On August 1, the Navghar police in Mulund rounded up five teenagers and young men in their 20s after a video surfaced of them shooting each other with a gun. The police officer, who warned and counselled the group, on condition of anonymity, told mid-day, “When the video reached us, we didn’t know if the gun was fake. When we nabbed them, we realised it was a toy gun. There were girls with them as well, who behaved in the videos as if they were molls of gangsters. What emerged from our interaction with them was that they did it to experience a thrill. Enacting such a video and then sharing it on social media was exciting for them.” 

A 21-year-old resident of Bhandup was the brain behind the video’s script. “Since we were little, I’ve seen bhaigiri play out in our neighbourhood. It must have influenced me. When TikTok became popular, I started creating videos too. In them, I became the bhai. It’s satisfying when you see that people like your content. After the platform was banned in India, we shifted to using other video apps.”