Punjabi Pop Star Who Influenced World of Warcraft Draenei Dance is Convicted of Human Trafficking

Daler Mehndi's 1998 hit single, "Tunak Tunak Tun" created a dance craze in India that ended up becoming a part of World of Warcraft culture.

In 2003, Bakshish Singh filed a police complaint against Mehndi and his brother for cheating them out of money. After 15 years of investigation, Mehndi was convicted March 16, 2018 and sentenced to two years in prison by the Patiala court in Punjab, India. According to prosecutors, Mehndi and his brother took "passage money” from Indians looking for work in the United States and Canada. The prosecution alleged that the Mehndi brothers disguised 13 work-seekers as part of his entertainment troupe, took them to North America and dropped them off illegally.

Mehndi and his brother were booked in 2003 "under Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC or the Indian Penal Code." Mehndi has maintained his innocence, saying he will he file an appeal the ruling.

Mehndi found super-stardom in the 1990s with dance hits that continue to be popular among his huge fan-base of Hindi-Americans in the U.S. and Canada. In 2006, Blizzard Entertainment developers included the "Tunak Tunak Tun" dance for the (then) new class, male Draenei dance.

Watch to see where other World of Warcraft dances come from.