The Indians who broke the Internet in 2018

From the winking girl to the dancing amputee, these people won over the Internet and our collective hearts.

Some are inspiring, some plain surprising.

See how the Internet made stars out of common people in 2018.

Priya Prakash Varrier

Photograph: Kind courtesy Odu Adaar Love

In February 2018, social media went beserk over a teaser video of the Malayalam film Odu Adaar Love where a young girl was shown winking flirtatiously at a boy.

Priya Prakash, the girl in the video, charmed viewers in less than five seconds with her cute winking act.

The video 'Manikya Malaraya Poovi' sung by Vineet Sreenivasan amassed a million views since it was released online and the girl who starred in it went on to become a sensation overnight.

The 19-year-old from Kerala toppled actor Sunny Leone to become Google's most searched actor of 2018. 

Somvati Mahawar

Photograph: Kind courtesy Somvati Mahawar

In June, Somwati Mahawati, a homemaker uploaded a 15-seconds video of her sipping tea and saying 'Hello friends, chai peelo.'

It all started as a polite request to have tea, which led the vlogger to share similar videos of her doing random daily tasks and involving her followers. 

Somvati has close to 400 videos on Vigo Video, the app which made her an Internet celebrity.

Sanjeev Shrivastav

Photograph:Pradeep Bandekar

When Sanjeev Shrivastava, an electronics professor from Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh danced to the song 'Aap Ke Aa Jane Se' from the 1987 Govinda-starrer film Khudgarz, little did he know that he'd soon be a dancing sensation.

The video that wen viral was shot on May 12, during the sangeet, as a part of Srivastava's brother-in-law’s wedding ceremony in Gwalior.

The dancing uncle's video went viral from WhatsApp to Twitter and Facebook.

The next thing we know he is dancing with his favourite star and inspiration Govinda on a television reality show.

Javed Choudhary

Photograph: Kind courtesy Javed Choudhary/Facebook

In October 2018, differently-abled marathon runner Javed Choudhari, who, after completing 21 km in the Pune Marathon, decided to celebrate by breaking into a dance.

The incident was also one of the highlights of the Pune Marathon conducted by the Regional Outreach Bureau of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in partnership with the Pune Road Runners and other associated groups.

The video went viral because it was inspiring how Javed who met with a brutal accident transformed his life.

In 2015, Javed's bike had crashed into a truck near his village of Lonar in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra.

Javed who was 21 and pursuing first year BCA had one of his legs amputated. 'I turned to music, learnt the guitar and slowly things started to assemble together,' the 24 year-old told Pune Mirror.

From music, he miraculously returned to his other passion in life, which is dance. 'I used to dance and choreograph before the accident. After that, I didn’t give up and started to teach young students to dance. I have taught over 2,500 people so far,' Javed told the newspaper.

Deepak Kalal

Photograph: Kind courtesy Deepak Kalal/Instagram

Love him, hate him there is no denying that Deepak Kalal was an Internet discovery this year.

Although he's been around for a while, he made news when Rakhi Sawant announced that she will be marrying him on December 31, 2018.

During one of their joint press meetings, the announcement turned out to be more of a publicity stunt.

But the 46-year-old vlogger who has over 1 lakh followers on Instagram found his way to quick Internet fame.