During Diwali 2014, the Hindi film Happy New Year was breaking box-office records for Bollywood while the Tamil film Kaththi was breaking box-office records for Kollywood.
AR Murugadoss' Kaththi ("The Knife") features Vijay - one of the top stars of Tamil film. He plays a clever criminal who escapes from prison only to find himself pulled into the unexpected role of protector of a farm village fighting against the takeover of their lands by a multinational corporation. As he is drawn further into their story, he turns from anti-hero to hero as he does battle against "the man." Or, in this case, the man and his goons.
The story deals with issues of land use, corporate greed, farming livelihoods, water risk, governance and the media. It's a lot to handle in one story, but director/writer A.R. Murugadoss manages to incorporate all these themes into an engaging storyline complete with all the things you've come to expect from an Indian action thriller: the bone-breaking brawls, memorable dialogues, high-energy dances, and entertaining songs.
Let's Take a Selfie Photo!
While the 7-song Kaththi soundtrack by Anirudh Ravichander features several enjoyable tunes, the song "Selfie Pulla" is a stand-out number. The boisterous song features fun lyrics by Madhan Karky, is picturized on Vijay and Samantha Ruth Prabhu, and is sung by Sunidhi Chauhan and Vijay himself.
What does "pulla" mean?
@DooleyBollywood selfie pulla is not selfie photo!'Pulla' is a way of calling a girl in a cheeky&cute way. Thus "let's take a selfie pulla"
— shobanga panivasagam (@btrsweets) October 28, 2014
When the song teaser video was released, it set Twitter on fire - more than 16,000 tweets included the #SelfiePulla hashtag as fans and friends shared the video. "Let's take a selfie pulla" became a catch phrase. Within 15 hours there were more than 3 million views of the video promo. Even the audio track quickly approached 2 million views and the song topped the iTunes charts in some areas. Fans began taping themselves dancing, singing and taking selfies to the tune.
The simple chorus helps fuel the fun of the song:
Let's take a selfie, pulla
Give me a ummaah..ummaah..
Selfie pulla
Give me a ummaah..
Let's take a selfie, pulla
Give me a ummaah..ummaah..
Selfie pulla
Give me a ummaah..
Lets take a selfie, pulla
Selfie pulla
Let's take a selfie, pulla
Selfie pulla.
The following playlist feature several different renditions of this popular song.
Celebrity Group Selfies
While people have been taking selfies for many years, Ellen DeGeneres' group selfie at the 2014 Oscars started a movement of celebrity selfies. Here are jsut a few of our favorite Bollywood, Hollywood and celebrity selfies (arranged in reverse chronological order). Note: Abhishek Bachchan wins for sharing the most #SelfieLove.
If you liked this, check out our other Music Monday or Vijay posts.