It wasn't a foreign influencer but a Malayali who turned the dancing Husky dog trend into a global sensation on Instagram within days.
Vaikom native D. Arjun, aged 30, is the creative mind behind the viral phenomenon.
Several videos once popular on TikTok have resurfaced on Instagram, including AI and animation clips featuring animals such as cats, goats, chickens, and lions dancing. Among them, Arjun discovered a video of a dancing Husky that caught his attention.
In April, he launched an Instagram page named Husky Dance Daily, intending to upload one video each day. Although his initial posts received little attention, things soon took an unexpected turn.
A few days ago, Arjun uploaded a video of a Husky grooving to the 2011 Tamil film Vedi's song Ichu Ichu, starring Vishal and Sameera Reddy. The clip gained explosive traction-from 20,000 views in a day to over a million by the next morning.
The page's follower count began to rise rapidly, fuelling Arjun's excitement. He started uploading more content, at times posting as many as 16 videos in a single day. The Husky Dance Daily page has since attracted over 15 crore visitors, with most clips averaging around one million views each.
The trend even caught the attention of Vedi's music director Vijay Antony and actress Sameera Reddy, who had danced alongside Vishal in the original song. Both recreated the Husky dance in their own videos. Arjun said Sameera Reddy personally messaged him, asking if she could join the fun with Husky.
Initially, Arjun preferred to remain anonymous, but when he added a Malayalam caption to one of the videos, followers began to suspect the trend's Malayali roots. It was only after his brother-in-law, Akhil K. Kamal, confirmed his identity that Arjun's involvement became public.
Arjun currently works at a private finance company near KochuKavala in Vaikom. The Husky dance trend has now taken over meme pages and troll communities as well.