MUMBAI: The King of Bhangra Daler Mehndi’s ‘Tunak Tunak Tun’ was released in 1998, almost a decade ago. It is 2012 now & there is no stopping on TUNAK-ing. The Iconic song is still as popular as it was then, and kicking all over the world.
The song is the greatest grosser in non-film music in India to this day! The track was an instant hit on release. The music video was conceptualized by Mehndi in retaliation to the media’s comment that the success of his videos depend only on the glam models featured in the videos, with 4 Daler Mehndi’s and exquisite choreography done by himself the song became an instant HIT.
Known as the “Pied piper track”, the song is a true Internet Phenomenon. A single copy of Tunak Tunak on YouTube has broken all the records with almost 70 million hits and 70 thousand comments and still increasing. The same video that turned desi stomachs has captivated audiences world wide – to an extent that the phirangs and the angrez are not only shaking their legs to the tunes of Tunak Tunak, but inspired to create spin offs and parodies.
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The earliest parody of the song was created by the internet comedian Dannel Gomiller and was uploaded online in 2000. The video received 17,000 hits in a single day. So much so that even now, Dannel’s website has the Tunak Tunak parody video on the landing page and the comedian states, “But honestly, I know you are here for Daler Mehndi, and you can watch that below.”
Tunak explosion continued as the song was buffalaxed giving it subtitles for what it sounds like in English as the numbers of fans wanting to understand the lyrics boomed up. And then there were countless Romanian versions, Americanized versions, Greek versions, Caucasian editions, South Korean belly dance version and many more.
The song added another accolade in its cap when the producers of the World of Warcraft (WoW) got inspired by the Tunak Tunak and endowed their character Draenei with Tunak dance. For those who were still asking for more, a fan created 10 hours of continuous Tunak.
Daler Mehndi – The man behind the success of Tunak Tunak – not only created musical iconic track, his superhit song gave the words Tunak Tunak a bona fide meaning. The Urban Dictionary defines Tunak Tunak as an intoxicating dance originating from the Indian artist Daler Mehndi. Verbatim, Tunak Tunak is “An intoxicating dance originating from the Indian artist Daler Mehndi. The song brings great joy to anyone and everyone who engages in the act of “tunaking” & Tunaking can become highly addictive.”
The song has broken all the barriers and united the world through just two words “Tunak Tunak”.
