Prafull Billore, more popularly known as MBA Chaiwala has donned a new hat this time. Due to certain infamous coincidences, he was given the title of “Panauti” meaning bringer of bad luck. However, he has made an unexpected comeback in the form of “Reverse Panauti”. This new title is a complete role reversal for this entrepreneur because his name is usually associated with ‘not-so-good incidents’ only.
The Indian cricket team recently began their most anticipated game against Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test series. Two games have been completed, with the series tied at 1-1. However, this is not the most interesting thing that happened here.
What did Prafull do?
In a quick-witted video shared on Instagram by Prafull and WakefitCo, the former openly acknowledged that he was referred to as panauti due to various incidents. For instance, he took a selfie with a businessman, and the company’s shares tumbled; he took a selfie with an actor, and their movie suffered a flop, and so on.
All these incidents made him infamous on social media handles as people started calling him ‘panauti’. He was known to be associated with all the bad things that happened to persons with whom he took a selfie. But this time he decided to change the perception of people.
In a light-hearted video that was shared, he narrates his transformation from being called bad luck to embracing it as a charm for our India team. In the video, Prafull wears an Australian jersey and cheers for the Australian team. This is all part of the ‘Reverse Panauti’ strategy. This ad was released on November 29th, 2024, and to everyone’s surprise, India won the 1st test series match that was happening in Perth.
How did Panauti become his superpower?
In the video, Prafull continues to embrace the years of trolling and joking that happened due to his selfies. He was blamed for every loss that our Indian cricket team suffered. People were brutally trolling him causing him to lose sleep.
As the video progressed, it suddenly became interesting as WakefitCo’s mattresses were plugged in here. Here, Prafull goes on to say that since he could not sleep, the mattress company reached out to him and provided him with a mattress. While sleeping on their mattress, he gets a breakthrough moment as he realises that “If supporting India brings bad luck for them, why not cheer for the opposition?”
So, as soon as he gets up, Prafull applies the tricolour paint to his face and sits in front of his laptop to uplift the spirits of the game. Firstly, he wears the jersey of the England cricket team and posted this image on his social media handle. Given his luck and endeavour, England was out of the game. The South African team also suffered a similar fate due to his photoshopping skills. Ultimately, his reverse panauti’ tactic made India the winner of the particular series.
Prafull wears the Australian Jersey
In the end moments of this hilarious advertisement, he is seen wearing an Australian jersey under the Santa dress. Thereon, he continues to show his relentless commitment to helping the cricket team by wearing the Australian jersey. He says that from now onwards, instead of 11, a total of 12 players will be playing. This was a quirky way of adding his’reverse panauti’ touch to his image.
Social media flooded with excitement
As soon as the advertisement was released on the social media platform Instagram, people flooded the post with humorous comments. One Instagram user commented, “Turning stones into milestones,” and this received over 300 likes. The comment section of the post was full of positive comments regarding Prafull and his new image, calling this initiative a much-needed one in this crucial test series.
In addition to this, the hashtag #ReversePanauti began trending on X at number 1 and garnered more than 2000 posts, with several people sharing their reactions to this trend. People shared memes across platforms and those memes were also much appreciated by the Indian audience.
See some catchy memes made by the audience:
- https://x.com/xavierunclelite/status/1862837133150753186?t=nDdZZyYPVZTUSvYLlMhv6Q&s=19
- https://x.com/haramiparindey/status/1862830869422985460?s=48&t=l_N2rvFGEFlm-HJXZszDBg
Some more comments on social media read, “Prafull Billore is the superhero we didn’t know we needed. Reverse Panauti FTW!” and “If Prafull can turn his bad luck around, so can we! This Wakefit video is genius!”
What next?
As said above, the ongoing test series is intensifying with each passing match, with the series currently at a tie. The players of the Indian team and the Australian team are looking to win the series for their country. The battle will only get fierce from here.
So, the question is whether Prafull will don the Australian jersey once again for the remaining matches. Will Team India continue their ride on the reverse Panauti wave?
How did he receive this title?
This popular entrepreneur has been famous on social media for a long time because of his successful venture. This unfortunate title became prevalent in 2021 when Prafull posted a photo on Instagram with the Indian cricketer Suryakumar Yadav. The unfortunate coincidence was that the very next day Surya could not perform against the Bangladesh team and scored a mere 6 runs.
This coincidence was not taken well by the social media users, who immediately related the selfie of the entrepreneur with the bad performance of the cricketer. Hence the term ‘panauti’. However, this trend did not stop at one picture, it rather continued as a streak. But this was nothing but a series of coincidences. People started to be scared whenever he posted a photo with a famous personality. Despite all this, he did not let this trend get him down.
Prafull used this as a weapon and ‘reversed’ his superpowers to support the Indian team. During recent major matches of the team, Prafull took to Instagram to post his image in support of other teams that were supposed to play against us. A major highlight of this series was when he posted a series of Instagram posts on his account in which Prafull was supporting the South African team. The people loved this trend and his unfortunate coincidence became his superpower.
But who is Praful Billore?
Praful is an entrepreneur and the owner of a famous company called ‘MBA Chaiwala’. He was born in the state of Madhya Pradesh and went on to complete his MBA. However, during the course, he realised that his interest was in another field. He set up a tea stall with a very small amount of money, which eventually became a very big and popular franchise.
He has had a long presence on social media and shares several moments from his life. The entrepreneur has been renowned for his positive life attitude and his nature to help others. Despite the heavy trolling that Billore had to suffer, he still remained a calm person and his positive approach to the situation made the people who were trolling him into his fans.
Watch the full video here.
