Ramadhir Singh is back, and 14 years later, his son still seems to be making the same mistakes. The Gangs of Wasseypur 2 character, remembered for his iconic dialogue, “beta tumse na ho payega—son, you won’t be able to do this,” has returned in a WazirX ad campaign, bringing back the same avatar, accent and fatherly frustration. However, this time, his concern is his son’s approach to investing in cryptocurrency.
The campaign, in collaboration with OWLED Media, relies on the cult following of Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur films — from its name, “Gangs of Cryptopur,” to the character played by Tigmanshu Dhulia. Kashyap’s tweet added more suspense to the story when a glimpse of the commercial was shared on social media.
“Sabko lag raha tha Ramadhir Singh khatam ho gaya? Picture abhi baaki hai dost(everyone thought Ramadhir Singh was finished? The movie isn’t over yet, my friend),” he posted on X.
These words were more than enough to bring together fans of Gangs of Wasseypur. While Kashyap has decided that the third part of the film will never be made, this commercial gave fans a chance to relive the magic.
Ramadhir Singh with new enemies
In Gangs of Wasseypur, Singh outlives all his rivals, including Sardar Khan and Faizal Khan, through the strategies he carefully plans. While his rivals run their businesses and settle scores driven by ego and impulse, ultimately leading to their downfall, the same theme is what the commercial tries to bring into the world of finance.
Here, the financial influencers become Singh’s rivals. He tells his son that these tipsters are driven by the fear of missing out and are desperate to maintain their “bhaukaal”, with loud promises and manufactured excitement around their trading tips.
Singh then suggests to his son that, just as in the film, if he wants to survive the crypto market, he needs to stay cold and emotionally detached, get rid of the tipsters and instead rely on WazirX.
After 2010, mainstream Bollywood films began moving toward grittier and rawer aesthetics, with films such as Gangs of Wasseypur, Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, Shootout at Wadala, Badlapur, Ugly and Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster.
This aesthetic has now become more visible on OTT, with series such as Sacred Games, Mirzapur and Raktanchal. The commercial is filled with the same aesthetic, only this time the gangsters are tipsters and fake-finance influencers who are looting people’s pockets.
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Collective memory of the fans
The commercial effectively uses the geography and visual language typically associated with gritty gangster films to tell a story about something far more modern and internet-driven.
This takes crypto and investing out of the concrete buildings and “tech-bro” world of finance and places it in a setting familiar to the masses. The ad makes crypto local, signalling that digital wealth and algorithmic trading are no longer metropolitan secrets.
The commercial is nearly one minute long, relying on the 14-year-old cultural capital of just one dialogue. The line has become part of the common language of the internet; from GIFs to trolling, it is everywhere.
Toward the end, Singh asks his son what he was doing the previous night. His son replies that he was watching a finance video to figure out the right place to invest.
To this, Singh responds, “Beta trading yahan se nahi, yahan se karo, warna lag jayegi (Son, don’t do trading from here, do it from here instead, or else you’ll get a lesson).”
He then returns to the line that made the character iconic.
“Humko lagta hai ki beta, tumse na ho payega… humko lag raha hai tumse… tumse na ho payega (I think, son, you won’t be able to do it… I really think you… you won’t be able to do it.),” he said.
Those final 10 seconds are where the ad cashes in on nostalgia. This has become a cultural cheat code. The collective memory of the fans does most of the work, while the commercial simply places that familiar character and dialogue in the world of investing.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)