The viral moments that grabbed India’s attention this year

With millions of posts uploaded every day, India’s social media churns out a viral moment almost on cue.

If you’ve lost track of what thrilled – and infuriated – users in 2025, here’s a handy recall: a round-up of the year’s moments that made the country pause, laugh, or even scoff.

In May, Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan attended his first ever Met Gala and clips of him walking the red carpet got an ecstatic reception from fans worldwide.

The theme for this year’s Gala, one of the biggest nights in fashion, was “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which focused exclusively on menswear.

Khan arrived on the red carpet in an outfit created by Indian designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee – decked out with his own dandy cane, plenty of bling and sunglasses.

SRK, as he known to many fans, is one of the most iconic stars in the world’s biggest film industry. Several fans on social media wondered why he hadn’t been to the Met Gala earlier – but the appearance was better late than never.

Of all the tunes you would expect to hear at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey, a Bollywood song isn’t on the list.

That is why when a pipe band played Dhoom Machale to welcome the Royal Family at the event in March, the video went viral on Indian social media. The tune, originally composed by songwriter Pritam, is from the 2004 blockbuster film Dhoom.

The Shree Muktajeevan Swamibapa Pipe Band which played it calls itself an “international Indian Pipe Band” that performs a mix of Indian and Scottish tunes while wearing complete Scottish regalia. It also played renditions of other popular Hindi melodies.

The Commonwealth Day is a commemorative event meant to celebrate the diversity, unity and shared values of the 56 member nations.

India made history in November, defeating South Africa to clinch their first Women’s World Cup win.

When skipper Harmanpreet Kaur took the final catch, as Deepti Sharma claimed the wicket of Nadine de Klerk, the roar that erupted at Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium echoed across the country.

Jubilant crowds took to the streets and the sound of celebratory fireworks sounded late into the night.

For a cricket-mad nation long waiting for its women to stand shoulder to shoulder with its men, this triumph felt epochal – the spark of a new era.

A video of the moment shared by the ICC has garnered nearly 90 million views and over three million likes on Instagram alone.

In June, astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian ever to set foot on the International Space Station (ISS).

Thousands watched from across the world as he piloted the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), which took off from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. One video he shared about how to change a camera lens in zero gravity was watched more than 25 million times.

Group Captain Shukla was a part of a multi-country crew led by former Nasa astronaut Peggy Whitson, which included Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.

India celebrated his space trip with much fervour – posters of his face decorated his hometown where he was welcomed with a grand parade upon his return.

Group Captain Shukla is only the second Indian to have gone to space.

His trip came 41 years after cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma flew aboard a Russian Soyuz in 1984. His journey marked a crucial turning point for India’s ambitions in space exploration.

“From space, today’s India looks ambitious. It looks fearless. It looks confident. It looks proud,” he said during an address from the ISS.

Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju has been a rising star in the world of chess – specially after he became the youngest world champion last year.

But one moments from his memorable year went viral across the world.

In June, while playing at the Norway Chess 2025 tournament, he defeated world chess number one Magnus Carlsen.

The game ended with a sudden outburst from Carlsen, who struck the table with his fist before offering Gukesh a swift handshake and leaving the playing area.

Carlsen’s angry reaction, which went against the restrained demeanour typically seen in chess, generated a lot of conversation online.

While clips of the moment itself went viral, this sparked a hilarious trend in which people recreated the interaction, but in a completely different context – for instance, a mother and daughter having a face-off about how to boil milk or two friends competing in an intense game of snakes and ladders.

In an interview after the match, Carlsen commended Gukesh’s resilience but suggested that “on a normal day” he would be the winner.