LOOK WHAT KOLAVERI DID TO DHANUSH!

In many ways, the promotion of Dhanush’s movie 3 is a milestone in Tamil cinema – perhaps even in Indian cinema. For one, it harnessed the value of social media and provided new meaning to the word viral. Even Dhanush and Aishwarya would not have had the slightest idea the popularity the song and the catch phrase would generate. Other than a gleaming position in popular culture that spawned millions of versions of the song on YouTube, a well-written wiki entry for our future generations as a record of its legacy and taking Dhanush places (we’ll come to that a little later), the phrase also earned itself an entry in urban dictionary. Watch out for a Hollywood movie that features the phrase and we will know that the phrase is worth its salt.

But that’s not the end of the Kolaveri miracle. It has put Dhanush in a pedestal, an elevated one, where he can bask in the glory of his own success. Immediately after the song went viral, Dhanush went on national television and is now a national figure, an enviable status he achieved in a short span of time with the power of social media that even his peers could not. Perhaps the most significant of this newfound superstardom is the invite he received from the country’s premier institution, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to deliver a lecture on viral marketing. It’s not a first for IIM-A, because the institute often invites celebrities from movies (Rajkumar Hirani of Munnabhai spoke once) for discourses.

Dhanush being Dhanush, humble and all, he tweeted before the lecture saying “I don’t know good English, but who cares. I'm an Indian. Not English.” But the hour-and-a-half long lecture regarding the success story of his 'soup song' seemed to have been received well by the 130 students of Contemporary Film Industry course at the IIM-A.  

That rare honor done, Dhanush moved on to the filmy headlines again with a supposed film deal with director Aanand L.Rai, who earlier directed the Maddy starrer Tanu Weds Manu. The director confessed that he wanted Dhanush because “he was a man who could look vulnerable on screen.” Rai also says that very ordinary and honest. Fair enough.

But with that, the Kolaveri fever is just not dying down as yet. FMCG majors (and rivals) Emami and Marico announced that they have roped in Dhanush to promote their products. Dhanush was in a broader assignment with Marico as compared with Emami that was looking for just an in-film product placement, which has a shorter life span. Emami’s Navaratna oil was supposed to feature in the song ‘kolaveri di’ when it was being filmed.

While both the companies earlier said it’s just a coincidence, Marico went back on its statement and got cold feet suddenly with the mileage their rival Emami is also getting. This made Dhanush jump into the foray and issue a statement in this regard clarifying that he has no association whatsoever with Emami or its hair oil brand Navratna. Emami also followed suit and, presumably not wanting to jeopardize Dhanush’s chances with Marico, confirmed that there is no tie-up with Dhanush for promoting their hair oil.

Marico almost retracted their contract owing to this clash and Dhanush’s act of issuing a statement is considered as a step towards pacifying the company. In the end though, Navaratna will be after all used an in-product placement in the song’s video.

All said and done, Kolaveri is taking the movie 3 to places. And it is creating an impossibly insurmountable hype for the movie before its release - all without the producers having to shell a single penny. Aishwarya couldn’t have asked more for her maiden production venture.