Love bite to Apple bite: Triptii Dimri’s Animal scene with Ranbir Kapoor fuels iPhone 18 memes

What if Apple’s newest iPhone colour had a very Bollywood backstory? Not just any Bollywood backstory, but one involving Triptii Dimri and Ranbir Kapoor’s film Animal, a love bite and an outrageously expensive Rolls-Royce.

That is the joke doing the rounds on social media after Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in September, including a new Burgundy finish. And because Triptii herself was actually present at Apple’s launch event in Cupertino, California, the internet has found the coincidence almost too good to resist.

But first, the important bit: No, Apple did not name or create the Burgundy iPhone 18 Pro colour after Triptii Dimri’s character in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s film Animal. The claim is a social media joke, not a real Apple announcement.

Why is Triptii Dimri suddenly linked to the iPhone 18 colour?

The joke began with multiple satirical social media posts connecting Apple’s new Burgundy finish to one of the most talked-about details from the 2023 film Animal.

In the film, Triptii plays Zoya, who becomes romantically involved with Ranbir’s character Ranvijay. At one point, Ranvijay gifts Zoya a lavish Rolls-Royce. The car’s colour is tied to the couple’s intimate relationship — a detail that became a talking point around the film.

That old Animal reference has now been pulled into a very 2026 internet joke: what if Apple saw that particular shade and thought, ‘Yes, that’s our next iPhone colour?’

But did Apple really get the Burgundy colour from Animal?

Of course not. Apple’s official iPhone 18 Pro announcement lists Burgundy among the phone’s finishes, alongside Black, Silver and Glacier. There is no statement from Apple connecting the colour to Animal, Triptii Dimri or any Bollywood scene.

The timing, however, made the joke particularly irresistible.

Triptii was actually at Apple’s September launch event, the “Surprise and Shine” event, in Cupertino, along with singer AP Dhillon. They met the new Apple CEO John Ternus and got an early look at the new devices.

So the internet took two completely real things — Triptii at Apple Park and a Burgundy iPhone — and added one completely fictional connection: Animal inspired the colour.

The Rolls-Royce scene in Animal?

This is where the meme gets its Bollywood logic.

In Animal, Ranvijay gifts Zoya a Rolls-Royce after their relationship deepens. The car is later destroyed in an explosion after Zoya’s true motives are revealed. The film uses the car as part of the increasingly complicated relationship between the two characters.

The Rolls-Royce detail also became part of the wider online conversation around Triptii’s role in the film. Now, years later, that same visual memory has been recycled into an iPhone meme.

The real story is the coincidence — not an Apple-Triptii collaboration

The iPhone 18 Pro’s Burgundy colour is real. Triptii Dimri’s presence at Apple Park is real. The Animal Rolls-Royce scene is real.

The idea that Apple looked at Triptii’s Animal scene and designed a new iPhone colour around it? That is the fictional part.

In other words, this is less a technology scoop and more a perfect example of how the internet works: take three unrelated pop-culture moments, put them together, add a little deadpan corporate fiction — and suddenly Apple’s design department supposedly has a Bollywood inspiration board.

For now, there is no evidence that it does.