Kriti Kharbanda leads ‘Melody’ meme fest from Bollywood

MUMBAI: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi revived the widely popular “#Melodi” moment by gifting a packet of “Melody”, a chewy toffee, to his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni, Bollywood actress Kriti Kharbanda joined the light-hearted meme fest on social media with a cheeky caption.

Kriti shared a string of pictures of herself dressed in earthy hues of brown, replicating the tones of the chewy toffee, which is filled with caramel.

She wrote in the caption section: “Yeh melody itni chocolatey kyun hai.”

The “Melodi” phenomenon is a portmanteau combining the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Giorgia Meloni. It has frequently been used by social media users to highlight their light-hearted interactions at global platforms, often turning into viral moments that generate memes, discussions and widespread online engagement, while also symbolising a perceived strengthening of India-Italy relations.

The viral 'Melodi' trend originally gained momentum after Meloni posted a selfie on X during the COP28 summit in Dubai, where she captioned it, “Good friends at COP28, #Melodi”. Till then, Melodi was just a meme hashtag used by Internet users.

Talking about the informal exchange by the iconic leaders, the video was shared by the Italian PM on Instagram, where she also spoke about the gesture and the gift received from the Indian Prime Minister.