From Dhurandhar To Bahubali, Familiar Soundtracks Power Poll Campaign Push

Nagpur: As the polling day draws closer, contestants have begun tapping songs and popular tracks from Bollywood hits to woo voters and grab attention, particularly among the youth. From social media reels to street-level campaigning, familiar soundtracks are increasingly being used as a tool to amplify political messaging in the last leg of the polls.Scroll through social media platforms and a clear pattern emerges. Reels featuring hard-hitting tracks such as Dhurandhar, Fa9sla, Aarambh, and even powerful spoken-word pieces, including Sanskrit stotras like Shiv Tandav, are gaining traction as background scores to political clips, street visuals, and candidate walkabouts. What resonates on mobile screens is now finding its way onto city roads, blurring the line between digital outreach and physical campaigning.
Campaign workers say the shift is deliberate. Music that already circulates widely online creates instant recognition on the ground. Familiar sound, they said, helps candidates cut through the clutter of posters, banners, and speeches that dominate the final days before polling.Parallel to this digital trend, well-known Bollywood, South Indian, and Marathi film tunes are resurfacing across wards — not as entertainment, but as political shorthand. Candidates retained recognisable compositions such as the Bahubali theme and the Kantara theme, reworking the lyrics to suit local narratives of development, accessibility, and continuity, while new versions like ‘Rashtravadi Punha' and ‘Aamcha Neta Lai Powerful' are also echoing through neighbourhoods.Psychologist Riddhi Nakum says, "Music in rallies functions as a powerful psychological and neurological stimulus that captures attention and enhances engagement. Rhythm and melody activate the brain's reward system, releasing dopamine and generating emotional arousal, curiosity, and pleasure. This heightened sensory stimulation draws people toward the source of sound."Auto-rickshaws fitted with loudspeakers continue to be a key vehicle for this strategy. As these rickshaws move through narrow lanes and crowded chowks, the music acts as an announcement long before a campaigner steps out. "When a familiar tune plays, people step out instinctively. It's a simple marketing tool and is now a trend, so almost everyone is using it. But it helps us reach a much wider audience," said Congress candidate from ward 37 Prashant Kapse.Political observers said cinema-based music works as a shortcut in a cluttered election environment. With dozens of candidates competing for attention in tightly packed urban wards, originality often lies not in creating something new, but in reframing something already known. A popular film tune, stripped of its cinematic context and loaded with local references, becomes an easy-to-digest message.Nagpur's campaign trail resembles a layered soundtrack — part social media virality, part cinematic memory and part street-level politics. The lyrics may change and platforms may differ, but the strategy remains consistent: in a contest where attention is the most contested currency, familiar sound has emerged as one of the most effective tools of persuasion.