'Kolaveri Di' crosses 50 million hits

New Delhi, March 26 (IANS) "Kolaveri Di" Monday crossed 50 million hits on YouTube, revealing that music lovers have yet to get over southern superstar Dhanush's unusual song. Sony Music gives credit to social networking sites for its phenomenal success.

Till Monday afternoon, 50,086,633 hits were recorded.

"It's amazing to see 'Kolaveri Di' escalate to such a phenomenal success. Our simple attempt of uploading a song has turned it into an historic recall. People have appreciated and danced to the tunes of this song not just in the south but all over the globe," Shridhar Subramaniam, president India and Middle East Sony Music Entertainment told IANS.

"Remixes, different versions and flash mobs prove that 'Kolaveri Di' is highly appreciated," he added.

Thanks to its peppy, catchy tune and bilingual lyrics, the song went viral when it was launched on the internet Nov 16 and got more than a million hits within a day of its release.

Subramaniam credits social networking sites for the phenomenon success of the song launched by them.

"Today's generation is an online generation. We knew that this song would be a hit in the south but for the people in the rest of the India, reaching them via online medium was important. Websites like YouTube, Facebook etc are always buzzed with online traffic, people exchanging links, information etc. It would have been a little difficult to get 'Kolaveri Di' on those heights without social networking," he said.

"Since YouTube entertains people worldwide, the credit definitely goes to You tube. But not to forget the concept, creativity and indulgence of people in the video also adds to making it a hit and that's exactly what 'Kolaveri Di' combines of," he added.

Dhanush, who is Tamil matinee idol Rajinikanth's son-in-law, penned the lyrics in English and Tamil and even sung it. Composed by 21-year-old Anirudh Ravichander, the song is a part of Dhanush's forthcoming movie "3", which is his wife Aishwarya Rajinijanth's directorial debut.

Dhanush also composed a Sachin Tendulkar anthem.

"Kolaveri Di" means murderous rage.

The popularity of the song led to the creation of a number of imitations and parodies in various languages around the world depicting different types of situations.