Hyderabad: Jawan composer Anirudh Ravichander was in his teens when he experienced his first taste of success with the song Why This Kolaveri Di in 2011. More than a decade has passed since that moment, and Anirudh, now one of India's most sought-after music composers, looks back on that time as a hazy memory.
Surprisingly, Why This Kolaveri Di wasn't originally intended for release on YouTube. It was part of the music album for the film 3' starring Dhanush and Shruti Haasan, and it skyrocketed to popularity shortly after its online release, at a time when the concept of things going viral was less common.
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In a recent interview, Anirudh reminisced about how this success seemed to happen overnight. He revealed that the music company initially planned to release the song on a CD. However, an unfinished version of the song was leaked from a Chennai studio, prompting them to make a quick decision and they decided to release the song on YouTube because producing and distributing CDs would have taken at least a week. Anirudh recalled, "We didn't have time to make CDs," and they opted to "release it online on YouTube" instead.
Today, sharing music on YouTube is standard practice, but back then, Anirudh was disappointed that his first song was released directly on the platform. He explained, "I was quite sad then because as a composer, you want your first movie, your first song to come out on a CD. You want to give it to your friends. I was 19 or something, and I was like, 'Oh god, this is my first song, and already the bad version had leaked, and now this song is coming out on something called YouTube.'"
Anirudh revealed that on the first day, the song garnered 3 lakh views, and the music company was pleased with the response. The following day, it surged to 3 million views as more people began sharing it. However, the real turning point came when Amitabh Bachchan shared the song. Anirudh recounted, "Amitabh sir shared it after a few days. He tweeted about it, and that's when it actually went crazy."
Despite the immense success of the song, the film 3 did not fare well at the box office, which came as a significant shock. Despite a lot of hype and one of the most organic viral campaigns, the film's lackluster performance served as a grounding experience for Anirudh.
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