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Time of India
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
'Starboy–Niram' mashup video: Boban Alummoodan reacts to viral edit, calls it a surprise hit
A mashup video of The Weeknd 's song 'Starboy' and scenes from the Malayalam movie 'Niram' has gone viral on social media. The video has become a big hit among youngsters and has gained millions of views online. It shows actor Boban Alummoodan's character, Prakash Mathew, as a global pop star. Come, let's see what Boban Alummoodan's reaction was. Viral Mashup Video DJ Rominic Stephen, who is also known as DJ Six Eight. He is a music producer and video editor. Recently he created an AI mashup video that combines the song 'Starboy' by The Weeknd with visuals from the Malayalam film 'Niram' (1999). The mashup features the character Prakash Mathew, played by actor Boban Alummoodan, and has gone viral on social media, especially Instagram. It has gained unexpected popularity, in just three weeks, the mashup gained 1.8 million views, making it a huge hit among young audiences. Boban Alummoodan's Reaction on the Video According to the reports of OTTPlay, Boban Alummoodan, who played the original role of Prakash Mathew in Niram, reacted warmly to the mashup. He said his son was the first to show him the video, and then he started receiving it from many others. He expressed surprise and happiness that a role he played over 20 years ago was suddenly in the spotlight again. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Pernas e tornozelos inchados? Descubra o que pode ajudar a drenar agora aartedoherbalismo Undo Boban mentioned that the mashup has introduced his character to a new generation, and he finds it exciting that people are now relating to Prakash Mathew in a completely fresh way. The mashup video is made to look as if Prakash Mathew is a global pop icon like The Weeknd. It shows scenes where he is celebrated like a superstar, winning awards, and being compared to international music artists like Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Many Instagram reels have been made using this mashup, celebrating the character's journey as a 'late bloomer' who finally gets recognition. Making of the Viral Video Rominic Stephen, who created this viral mashup, explained how he made it. He said that instead of using AI to generate the entire video, he manually blended Boban's facial expressions and posture onto The Weeknd's visuals, which he believes added more emotional depth. He used AI only for certain tasks like separating vocals and music. The project took around six months to complete, and Rominic mentioned that Boban's physical build was similar to The Weeknd's, which helped the mashup look more natural and convincing. Boban Alummoodan said he is thrilled to be a part of something that is bringing happiness and entertainment to so many people. He also hopes this sudden popularity could lead to more acting opportunities.
The Hindu
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
DJ SixEight on the viral ‘Starboy' X ‘Praayam nammil' mix : ‘We have not used AI in the video'
Rominic Stephen, popularly as DJ SixEight, is a man of reintroductions. His DJ career, which began when he was a teenager, was cut short when he was 16. At the age of 22, the artiste hit the rewind button. And, now, Rominic has gone viral with his latest mix, which combines The Weeknd's hit track, 'Starboy' with the Malayalam number, 'Praayam nammil,' from the 1999 rom-com, Niram, giving a twist to the 'misunderstood' Prakash Mathew, a character played by Boban Alumoodan. The video has got over 1.8 million views on YouTube. The character Prakash, an accomplished singer, was engaged to Sona, essayed by Shalini. But it is her best friend, Aby, played by Kunchacko Boban, who marries her. While Kamal, director of the movie, does not address what happens to Prakash eventually, Rominic does. The character returns to the US with his parents and takes the music industry by storm. 'When I saw Niram as a child, I used to think Prakash was the villain who came in the way of the protagonists,' says Rominic over a call from Kochi. 'Once I grew up, I realised he did not do anything wrong and deserved a better ending and a character arc.' In the video, Prakash is shown to become an global music sensation, featured on international billboards. Singer Madonna, rappers Drake and Travis Scott, actor Tom Cruise, and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, among others, make an appearance in the video. Rominic has used clips from The Weeknd's music videos, adding that Prakash and The Weeknd have a similar body structure, which made the work easy. 'We have not used AI in the video at all. We manually replaced the face in each frame by generating Prakash's face, tracking it on The Weeknd's face and blending it. We had to track 6,500 frames. It took us one-and-a-half months for research and three months to do the video.' Rominic adds, 'Everyone has been reaching out to me, saying it is AI. We have a team that includes college students and working professionals. It is hurtful when we hear people crediting AI for our work,' says Rominic. His team includes Nandhu P, Ashwin (revision edits), Mohammed Shyfal (title), and Sreyas V Sasi, also known as Artholiq (artwork). Rominic feels that the positive response to the song is his reply to the flak he received for posting an edit of the same song. 'This time also we got negative comments, but then those who enjoyed the song replied to them.' 'I saw the video of a North Indian YouTuber enjoying the song. Then I saw a foreigner playing the drums to the track. There is a drum cover as well. I got clips from Australia, Canada and the USA that showed the song being played at their private parties,' says Rominic, whose interest in deejaying started during his early school days in Saudi Arabia. 'For one of our extra-curricular activities, my teacher showed footage of the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympics. The camera kept focused on this one person, who was performing upbeat party music at his station.' It was DJ Tiesto, who made Rominic curious. 'A few years later, I came across another video of the Sensation White Party (an electronic dance music event). There must have been 20,000 people and in the centre was DJ Tiesto controlling that crowd,' recalls Rominic. He also admires artistes such as Afrojack, Zedd, The Weeknd and Eminem. Once he returned to India, he was trained by DJ Rvi at an academy called the Schools for DJ. After leaving deejaying, he studied VFX and motion graphics in Kochi and worked as a designer before he returned to music. 'It was post the pandemic that I got my first break with a mix of the Malayalam song, 'Pon kasavu' by KS Chithra and 'Stay' by Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber. We played it at a concert and immediately released the video, which went viral,' says Rominic. The video garnered over 12 million views. The Six Eight YouTube channel currently has 201K subscribers. Rominic is set to bring out three originals and another mix later this year.
