Dhanush - Why This Kolaveri Di

Dhanush’s Why this kolaveri di is on its way to attaining cult status in the online world

Southern star Dhanush is perhaps the first Indian celebrity whose song Why this kolaveri di has gone viral on YouTube with over 20 million hits so far. But the song is yet to make it as big as international hits Baby ft. Ludacris, On The Floor ft. Pitbull and Bad Romance. Nevertheless, Dhanush, son-in-law of matinee idol Rajinikanth, is overjoyed that the song is successfully “breaking language barrier”. “Yayyyyyy 20 million views for Kolaveri !! Pa pa papa pa pa papa!! God bless,” Dhanush posted on micro-blogging site Twitter.

The big worldwide YouTube hits this year include Justin Bieber’s Baby ft. Ludacris (671,069,814 views), Jennifer Lopez’s On The Floor ft. Pitbull (444,281,564 views), Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance(432,227,541 views), Shakira’s Waka Waka (427,435,565 views) and Eminem’s Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna (410,857,092 views), among others.

The video for Kolaveri di was released on YouTube November 16. It’s peppy, catchy tune as well as funky lyrics, helped it go viral on the Internet, and get more than a million hits on the website within a day of its release. The numbers are only multiplying ever since, and have reached 20,341,650 hits by Monday noon. The song, composed by 18-year-old Anirudh Ravichander, will be a part of the film 3, directed by Dhanush’s wife Aishwarya. Also called Soup song, it has been appreciated by people of all age groups and lauded by celebrities, including megastar Amitabh Bachchan. However, lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar had spoken out against it, saying: “Tune ordinary, singing substandard. Words an insult to sensibility.” But Dhanush is nonchalant and tweeted: “I have you guys. Your support. As long as I’m making u guys happy, I’m doing my job as an entertainer properly. That’s enough. God bless.”

The Tamil-English song is also a hit with north Indians, despite its southern accent-loaded vocals. “When a song is breaking language barrier and brings us together, how does it matter which language it’s in? You want a name to this language? It’s an Indian song made by an Indian…Whether its a sensible song or nonsense song, it’s music. It’s art. Art does not know language. Only people’s heart. And that’s where my song lives.” “And to all my north Indian Kolaveri fans, thanks for receiving a Tamil song with warm heart and making it a global song. God bless,” added Dhanush.

Ever since it has hit the web, there have been several spin-offs of the song, including one by Bollywood playback singer Sonu Niigaam’s son Nevaan and the Chamaat song on Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar being slapped. Then there are the Gujarati, Marathi and Sindhi versions of the song as well.