Social Media Makes Kerala Girl’s Dream Come True

ALAPPUZHA: Destiny can change in a moment, thanks to a powerful social media. A video of her singing Lata Mangeshkar’s Satyam Shivam Sundaram has opened the doors of Bollywood fame to Jayalakshmi, an 11-year old girl from Pallipuram in Kerala, who is currently recording a song for an upcoming Hindi film.

It all started when Jayalakshmi’s mother last month recorded her song on a mobile phone which was later uploaded on YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp. The song got more than 10 lakh ‘likes’ in one week and caught the attention of music lovers from north India. Subsequently, a national TV channel aired a report about the singing sensation. What followed was something Jayalakshmi couldn’t have even dreamt of. Lata rang up the Class VI student of Government Girls’ High School, Cherthala, and congratulated her. “Her mother Preetha had recorded the song on my mobile phone and transferred it to Jayalakshmi’s music teacher Manoj Jayadev’s phone. He uploaded it on YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp. We then got a call from Zee. The next day a team from the channel reached Pallipuram and interviewed her. They had come with five air tickets to Delhi. In the evening, we went to Delhi to attend a programme organised by the channel,” said Jayalakshmi’s father Jayakumar. After the interview, he said, many offers came from Bollywood.

“We reached Mumbai for the recording of a song in actor and filmmaker Dillzan Wadia’s ‘Four Pillars of Basement’. Another offer came from Lalitkumar of JD Cinema for his film ‘Delhi Kand’,” Jayalakshmi’s father added. According to Jayakumar, it was the similarity between the voices of Jayalakshmi and Lata that worked in her favour.