Andhra Woman Sings ‘O Cheliya’, AR Rahman Shares Video

The video of a woman singing ‘O Cheliya’ – the Telugu version of A.R. Rahman’s 1994 Tamil song ‘Ennavale Adi Ennavale’ from Kadhalan has gone viral. Impressed by her rendition after coming across the video, Rahman shared the video on Facebook.

Rahman who didn’t know about the whereabouts of the woman while sharing the video captioned it saying ‘unknown, anonymous, beautiful voice.’

However, a comment by a follower of AR Rahman identified the woman as Baby of Vadisaleru village in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. An NDTV report also corroborated the story. Reports now say that Telugu music director Koteswara Rao, after watching the video, has reached out to the woman to offer her a chance to sing for him.

Baby joins a slew of people whose videos have gone viral. Earlier this year, Shankar Mahadevan shared the video of Rakesh Unni, a daily wage labourer, singing the song ‘Unnai Kaanadhu Naan’ from Dasaavatharam.

The singer was so impressed by Rakesh Unni’s rendition that he put out a plea requesting people to help trace the singer in the video who at the time was unknown. His tweet read – ‘Would like to work with him.’

Though cover versions doing the rounds on the internet (predominantly on YouTube) is not a new thing, what sets the versions of Baby and Rakesh Unni apart from the ones recorded in studios is the candid manner in which these videos have been shot.

While Rakesh Unni’s video appears to have been shot during a break from his daily work, Baby has been captured singing sitting at the door of her home.

But not every song manages to capture the composers’ and singers’ attention though. The video of a bus driver singing the popular Malayalam song ‘Pramadavanam’ from the 1990 movie His Highness Abdulla was strictly restricted to social networking sites.