It started with this song. In fact it started ages ago, starting with the pungi or been. Used for religious purposes, somewhere down the line it got associated with the snake dance. It was adopted by the saperas who encourage the idea that it is the sound of the been which keeps the snake hypnotised. Then the snake dance made its place in the public consciousness from this song, performed by Sridevi.
There is even a heavy metal version by Deciblel. Watch the cover here:
And the dance became so popular that it became de riguer for guys to perform it in baraats, to do it. Even who had not seen the Sridevi’s naagin dance came to know about it. So I was pretty amazed to see it as a main feature in brand new bollywood song.