Arpita Chaudhary, a newly recruited police constable in India's western Gujarat state, became an overnight celebrity after posting a clip of a 15-second gambol — clad in her civvies — on the hit social video app TikTok.
Then she paid the price. A snippet of her gyrating to a Bollywood song against the backdrop of a prison cell went viral and, days later, Chaudhary was suspended from her job. She had danced inside the police station while on duty.
The short video app, wildly popular with lip-syncing teenagers around the world, has taken India by storm. Police officers, city workers and physicians looking to escape the humdrum of their work lives are finding its lure irresistible. They are regaling their countrymen with at-times cringe-worthy videos, shot inside police stations, public offices and government hospitals.