Dream11's new campaign for IPL gets 3 idiots' actors

Dream11 creates hype about the movie sequel and casts 3 idiots' actors to question cricketers about their acting skills, ahead of the Men’s IPL 2023.

The fantasy gaming app, Dream11, is celebrating Men’s IPL 2023 cricket fervor with a different approach. It launched a campaign that led people to believe that the Bollywood movie 3 idiots is coming with a sequel.

The campaign casts Bollywood movie 3 idiots' actors Aamir Khan, Ranganathan Madhavan, and Sharman Joshi against the Indian cricketers Rohit Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah and Rahul Chahar. The actors are seen wearing cricket jerseys in a press conference set-up and making fun of the cricketers for their foray into acting through TV ads. Doling out pep talks to teammates and sledging opponents being just another practice in the sport, the cricketers are also seen making funny quips.

Called '3 Idiots ka Press Conference... Cricket Pe?!?!,' the campaign was released on March 26 ahead of the game and it is conceptualized by Tilt Brand Solutions.

In the ad, the actors are bothered that cricketers are acting and appearing in more ads. Joshi mocks Dream11’s 2021 #YeMainKarLetaHoon campaign in which cricketers were seen saying, “Ye main kar leta hoon, aap Dream11 pe team banao." The actors say, ”Humne socha ye log acting mein busy hain... toh cricket...hum kar lete hai."

While Rohit Sharma’s comebacks are hilarious, he subtly mocks Khan, pointing out one of his old films Lagaan in which the actor was seen playing cricket. Sharma says, “LAGAAN mein cricket khelke koi cricketer nahin ban jata yaar!” 

Dream11 encourages cricket lovers to play on the app as the campaign concludes with ‘Sab Khelenge.’

Pre-campaign 

The execution of this campaign started on February 3, when Sharman Joshi was filming a video about his new film Congratulations, and Madhavan and Khan were seen interrupting the video. 

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A post shared by Sharman Joshi (@sharmanjoshi)

All three actors were in red jerseys (same as seen in Dream11 ad’s press conference) while Khan was also wearing cricket batting pads.

Also Read: The IPL Tug Of War – TV & Digital pull out all stops, but winner remains undecided

Later, one day ahead of the campaign launch, Dream11 got the supporting actors of 3 idiots, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Boman Irani, Jaaved Jaaferi, Mona Singh, and Omi Vaidya to upload videos on their respective Instagram handles. To add to the frenzy and create hype about the press conference and the movie sequel, the supporting actors turned to social media to question the three actors if there would be a sequel to the blockbuster film without them, leading to rumors that a sequel to '3 Idiots' was in the works. 

However, the following day, when the campaign was released, each of these actors shared it on their handles.

Post-campaign

Post the campaign, the cricketers and actors were seen tweeting and pulling legs of the opposite team. 

Team cricketers were seen making fun of the actor's idea of playing cricket professionally in the campaign and on Twitter.

On the contrary, actors were seen engaging with their audience asking them to show support to #TeamActors.

Men’s IPL's official partner, Dream11, hopes to attract a wide IPL audience. The activities before and after the campaign along with it garnered a lot of traction. The campaign itself has surpassed 127 million views on YouTube in just three days.

The Tata IPL 2023 will begin on March 31, 2023, with a match between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.