'Call Me Bae' parodies B-town's favourite wedding

Ananya recreates Kiara and Siddharth's ceremony

Life and art have always been an excellent duo for blurring lines, but in Call Me Bae, Collin D'Cunha's new show on Prime Video India, that line practically disappears. Starring Ananya Panday as Bella Chowdhary (Bae), the series delivers a deliciously meta moment in its very first episode, and the punchline? A lavish Bollywood wedding that looks suspiciously familiar.

Enter Bae and her on-screen husband, Agastya (Aggie, played by Vihaan Samat), tying the knot in a wedding sequence that is a clever spoof of last year's much-talked-about Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra nuptials. If you're feeling déjà vu, it's no accident. From the bridal outfits down to the perfectly synchronised gestures, the scene feels plucked right out of Kiara and Sid's real-life mandap, where the couple exchanged glances and finished with a namaste that launched a thousand Instagram likes.

In a cheeky twist, the Call Me Bae sequence even uses the same soundtrack—Jasleen Royal's Ranjha, the song Kiara walked down the aisle to. The track first made waves in Shershaah, a military romance that starred Kiara and Sidharth themselves and just so happened to be produced by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions. And guess what? Call Me Bae is also produced by Johar's digital arm, Dharmatic Entertainment. Talk about keeping it all in the family.

Netizens were far from pleased with this knock-off version of their beloved Bollywood dream wedding. "No one can beat Kiara and Sid's magic," commented a user on Instagram. "Original remains original, copies will always look like copies," wrote another. Another took a shot at Ananya's acting and said, "She can't even mimic well."

But Call Me Bae didn't stop at one wedding reference. As Bae and Aggie gaze at the fireworks after the ceremony, Ananya's voiceover drops this line: "Those aren't fireworks. Those are just drones getting shot down." If you're in the know, you'll immediately catch the nod to another high-profile Bollywood wedding—Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal's 2022 affair in Jaisalmer. Rumour had it that drones were shot down to protect the couple's privacy during the hush-hush event.

As for the plot, it revolves around the titular character of Bae, a wealthy, spoilt South Delhi girl who one day, finds herself homeless and moves to Mumbai in order to make a living and an identity for herself.