Musical magic

Viral Sinhala song ‘Manike Mage Hithe’ sung by Yohani and Satheeshan has got everyone grooving to its tune, including Bollywood biggies.
Amitabh Bachchan has shared a spoof video of him shaking a leg to the beat of the Hindi version of the Sri Lankan song. According to the 78-year-old actor, his granddaughter Navya Naveli Nanda edited the dance sequence from his iconic film Kaalia. She replaced the original song, ‘Jahan Teri Yeh Nazar Hai’ with ‘Manike Mage Hithe’ in the video.

Meanwhile, Tiger Shroff wowed social media with his breath-taking dance performance on the original cover, garnering over 22 million views on Instagram, while Madhuri Dixit shared a ‘look video’ saying she is “in love” with this song.
Singer Sonu Nigam used the song in a video titled ‘Shenanigans in Goa’. “The song was introduced to me by Rinka, my sister-in-law in Goa a couple of weeks back. I just love the entire package. The melody, the voice texture, the minimalistic arrangements, the phonetics of the lyrics and rap although the language is alien. Some creations have those extra blessings from Paramaatma. This is one such song. I wish they asked me to sing the Indian collaboration. God bless them all,” shared the singer.
Interestingly, the original song was released in 2020 and was sung by Satheeshan and rapper Dulan ARX, who is also the lyricist. It was produced by Chamath Sangeeth and not by the Lankan singer-rapper Yohani whose version of the song is currently viral.

Following its success in India, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam versions of the song were released. The Hindi version was released by Indian singer-rapper Muzistar. The rapper says, “One of my friends forwarded me the song last year when I was in Jaipur. When I heard the song, I immediately knew it was special and rushed to make my version of it. It took me two days to write the lyrics and record and publish it online. Initially, for a couple of days there were no views, but then suddenly it started picking up and it went viral. I was overwhelmed. When legends like Amitabh Bachchan share your song, it is really special.”  
“I haven’t met or spoken to Yohani, but her team contacted me after my video went viral. We will be collaborating for other projects soon,” Muzistar says, adding, “Yohani has also sung a few lines from the Hindi version and posted on her social media handles.”