#KikiChallenge goes desi, but Hyderabad Police is not amused

Attention Hyderabadis! Do you plan to perform the highly adventurous #KikiChallenge anytime soon? Here’s why you shouldn’t. The viral challenge, based on Canadian rapper Drake’s song, In My Feelings, has crawled its way into social media and has gotten people jump out of moving cars to perform the signature moves of the artiste. Having gotten celebrities like Will Smith, dance to its tune, the challenge has now made its way into the country.

Unfortunately, the Indian superstars have also been playing along with it.Actors like Adah Sharma and Regina Cassandra have spiced up the challenge with their desi moves. While Regina appears in her video wearing a half-saree, Adah Sharma is dressed up as an apsara. Nora Fatehi’s video features her stepping out of an auto-rickshaw to dance to the song. However, it’s Pranitha Subhash’s rendition that has gotten the Internet laughing out loud — her video ends on a hilarious note when the driver doesn’t wait for her to finish her moves. Regardless, the dancing prowess demonstrated in the #DesiKiki challenge has not impressed the city police at all.

With videos from around the world showing people falling out of their cars, crashing into poles and getting hit by other vehicles, it is not surprising that police departments in the US, Spain, Malaysia and the UAE have warned people against the challenge. But the Kiki Challenge has gotten the police in India more worried than others. The reason is a no-brainer. People don’t follow traffic rules in the country anyway, say the police. Complementing that with a challenge that has gotten youngsters jump out of cars and dance on the roads is just another recipe for disaster.

Restrain from the kiki challenge or get ready to count bars in jail: cops

In fact, the Hyderabad Police is the latest to join the list of police departments in the country that have warned the public against taking up the challenge. Interestingly, on their Twitter page, the city cops have requested people to take up the #GreenChallenge instead of the #KikiChallenge. “Jumping out of a moving car and dancing alongside it in the middle of the road endangers not only the life of the driver but also others. Further, such acts draw criminal charges,” read a notice titled ‘Restrain from KikiChallenge or count the bars’, released by the Hyderabad
Traffic Police on 31 July.

It’s not just the Hyderabad Police that has banned the challenge — police departments in Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, and Uttar-Pradesh have also issues notices. A senior Delhi Police official says, “We have every reason to be worried. People break rules every day on the roads. What’s going to happen to road safety if people start taking up this challenge?”

So, how does the Kiki Challenge get you into trouble, legally? The police are out to book anyone who’s performing the challenge under IPC Section 268 and Section 70 (b) of

Hyderabad City Police

Act for creating nuisance on the road and endangering life of other commuters. It doesn’t end there. The challenge can also get you booked under the Motor Vehicles Act for dangerous driving. Inspector KPV Raju, traffic admin, Hyderabad, says, “We have been monitoring all social media platforms to get hold of people who have been indulging in the challenge. As of now, we haven’t registered any cases in Hyderabad. But we’re watching.”

The UP police have taken an interesting approach to handling this menace. Rather than asking youngsters to not take part in it, they have addressed parents in their tweet after spotting a Lucknow girl doing the challenge. “Dear parents, whether Kiki loves your child or not, we are sure you do! So please stand by your kids in all the challenges in life except #kikichallenge,” they tweeted.
With inputs from