shows up inside that relationship as a companion device, not as a product on a podium.
That choice comes straight from the brief. Puravansh Maitreya, head of marketing at LAVA Mobiles, says the brand wanted to move beyond feature-first communication. ‘Go With The Curve’ gave them room to tell a story where the phone fits naturally into the experience.
Raghav Bagai, co-founder of SW Network, frames the shift plainly: smartphone advertising has been feature-led, but people are consuming more content than ever. The bet is that an entertaining film will earn attention that a demo cannot.
Why it spread
The share trigger is not the phone. It is the pairing. Rohit Saraf and Pratibha Ranta already had audience interest before the ad, and the campaign leans into that existing chemistry.
Shubham Chawla, business head at Youthbeat, says the casting was influenced by the buzz around the pair. The idea was to take that interest into a different world, so the film feels natural to them and unexpected for viewers.
- The Bollywood track gives viewers a familiar reason to stop.
- The music-video structure makes the film easy to clip and repost.
- The romantic story gives fans something to discuss beyond price and specs.
- The phone appears as a story prop, so the share feels like entertainment, not an ad.
Saraf says it did not feel like a typical phone commercial. Ranta points to the unexpected leap from a simple interaction to a whole relationship. That reaction is exactly what a viral ad wants: viewers describe the story, not the product.
The numbers
Afaqs! reports no engagement figures for the campaign yet. The spread signal so far is qualitative: casting buzz, entertainment format and the decision to hide the feature list inside a love story.
Steal this
For a smaller brand without this budget, three moves still transfer:
- Cast for existing chemistry. Find creators or micro-influencers who already have a dynamic audiences enjoy.
- Open with a genre, not a logo. A familiar song, a rom-com beat or a thriller pace can signal ‘watch this’ faster than a product shot.
- Make the product a prop. Let it appear naturally in a story turn; the audience should leave quoting the moment, not the spec.
Watch the original: LAVA on YouTube
Source: Afaqs!
