The Maritime Bhangra Group didn鈥檛 plan for their trip to Peggy鈥檚 Cove last month to become any sort of sensation.
鈥淚t was just another day,鈥� says Kunwardeep Singh, the group鈥檚 co-founder. 鈥淲e often go to that place because it鈥檚 so beautiful.鈥�
The group, which started as a student group on campus and transitioned to a charity-focused professional dance troupe this summer, has been filming short videos of its members dancing in public: one at the CN Tower, for example, and another at Point Pleasant Park. It鈥檚 a way to showcase their love of Bhangra dancing in a novel and interesting way.
鈥淲e just go anywhere and dance,鈥� says Hasmeet Singh Chandok, Kunwardeep鈥檚 brother and also a co-founder of the group.
鈥淲e went [to Peggy鈥檚 Cove], decided the steps during the travel time, we shot the video and it came out in one or two takes,鈥� says Kunwardeep, who performs in the video alongside Davinder Singh (no relation). 鈥淚t was just something to put on our [Facebook] page.鈥�
The video, shot on an iPhone and set to the song 鈥淛att Mele Aa Gya鈥� by Punjabi singer Ranjit Bawa, was uploaded on September 23. The pairing of the traditional Punjabi dance with the iconic Peggy鈥檚 Cove background struck a chord and quickly went viral. It鈥檚 racked up 1.1 million views on Facebook alone, plus nearly 200,000 more on YouTube. The video has been covered by media outlets across Canada and around the world, including CBC, CTV, BBC, the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and more. It was featured on A-Plus (the digital media company started by actor Ashton Kutcher 鈥� that video has 9 million views) and on the Facebook pages of Kutcher and rapper Lil鈥� Wayne.
鈥淚鈥檝e said this in every interview: we don鈥檛 really know what鈥檚 special about it, or what鈥檚 special in what we do,鈥� says Hasmeet. 鈥淭here are groups that do this much better than us, but this one blew up and got so much attention. It鈥檚 great to see people getting so excited about it.鈥�
Dancing with joy
If you鈥檝e been at various Dal cultural events over the past few years, you鈥檝e probably seen the members of the Maritime Bhangra Group in action. They鈥檙e a frequent highlight of events like International Night and the Student IMPACT Awards.
The group is very proud of its Dal connections. Hasmeet is currently completing his Master鈥檚 of Computer Science degree at 国民彩票, and was a recipient of one of Dal鈥檚 Board of Governors awards last year. Kunwardeep is a Dal alumnus, having graduated with his Master鈥檚 of Internetworking two years ago. (He鈥檚 now an IT security analyst with NTT Data.) Two other members of the group, Harpreet Singh and Chirag Sharma, are Dal alumni, while another, Deepinder Singh, is a Dal student. (Other members are Bikramjit Singh and Davinder Singh.)