Zingbus drives through Bollywood references in a new spot

Karan and Arjun take a Zingbus to save Basanti, their mother.

Nothing can unite India the way cricket and films can. Making use of the latter’s power of influence is Zingbus, a Gurugram-based online AC bus booking platform.

Its new spot is replete with references to famous Bollywood lines, movie plots and character sketches, whilst trying to pull viewers into booking bus tickets.

For instance, ‘Karan’ and ‘Arjun’ are shown tied to two posts, a la ‘Basanti’ in ‘Sholay’, while one of the son’s is a Nawazuddin Siddiqui caricature. Carry On Films is behind this ad.

Bollywood and ads have always gone hand in hand. A couple of weeks ago, actress Hema Malini starred in an for Mast Masala, singing a cover of ‘Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana’, but with different lyrics.

Fitness platform Cult.fit recreated ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ (‘DDLJ’) and ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ for its ad last year.

By joining this bandwagon, Zingbus now competes with the likes of Bengaluru-based redBus and countless travel aggregators for bus ticket booking supremacy.