Bengaluru/Delhi/Mumbai: Before Parle Products could understand what was happening, the shelves started emptying. By Wednesday evening, searches on Mumbai-based biscuits and confectionery maker’s caramel toffee, Melody, had increased by more than 190 times on Google, while search strings like ‘Melody Modi’, ‘Meloni Melody’ all had ‘breakout’ tags on the search platform. It didn’t take long for ecommerce and quick commerce platforms to see a surge in orders. Mayank Shah, vice president and chief marketing officer, Parle Products, told TOI that by 3 pm, searches for Melody Toffee on these platforms increased by almost 50 times. The hike came hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifted a pack of Melody to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a diplomatic meeting. The video of that moment quickly became one of the favorite moments of the day on the Internet. According to reports, the video had received more than 130 million views on the YouTube channel by evening. According to Shah, by Wednesday afternoon, about 40-45% of the dark stores of Q-com companies like Blinkit and Zepto present in Parle’s network were out of Melody stock. The nearly century-old company had to send excess inventory to ecommerce warehouses, dark stores and retail trade channels to meet demand.

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“This is a very proud moment for all of us at Parle Products,” Shah said. When the Prime Minister gifts Parle products to world leaders, it is a powerful testament to the potential of indigenous brands on the global stage. “Melody is India’s best-selling toffee brand and is today available in over 100 countries. We are very grateful to the Prime Minister for giving this incredible recognition and visibility to Indian brands.“ A senior Blinkit official confirmed to TOI on condition of anonymity that the platform has seen a sharp increase in both searches and sales of Melodies on the pin code after the Modi-Melony moment went viral online. Even the government got involved. Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal posted on Twitter that India’s “toffee tale will certainly be sweet to the ears.” Goyal highlighted that in the last 12 years till March 2026, Indian exports of toffees, caramels and similar sweets have grown by about 166% to Rs 132 crore. Dalal Street bookies, who never lag behind in taking advantage of an opportunity to make money in a frenzy, also jumped into the bandwagon soon after the melody video made headlines. However, ironically, they bet on the stock of a wrong company: Parle Industries, a company that is in the waste management and recycling business. The company has no direct connection with Melody Toffee manufacturer Parle Products. By afternoon, the stock which had fallen nearly 35% in the last three months, hit 5% upper circuit at Rs 5.25 on the BSE and closed at the same level. Volume more than doubled to more than 8.5 lakh shares.