Laxmii’s trending song BamBholle has been conceived and recorded in Mohali

Within 24 hours of its release, the song BamBholle from the film Laxmii was trending on number one, crossing over 17 million views! Recorded in Mohali, this number isn’t the first to make noise in the Hindi film industry, yet its story is surely unique.

Enthused by the great response, Anup Kumar from Ullumanati, a team of artistes that has given lyrics and music for BamBholle, feels Akshay Kumar’s energy in the video has taken it to another level.

BamBholle, originally three years old, started as an ode to Lord Shiva. “We had just started a film, Raduaa, and it was around the month of saawan that I felt we should make a song dedicated to Lord Shiva,” says Anup. “For the first three months on YouTube, there were just about 30–40 thousand views; then we woke up one morning to a few lakh views, which kept growing magically,” he adds.

The audio got immense love, was picked up by the TikTok tribe, and its American singer-songwriter Jason Derulo’s version then went viral!

Bollywood version

Then came the Bollywood version. “The team of Akshay Kumar reached out to us. Surprisingly, while they did make some lyrical changes, they retained its original singer - Viruss,” says Anup, who has worked in the music industry since the last two decades, collaborating with Honey Singh extensively, along with Jassi Sidhu and late singer Romey Gill. Currently making music with many singers, old and new, Anup sees the success of BamBholle as ‘a good Viruss making an entry in Bollywood in grand style’.

The singer is obviously over the moon. “It’s so amazing to get such a positive feedback. Akshay sir’s performance has been super,” says Devansh Sharma, who opted for a stage name Viruss, as it sounded catchy. — Mona