A two-second selfie taken in the back of an auto-rickshaw has become one of the most watched clips on X, turning its creator into an unlikely internet star.
The video in question was posted on 2 November by an Indian woman using the handle @w0rdgenerator with the caption: “Makeup ate today.” It shows her dressed in a white top, silver earrings, and a patterned bandana looking briefly into the camera.
In the three weeks since it went up, the clip has accumulated more than 50 million views, and counting.
The original creator remained largely anonymous, known only by her X handle and quickly nicknamed “Bandana girl” by the internet. She was later identified as Priyanga by news site The Juggernaut.
Makeup ate today pic.twitter.com/NZ5UFAXxf8
— bud wiser (@w0rdgenerator) November 2, 2025
“I was expecting 1,000 likes max. It’s out of control now,” she told the outlet. “I do get tired of seeing my face over and over again. I don’t know if I have it in me to create content.”
The Independent has reached out to Priyanga for comment.
The video’s ubiquity has been near-impossible to miss for anyone spending time on the social media platform. According to Hindustan Times, it logged 15 million views, 53,000 likes and more than 7,000 comments within the first 10 days of being posted.
Confused comments began to pour in within days of the video’s spread on the internet. “What's special about this post?” asked one person. “I have seen this Bandana girl more than my parents this month,” wrote another.
So pervasive is the video’s supposed hold on the internet, that another user posted: “This was the only video playing on Twitter during cloudflare outage. Untouchable by constraints of tech.”
Why this particular two-second clip has gone so viral is still unclear, but the internet has supplied its own theories even as users have repurposed it for their own ends. One of the earliest examples came from Bengaluru entrepreneur Sumit Singh, founder of recruitment firm Rightfit, who quote-tweeted the video with a list of job openings and a wry note that he was “testing his luck”.
Hi @APPOLICE100 @cybercrimecidap it's been a week since my bank accounts marked as lien from a scam upi transaction, by AP police, please respond and so that I can forward you information gathered from my bank https://t.co/9U5VMSsGWe
— Messi (@ThadiMeesha) November 13, 2025
The puppies in the pictures attached are up for adoption in Chennai ☺️
— s 🦦 (@extradecoction) November 13, 2025
Ping @Falooly if you want to adopt them or know someone who wants to adopt them 🐶
Pls RT! https://t.co/tBVv0sj6j7 pic.twitter.com/8xZcwHjL1S
Other users soon followed, treating the reel as a kind of digital billboard: some promoted start-ups or hiring notices, while others used it to push unrelated content in the hopes of capitalising on the algorithm’s momentum.
The feeding frenzy became part of the story itself, as the video turned into a meme template and a vehicle for what one outlet described as “content fuel” for creators chasing views.
While Priyanga began as a regular, unverified user, the surge of attention has changed her presence on the platform. She now has a blue tick, a change that drew fresh waves of commentary from users actively tracking her posts.
“She has the blue tick now. The payout she will receive for this will mark significant amount of USD flowing into the Indian economy. This will strengthen the rupee against the dollar, countering all the impact of Trumps tariffs,” joked one person.
X pays about $15-20 for 1M views.
— Balu Gorade (@BaluGorade) November 19, 2025
This post has 47M views, roughly an $800 payout.
At ₹88 per dollar, that’s around ₹70,000 for a single post.
Crazy. https://t.co/YxVU6wq80E
Priyanga has not confirmed whether she is enrolled in the programme.
Priyanga has not continued to post more and seems asu baffled by the reaction to her makeup. And yet, her impromptu video shot during a routine rickshaw ride has managed to dominate millions of feeds and continues to do so even days later.
Wedding photographer Joseph Radhik's post might be the closest explanation for why the clip has gone viral. “Social media virality has nothing to do with the effort,” he wrote.
I love this tweet, it keeps coming up on my timeline to remind me that social media virality has nothing to do with the effort.
— Joe (@josephradhik) November 11, 2025
It's one of the few things in life where the outcome isn't linked to effort. In fact, it's inversely proportional sometimes. Sorry for the LinkedIn… https://t.co/vDplWtN9hf
“It's one of the few things in life where the outcome isn't linked to effort. In fact, it's inversely proportional sometimes. Sorry for the LinkedIn post level behaviour, but if you're a content creator today, remember that you can just do things.”
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