Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh’s ‘Rocky aur Rani’ skimp on their experience budget in new MMT spot

Fresh off their success from Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh’s on-screen characters – going by the new Make My Trip spot – are busy skydiving during their honeymoon, but turn into cheapskates right before the jump. 

Singh was the one supposed to skydive with the instructor but Bhatt too wanted a piece of the adrenaline rush. She explains she will sit on her husband’s lap and seeing the exasperated look of the instructor, the couple begin to bargain with him; dumbstruck, he jumps off without them. 

The trigger was the chadar-turned-parachute the two proposed for Bhatt to use.

The ad’s humour is based on the premise that the couple spent all their money on the hotel and did not have much to spare when it came to making lifelong memories. Thus, the bargaining with the skydiving instructor ensued. 

MakeMyTrip says one gets flat 20% off on their first hotel booking.

Now, the travel aggregator and booking company has not exactly purchased their movie character rights for the spot but seeing Singh’s mannerisms and the bangles on Bhatt’s hands, it is hard not to make the connection.

However, when the movie was released in July 2023, MakeMyTrip – to get a piece of the action – released Rocky & Rani Special Holiday Packages.

These were curated honeymoon packages to domestic and international destinations: Manali, Goa, Mussoorie, Kerala, Maldives, Singapore, Krabi and Phuket. 

A curated trip to Kashmir was the highlight of the brand because it is the location (spoilers ahead) where Rani realises her love for Rocky, and the song Tum Kya Mile from the movie was shot in Gulmarg, Kashmir.

MakeMyTrip has also released a second ad but this time, it is only Bhatt and Singh playing roles unique to the ad, and not from another piece of intellectual property. 

This ad – using the clueless-boy-obvious-to-a-girl’s-romantic-advances trope – praises all the facilities a room booked through MakeMyTrip offers. The 20% discount offer finds a place in this 35-second ad too. 

These films have been written by Tanmay Bhat, Devaiah Bopanna, Puneet Chadha, and Deep Joshi of Moonshot.

Bhatt and Singh are not new to the MakeMyTrip universe. They signed on as brand ambassadors back in 2016 and have appeared in over a dozen ads for MakeMyTrip. 

The duo’s first of the two new ads half-qualifies to the recently burgeoning category of ads where actors  play their on-screen characters.

The list includes:

Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi as Munna bhai and Circuit respectively for Acko health insurance. 

Kareena Kapoor as Poo for Goibibo. 

Actors from C.I.D. and Crime Patrol for boAt. 

Shah Rukh Khan (Jawan), Alia Bhatt (Student of the Year), and Ranbir Kapoor (Barfi) for Rungta Steel.

Pratik Gandhi as Harshad Mehta for CenturyPly.