Kothagudem YouTuber touches millions of hearts with melodies, kirtans

Hailing from a small village, Regalla of Laxmidevipalli mandal in Kothagudem, Ravi Babu, who is a Class 10 dropout, is an unassuming man who prefers his work to speak for him.

Kothagudem: A radio mechanic, Nanna Ravi Babu was touched by a divine spark that turned him a devotional song producer, and then into a YouTuber, who is now touching millions of hearts with religious kirtans and melodious songs.

Hailing from a small village, Regalla of Laxmidevipalli mandal in Kothagudem, Ravi Babu, who is a Class 10 dropout, is an unassuming man who prefers his work to speak for him.

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His YouTube channel Sri Durga Audios, endorses this, crossing five crore views this February since its launch in 2016. The channel with 1600 videos, one to two lakh views every day, over 1.95 lakh subscribers and counting has also received a Silver play button from YouTube. He is the only man in erstwhile Khammam to earn that recognition.

Ravi Babu is now all set to launch around 500 kirtans and songs, of them 200 written by kirtankars, Bhakta Ramadasu and Tumu Narasimha Dasu, dedicated to Lord Rama as a Sri Rama Navami gift on an app, Telugu Folk, on March 16 in collaboration with Motion Pixel Tech of Hyderabad.

Speaking to Telangana Today, Ravi Babu said he was engaged in producing devotional songs since 1997. But things changed in 2015-16 with the advent of pen-drives that made audio cassettes and CDs desolate and caused him to suffer financially. To overcome the crisis he started a kirana shop and later entered into digital marketing of his albums with YouTube, mediums like Amazon Music, iTunes, Spotify and all major worldwide music apps. He has tie-ups with Times Music and Believe Music for marketing his songs.

Ravi Babu, with deep devotion to Lord Rama, is credited with creating the first video album on Bhadradri Temple. He created numerous devotional caller tunes. One of the most famous songs he produced is ‘Tirumala vasa Sri Venkatesha’, penned by writer- composer Rayancha.

He so far created around 1000 albums of different genres like devotional, folk, romance and others. He has also worked with famous singers like M Balamurali Krishna, SP Balasubrahmanyam, Unni Krishnan, SP Sailaja, KJ Yesudas, Vani Jayaram and many others in producing the albums.
“As I do not know how to write songs, I create a storyline about the album I want to produce and then ask writers to write the songs,” Ravi Babu said, adding that he has recorded songs in studios in Chennai, Hyderabad, Warangal and other places.

He credits his success to his parents Nanna Venkata Narayana- Rukminamma and wife Surekha.