Daler Mehndi ventures South, sings for Rajnikanth starrer

Mumbai, June 23 (IANS) Bhangra king Daler Mehndi singing songs in Tamil and Telugu may sound strange, but that is exactly what he is doing now. He is making a foray into southern cinema with the much-talked-about "Kuselan", starring Tamil superstar Rajnikanth.

The movie is being made in Tamil and Telugu and Mehndi, who gave hit Punjabi pop songs like "Bolo ta ra ra" and "Dardi rab rab", has sung a song each in both versions in his inimitable style.

" 'Oyam zaarare' is the most peppy number of the movie," said Kulmeet Makkar, chief executive officer of BIG Music & Home Entertainment, which is releasing the album July 1.

Apart from Mehndi, an array of singing stars like Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan, Sujata, Chitra, Sadhna Sargam, Shreya Ghosal, Kailash Kher and Prasanna V.V. have lent their voice for "Kuselan".

Music maestro A.R. Rahman's nephew G.V. Prakash, better known as GV, has composed music for the movie.

Directed by P.Vasu, "Kuselan" is said to be partly Rajnikant's biography as it is based on some incidents of his chequered life. The film is about a friendship between a barber and a superstar called Ashok Raj.

"Rajnikant portraying 20 different characters in the course of a song is one of the highlights of the movie," said Umesh Pai, BIG Music's business head for southern India.

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