It started with 64 dogs, six days of voting, campaign posters, fan clubs, and at least one neighbourhood that took the whole thing very personally. Today, Delhi finds out which of its most gloriously round residents takes the title.
The Fat Dogs of Delhi contest, run by the Instagram page @fatdogsofdelhi, wraps up its grand finale on September 29 with a head-to-head between two finalists: Googoo from Saket and Rambabu, also known as Chonky, from Yusuf Sarai.
The Two Dogs Left Standing
Googoo is a 46-kg mixed-breed from Saket who became one of the breakout stars of the competition almost immediately. His supporters have been loud, organised, and unrelenting throughout, treating each voting round like a genuine civic duty.
Rambabu earned his place in the final from Yusuf Sarai, where he is a well-known face. He is calm by nature, familiar to everyone in the area, and has developed something of a local legend status. His diet, reportedly including biryani at breakfast time, has not gone unnoticed by voters.
Both dogs are street dogs. Neither lives in a home. That detail has made the contest feel like something more than just a fun poll.
How It Got Here
The contest launched on September 24 with a bracket of 64 dogs submitted by their owners and caregivers from across Delhi-NCR. Voting happened through Instagram Story polls, each round running for 24 hours before the next matchup was announced.
The format was simple but the energy around it was anything but. Supporters made campaign posters, some brands got involved, and people from cities as far as Kolkata and Kerala joined in to vote for their favourites. When north campus favourite Dahi Bhalli was knocked out, the outrage was genuine. Gajinder from Vasant Kunj, who had his own following, was also eliminated before the quarterfinals, which did not go down quietly.
Other notable names along the way included Kutta Singh from Rohini, Moti from Sarojini Nagar, Hero from Malviya Nagar, Mahakutteshwar from Noida, and Chewbacca Raza Singh, a name that deserves its own moment of appreciation.
The semifinal stage took a sombre turn when Tara and Gola, two of the four semifinalists, both died before the final round. Their loss changed the tone briefly but the contest moved forward, with Googoo and Rambabu advancing to today’s finale.
Why This Took Off
The organiser has said the contest was not directly inspired by Alaska’s Fat Bear Week, though comparisons have been unavoidable. Fat Bear Week, run annually by Katmai National Park in the US, has a similar energy: a bracket, a community vote, and a genuine affection for large animals living their best lives. Delhi’s version swapped brown bears for street dogs, which, given the city’s relationship with its stray population, gave the whole thing a local texture that resonated.
“There is a fat dog competition in Delhi and they’re all winners,” one person wrote online, which is more or less how the internet has felt about this from the start.
Voting for the final closes today. By tonight, Delhi will have its chonkiest champion.
