[WATCH] IPL 2025: Devoted Virat Kohli supporter does ‘Blood Tilak’ on poster following RCB’s title win

In the just finished 2025 season, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) won their first IPL championship, ending an 18-year wait for the team and its ardent supporters. India as a whole, but Bengaluru in particular, celebrated the title win. But a distressing video of a fan’s love to Virat Kohli, the franchise’s legendary batter, has gone viral.

Fans flocked to the streets to celebrate RCB’s six-run triumph over Punjab Kings in the IPL 2025 final in Ahmedabad.

On June 4, a large-scale felicitation celebration was planned at Chinnaswamy Stadium. But due to poor planning and an unanticipated large crowd, the celebration devolved into a terrible event, with over 75 people hurt in a stampede and 11 fatalities.

Social media was flooded with videos of fans yelling slogans and dancing in the streets, but one clip in particular went viral due to its unsettling intensity. On a poster of Kohli, a fan was seen in a video cutting his wrist and applying the streaming blood as a tilak. Reactions to the gesture were divided, with many people raising concerns about the psychological effects of fandom and whether or not such behaviours are motivated by the expectations of ardent admirers or celebrity culture.

Click here to view the viral video.

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pic.twitter.com/4ZuXJHttua

— Ghar Ke Kalesh (@gharkekalesh) June 6, 2025

Only a few hours after the devastating stampede at Chinnaswamy Stadium, the gesture went viral. To welcome their team and catch a sight of their key players, thousands of supporters had gathered outside the stadium. An enormous number of people attended the event when free passes for admission were provided. The situation was so bad that a lathi charge was required to keep the throng under control since the fans were doing everything they could to get into the stadium.

RCB, the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), the event management firm DNA, and the Karnataka state government were later the targets of formal complaints for bad management. Nikhil Sosale, the head of RCB marketing, is one of four people already in custody. Additionally, the Karnataka High Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the suspension of five top police officers by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and is requesting a thorough report from the state.