A quiet revolution has been raging on YouTube this past couple of weeks, and it’s called Rajinikanth. The Chennai superstar’s video —- an 88-second clip from one of his movies—-is now the first ever video originating from India to breach YouTube's all-time Top 100.
At just over 6.88 million views, it is way behind the leader of the Top 100 pack — the Evolution of Dance video with 57.3 million views. Nevertheless, it’s climbing. Just a month ago, it wasn’t even in the top 100; late on Friday night, it was ranked 89. That's just one part of the story. Three other versions of the same video have garnered more than three-quarters of a million views. Collectively, therefore, Rajini’s video with the height challenged breakdancer has more than 7.6 million views, and would make it to No 76 in the all-time rankings.
“The world is a better place, thanks to this video,” a tongue-in-cheek comment said on YouTube. “This is proof of alien life,” said another. “Priceless,” said a third. We’d exhaust all the space that’s fit to print if we publish all 4,953 comments, but suffice to say that Rajini and the height challenged breakdancer have all the moves thought out.
The video shows Rajini lying down on a rustic cot along with a few of his friends. The hero’s shown playing what was in the good old 1980s called a “two-in-one”, with the midget doing the most amazing breakdance moves you’ll ever come across. And just to prove his versatility, the height challenged breakdancer smokes in between making his moves. Perhaps he had not heard of the US Surgeon General’s warning that smoking stunts growth.
{{/usCountry}}The video shows Rajini lying down on a rustic cot along with a few of his friends. The hero’s shown playing what was in the good old 1980s called a “two-in-one”, with the midget doing the most amazing breakdance moves you’ll ever come across. And just to prove his versatility, the height challenged breakdancer smokes in between making his moves. Perhaps he had not heard of the US Surgeon General’s warning that smoking stunts growth.
{{/usCountry}}But Rajini may soon have competition. Another Indian video — the south version of Michael Jackson’s 1984 Grammy winning video Thriller— is soon climbing up the charts. An utterly hilarious remake of Jackson's classic, it has two versions running on YouTube right now with a combined viewership of 6.6 million.