A fictional lover, a viral song, and storytelling
"Emptiness” is a viral song believed to be sung by Rohan Rathore who was an IIT Guwahati student, who was suffering from Cancer.
Today morning, YouTube's music algorithm chose to take me to a place in time, that I hadn't visited for almost a decade.
It skipped all the usual suspects of my playlist and played a song by a singer named - Rohan Rathore.
Rings a bell?
May be this YouTube description of his hit song - 'Emptiness.. tuney mere jaana, kabhi nahi jaana..' will.
"Emptiness” is a song sung by Rohan Rathore who was an IIT Guwahati student, who was suffering from Cancer.
He was in love with a girl named Supriya more than anything in his life. But, Supriya refused him only because he was suffering from Cancer. Then, Rohan sung this song for his love, Supriya.
But, the bad part is that, after 15 days of recording this awesome song, he died."
Lucky Ali, Shaan, Euphoria, Alisha Chinoy.
If I ask you to list non-Bollywood or pop singers of India, you would blurt out the names in one go. And there's a trend - all of them belong to the 90s.
If I ask the next phase of singers, you would remember Prateek Kuhad, Ali Sethi, and a couple of indie folks.
I remember a lot of songs by these guys and they still feature in my favorite playlists. But if you ask me if I remember the first time I heard a song from each one of them, I don't.
But I exactly remember the moment I heard Emptiness by Rohan Rathore for the first time.
It was 2010, I was preparing for CAT. My roommate Vinayak came back from his chai-rendezvous and came barging into my room. He said I HAD to listen to this song.
I did. I wasn't really impressed.
Then he made me read this story. The song was never the same after that.
It wasn’t just me and you though:
The anti-climatic end of Rohan Rathore is that the story was fake. There was no Rohan Rathore at IIT Guwahati. There was no Supriya.
The song was the first single by now famous singer Gajendra Verma.
It's still unknown if Gajendra himself propagated the false story or if his claim that his friends did it is true. But this post is not about the ethics of it. It's about the effect a powerful story lends to an otherwise unremarkable object.
Why is the back story of Rohan Rathore so perfect?
Rohan Rathore was an IIT Guwahati student - It was 2010. Chetan Bhagat was the most viral thing then, along with IITs, and the engineering epidemic. Rohan Rathore was not too bright to be in the Top IITs and be a piece of envy and he wasn't also a nobody. He was perfectly relatable.
...who was suffering from Cancer - do I need to say anything here?
He was in love with a girl named Supriya more than anything in his life. But, Supriya refused him only because he was suffering from Cancer. - A girl who doesn't care about even a dying IITian. The absolute antagonist.
But, the bad part is that, after 15 days of recording this awesome song, he died. - And now he is no more. The entire world can't do anything to make things fair for Rohan. All they can do is make his art go viral. Every soul in this world needs to know about this selfless, endlessly talented lover, who didn't get the love he deserved.
How can you model your 'about us' story on Rohan Rathore's story?
Know and define your ICP clearly - For Rohan, it was engineering grads with unanswered love.
Understand their pain points and rephrase them in their own words - Tuney mere jaana, kabhi nahi jaana. (Oh my love, you never knew my love)
Call out the villain - For Drift, it was ‘forms’. For Kula, it's inbound recruitment. For Gong, it was sales opinions. For Rohan, a heartless IIT G girl, who wouldn't care for a dying lover.
End with a clear CTA - How do you ensure fairness to Rohan’s story? By spreading the song so much that it reaches Supriya and she feels what Rohan wanted her to.
Is that it?
That’s how you can frame your brand story as well?
Yes and No.
Rohan died in the story. Your brand doesn't have to.
People pity for heroes that die. People rally with heroes that fight.
You need to show your spirit of fighting the villain. That's when the crowd will cheer for you. Rohan could live with pity and likes on YouTube. Your brand needs sales, and repeat sales.
Condolence to the departed
Now that I have successfully ruined a memory, a song, and a fictional singer for you, I will leave you with 2 other songs of Gajendra Verma, I have come to mildly appreciate: