Most-watched Reel or most-promoted? Netizens pick apart Deepika’s Hilton Reel numbers

New Delhi: A recent Instagram reel featuring Deepika Padukone for Hilton Hotels has clocked a staggering 1.9 billion views within a week of posting, prompting questions about the scale of paid promotion behind the record-breaking number.

While numerous stories have been published claiming the reel is the most viewed, BestMediaInfo.com could not verify whether it was part of paid content, after which it appeared to trigger a social contagion.

As per news reports, the video overtook content from high-profile personalities, including Hardik Pandya and Cristiano Ronaldo. The reel is part of Hilton’s global campaign titled “It Matters Where You Stay”, in which Padukone serves as a brand ambassador.
Watch the reel here: 

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Former Ola Electric marketing head Nitin Chandil, in a LinkedIn post, expressed surprise at the figures, calling them “flabbergasting” and breaking down why he believes the reel’s reach was largely driven by ad spend rather than organic traction.

According to Chandil, the reel has garnered 1.9 billion total views but only 1.3 million likes, an engagement rate of 0.07% compared to Padukone’s usual average of around 5% on her Instagram reels. Her typical content, he noted, attracts roughly 5 million views per reel.

Applying this benchmark, Chandil estimated organic views at no more than 10 million, implying that around 1.89 billion views were generated via paid promotion. With the average Instagram CPM at around $2 per 1,000 impressions, he pegged the estimated campaign cost at approximately more than Rs 20 crore.

Chandil questioned whether such a budget was justified for what he described as “clearly, not so engaging content” that “is an ad made like an ad.”

The post has sparked debate among marketing professionals over the value of large-scale paid reach, the metrics that matter in digital advertising, and whether sheer view counts are a meaningful measure of campaign success.

Brand consultant Laalit Lobo, former VP Marketing at Bombay Shaving Company, commented on Chandil’s post, “The creative itself is so boring. Messaging seems all over the place. Hilton me rehne waale kya hustle kartein hain? Tons of money on production, but from a metric perspective, the Cartier reel, where she is just standing with a VO, seems to have outperformed Hilton many times over.”

Another person commented, “I think the whole point was to be in the news as 'The most watched reel ever'. That's how they got plenty of media coverage, immense attention, and we are talking about it.”

A third wrote, “I think the objective here wasn’t purely impact or genuine engagement, but to spark conversation and generate buzz online, which they’ve managed to do.”