The real definition of the much hyped word 'swag' was given by the song Kolaveri Di, six years ago in 2011. The song has so far amassed around 12.5 crore views on You Tube and the number of views keep increasing every day.
"Lot of our signature success started from 'Why this Kolaveri Di', six years back. Lot of our signature success started from Why this kola veri di six years back. It has received 12.5 crore views and that number is still growing,” said Ajay Vidyasagar, Regional Director-Google Asia Pacific.
November 2011 saw only one thing trending and that was South superstar Dhanush's viral single 'Kolaveri Di'. With its quirky style and oodles of swagger, the song instantly got on the tongues of thousands of Indians. The Tanglish song(Tamil and English song) cut across the regional and linguistic barriers and became the most widely hummed songs. The song also led to the creation of many different versions of it..with different lyrics or in different language.
The song written and sung by Dhanush and composed by Anirudh Ravichander was originally made for 2012 Tamil psychological thriller film, 3.
The lyrics 'why this kolaveri di' meaning 'why this rage' , instantly became a rage among the internet users. Vidyasagar said, “This piece of creativity keeps winning again and again due to community fans,”.He also added that the video had inspired such audiences to come up with their versions of the song too.
Quoting statistics, he said India had witnessed a surge in YouTube viewership in the past few years, even as rural and small towns made a significant contribution.
From being a “metro phenomenon” about five years back, YouTube was now being used by consumers even in many remote villages of the country, he said.
Further, “film engagement” on the visual platform stood “neck to neck with Hollywood” and teasers and trailers of recent Tamil hits like Kabali and Baahubali received 34 million and 22 million hits respectively, he said.
Online hits of many Indian movies even exceeded the viewership of Hollywood films, he said.
YouTube, a subsidiary of US-based tech giant Google, earlier hosted a ‘Tamil Day’ where its team met with online video creators from the city.
(with inputs from PTI)