If you have scrolled through Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts in the last eighteen months, you have seen it. A slow-motion walk. A designer bag worth a lakh. A model in Rick Owens boots. And then, superimposed over the corner of the video, is Shakti Kapoor’s face—eyes bulging, lips puckered, performing a theatrical whistle, or that infamous slurping noise aimed at a fleeing heroine.

Older millennials often cringe at this trend. They remember that Shakti Kapoor’s "sucking" gesture was not a joke in the 90s; it was a genuine depiction of street harassment. To them, using it to compliment a friend’s Zara haul feels tone-deaf.

: By the '90s, his style shifted toward the colorful and eccentric. Characters like Crime Master Gogo (with the iconic cape) and