Filili fever: A song to shake away the blues.... FILILI FANS: GRABS OF ONE OF THE DARJEELING TRIBUTE VIDEOS

Vivek Chhetri, TT, There's a virus in the hills that makes people shake their heads, twitch their shoulders, while their eyes are shut and their faces are smiling.

The virus is called Resham Filili.

Resham, what?

Resham Filili is a Nepali movie. It has a catchy song. It has caught on, and how.

Remember, when people were making the Happy song tribute videos around the world? Darjeeling has one, Calcutta has several.

Now is the season for Jaalma-Pari. That's the song that caught on even before the movie, Resham Filili, was released.

If you think the comparison with the Happy song is needless, Filili fans will tell you that Darjeeling is not the only place where Jaalma-Pari is making people shake a leg and head. Tribute videos have been made in South Korea and Australia as well.

In the film, Resham is the name of the protagonist . Filili in Nepali means seamless.

If the movie had not released, how did so many youngsters in Darjeeling know of the signature step?

Enter reality TV.

The step - the head shake, shoulder twitch one - was performed by Vinay Shrestha, the lead actor of the film, at a reality show called Nepali Tara. It is Nepal's take on the Indian Idol.

The publicity proved enough to spawn the numerous tribute videos.

Biren Lama, the CEO of The White Horse Productions, has made both the Darjeeling and Sikkim filili videos.

The videos show residents and tourists in Darjeeling doing the signature step as the song plays.

The video on Youtube has got 1.72 lakh plus hits and is growing.

The videos made by Resham Filili by Nepalese Extreme (Next) Group has received 9.6 lakh-plus hits, Resham Filili by The Cartoonz Crew has got 5.95-lakh plus hits, Sikkim Goes Filili has received 93,000-plus views. Then there's Mumbai, Calcutta, South Korea, Australia....

The song is a playful conversation between a boy and a girl.

The boy tells the girl to join him for a stroll in the sun across the hill. The girl wonders what he would do if she got tanned. The boy says he would open an umbrella of love for her.

The movie released in Nepal on April 24 and was shown in more than 50 theatres.

The movie will release in Sikkim on May 24.

Shrestha and actress Menuka Pradhan are the lead pair.

Shrestha, speaking over the phone from Kathmandu, had told The Telegraph: "We are overwhelmed with the response and we had never anticipated we would attract so much attention. We had not released the video of the song but the filili fever caught one and all."

The film, produced by V Motion Pictures Pvt Ltd and Princess Movies, has three songs but Jaalma-Pari is the biggest hit.

Shrestha, who is also the chairperson of V Motion, said: "We just did the signature move in a widely-televised show in Nepal called Nepali Tara. This is similar to the show you have in India called the Indian Idol. Once our team did the steps, it caught on."

Two months on, people from across the globe, including Darjeeling and Sikkim started coming up with videos, some of which have the signature move, while others have improvised with more complicated dance steps.

On Youtube, the song has got several lakh hits.

"We just wanted a song which was simple, yet organic, and something that would connect with people easily. We were confident that people would like the song but we had not anticipated this response. I am getting a lot of appreciation in mails from the fans," said Shrestha, who has acted in eight Nepali movies.

This is his company V Motion's first production venture.

The film has been written and directed by Pranab Joshi while the song Jaalma-Pari has been sung by Kali Prasad Baskota and Somea Baraili.

"The song took us about a month to conceptualise and around three months to record and shoot," Shrestha said.

The film which has been made on a budget of around Rs 40 lakh, was shot mostly in Kathmandu and took about a year to complete.

"While we premiered the movie on April 24 in Nepal, we will release it across the globe later in May. As far as India is concerned, we have given the rights of our movies to Sikkim based White Horse Productions and they are tentatively looking at organising a charity show in May," said Shrestha.

Shrestha has done his schooling from St Augustine's School, Kalimpong.

"I was talking to Vinay Shrestha one day and he told us about the signature move that they had come up with in Nepal. We decided to try it out in Darjeeling and Sikkim and this is how the video happened," said Lama.

He added: "We had not expected such an overwhelming response."

Priyanka Tamang, the general manager of White Horse Production, said: "We will first organise a charity show in Gangtok and we plan to do such shows in Darjeeling and other parts of the hills. The movie will hit theatres a little later as we need to complete some formalities."

The movie, according to Shrestha, is a story of village boy, Resham, who overcomes all obstacles in life.

As a mark of appreciation to all the filili videos flooding social media, the Resham Filili makers have decided to incorporate grabs of the best videos in the credit line of the film.

"The Darjeeling filili song has also found a mention," said Shrestha.