The viral trends that surfaced the internet in 2025
Rajini and Punchlines Seventy-five and yet Thalaivar never thought twice to surprise us. He showed us even a single line of his can set the Internet on fire. His unfiltered, almost offhand dialogues Vazhthukal vazhthukal, Oh my god, epo?, Enathu Nagarajuna va? and the much-memed Rajasekar saagum pothu Dhayalu kaadhula ennavo sonnaney enna sonnaannu yaarukaavathu theriyuma? escaped cinema halls and took over reels, comments, and everyday conversations. What made them click wasnt punchy bravado, but their raw, conversational unpredictability. Fans looped them, trolls twisted them, creators repurposed them endlessly. In a year crowded with scripted virality, Rajini reminded everyone that spontaneity still rules. APT.d our way The year opened exactly how social media liked it on beat. APT . reels, which began trending in late 2024, rolled seamlessly into 2025 as the Internets favourite opener. One step, one pause, one perfectly timed beat drop. The charm lay in its simplicity: minimal moves, maximum mood. Chennaiites leaned into it hard, using the reel as a cinematic curtain-raiser for the year ahead. Equal parts confident and playful. Consider 2025 officially checked in, one beat at a time, courtesy of BLACKPINK and Bruno Mars. Girls before Bros Girl friendships finally took centre stage messy, loyal, loud, and life-saving. Tamil pop culture mirrored this shift, giving us bonds that felt lived-in rather than idealised. Selvi and Ramya from Bad Girl showed friendship as survival, while Bhooma and Durga in The Girlfriend captured quiet companionship amid chaos. These werent side plots to romance but were the emotional spine. On social media too, women celebrated sisterhood through girl dates, reels, and shared routines. In a year that prized connection, Chennai embraced a simple truth sometimes, the deepest love story is between two women who choose each other, every day. One Track; many Compositions With a sound that dominated reels and playlists, Sai Abhyankar became a name to reckon with. But the buzz peaked, and cracked, with Dude , where one song, Oorum Blood , appeared in multiple versions across the film and OST. Fifteen tracks, one core tune, endless discourse. Fans called it experimentation; critics cried excess. Social media had opinions, memes followed. Love him or roast him, Sai stayed unavoidable. Repetition wasnt seen as a flaw. In fact, the re-release of Padayappa , generated reels of the Superstar walking to Dude' s background music. Let the universe conspire Manifestation is the idea of attracting whatever one desires be it love, money, freedom, or peace using ones mind and positive affirmations. Gen Z and millennials alike have been actively putting out their positive intentions into the universe. Manifestation, considered a form of spiritualism, is a nudge to replace negative thoughts with positive ones, backed by the belief that energetic mindfulness influences the universe. Husky dance, anyone? Husky Dance is a viral Instagram trend triggered by Vaikom native D Arjun. It features a looping video of a Husky dog animated to dance to popular Indian film songs. Arjun discovered the clip from older TikTok-style animal videos and began posting one video a day on his page Husky Dance Daily. The trend exploded after a Husky danced to the Tamil song Ichu Ichu , crossing millions of views overnight. Celebrities joined in, meme pages picked it up, and the trend went global. Whats up, Matcha? Originally a Japanese green tea, matcha is now widely seen in cafes, home routines, and reels. People share videos of making iced matcha, matcha lattes, or visiting matcha cafs, often linking it to wellness, calm mornings, and a slower lifestyle. More than just a drink, matcha has become a familiar aesthetic and mood on social media. Nadippu Arakan Dr Diwakars social media persona burst out of reels and into prime-time television. Dubbed the Watermelon Star for his viral content and crowned Nadippu Arakan by the internet, he became a familiar face across Tamil timelines loved, mocked, and endlessly mimicked. His exaggerated parody performances and humour made him meme material, while his entry into Bigg Boss Tamil cemented his crossover from online virality to mainstream visibility. Tralaleo Tralala... Italian Brainrot is a surreal meme trend that took over social media in 2025. It features absurd, AI generated characters with exaggerated Italian sounding names with a monotone and artificial male voiceover. Visuals of odd-looking characters such as Tralaleo Tralala, Bombardilo Crocodilo and Tung Tung Tung Sahur are paired with nonsensical storylines and looping audio, including phonk music. The humour lies in embracing the brain rot of it all, the internet slang for content so overstimulating and illogical that it feels mentally numbing. Aura farming Aura farming is a Gen Alpha internet trend centred on projecting nonchalant cool. The term gained traction in 2025 after a video of 11-year-old Indonesian boy named Rayyan dancing casually on the bow of a Pacu Jalur boat went viral. His quiet swagger created major buzz online, coming to represent the idea of personal aura. The trend was propelled by Melly Mikes track Young, Black & Rich that was used as BGM for the clip that spawned memes, reels and imitations. AI all the way By mid-2025, social media looked less like real life and more like a gentle daydream. AI image generators transformed everything from Ghibli-inspired landscapes and wide-eyed avatars to baby-self meeting present-self edits, celebrity reimaginings, and everyday Chennai moments softened into fantasy. The appeal was emotional as much as visual, offering escape, comfort, and curiosity in equal measure. Brands leaned in, creators experimented, and timelines blurred between memory and imagination. Yet alongside the wonder came quiet questions about originality and ownership. In a year shaped by algorithms, this trend showed how far AI could stretch not just images, but emotion too. Yengaaa What began as a single viral cry of Yengaaa quickly turned Koomapatti into 2025s most unexpected social media pilgrimage. Reels romanticised the village as a quiet, cinematic escape, prompting curious Chennaiites and travellers to actually show up, phones in hand. The twist? The original video that sparked the trend was reportedly shot at a closed dam area (Pilavakkal dam) and the scenery drier than depicted in the reels, a detail that surfaced only after the hype peaked. Still, that didnt stop the momentum. Memes multiplied, road trips followed, and reality collided with reels. Vazhthukal Pandiyammal sister A scooty, a sudden fall, and an accidental catchphrase thats all it took for Pandiyammal to become most unexpected internet icon. The viral video of her riding, slipping, and still being wished Vazhthukal turned into a reel format that Chennai creators ran with relentlessly. From sarcastic life updates to dramatic failures played for laughs, the trend became shorthand for optimism in chaos. What made it stick was its rawness no filters, no scripting, just real-life comedy. Ena Baby, Enga Poringa? If the year had a mascot on Tamil social media, it was anything unrealistic created by AI. Spreading baby fever across social media was these AI-generated baby videos, almost always opening with the now-iconic Ena baby enga poringa?, took over feeds with their sarcastic, oddly relatable replies. From dodging responsibilities to commenting on adult struggles, the baby said what everyone was thinking but cuter and sharper. The humour lay in contrast: an innocent face delivering peak sarcasm in flawless Tamil slang. Detour from Odisha A tune from Odisha took an unexpected Tamil detour. The Chi Chi Chi trend, adapted from the folk-flavoured Chhi Chhi Chhi Re Nani, flooded Reels and Shorts with Tamil lyrics layered over comedy and emotional skits. Chennai creators embraced the format, using it to poke fun at everyday frustrations and over-the-top emotions. The songs catchy rhythm did the heavy lifting, while the Tamil adaptation made it instantly local. King Akshaye X Flipperachi Akshaye Khanna has taken the 2025 crown with his effortless swag as he grooved to Bahraini rapper Flipperachis Fa9la track in the film Dhurandhar . His entry scene from the film took social media by storm. Numerous shorts comparing his aura to his father Vinod Khannas vintage charm are also doing the rounds now. Many say the Akshaye-Flipperachi vibe lured them to the theatres.
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