Pushpa 2 song ‘Peelings’ brings Nirmal’s folk singer Laxmi Dasa into limelight

Laxmi Dasa is now basking in the glory of her success as a singer after her song, 'Peelings' in the Allu Arjun starrer 'Pushpa 2' has become a hit

Nirmal: She used to work as a daily-wage labourer in farms, brick kilns, and as a beedi roller too. That now is history. Laxmi Dasa is now basking in the glory of her success as a singer after her song, ‘Peelings’ in the Allu Arjun starrer ‘Pushpa 2‘ has become a hit.

The inspiring folk singer from the nondescript Gannora village of Mudhole mandal, shot to fame for the song after the movie was released on Thursday.

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“I am overjoyed by the overwhelming response to the song from various sections of the society. I was especially surprised to be acknowledged by Allu Arjun and director Sukumar who heaped praises on me during the pre-launch ceremony of the movie recently,” Laxmi, the younger daughter of farmer couple Laxman and Jayasheela, told ‘Telangana Today.’

Challenging childhood

The promising folk singer recalled that she used to work in farms, brick kilns and roll beedis to support her parents and to meet her expenditures during schooling, missing classes.

“I was participating in tours and cultural events with the help of my savings. I ventured into singing during childhood by observing songs rendered by my grandmother Dev Bai,” she shared.

Gained identity on YouTube

However, she gained an identity for singing a folk song, ‘O Bavo Saidulu,’ offered by Gaddam Ramesh in 2017. The song was uploaded on a YouTube channel operated by Ramesh and instantly became a huge hit. She eventually sang somewhere between 300 and 400 folk songs under the guidance of GL Namdev, a music director from Sircilla town.

This MA political science II year student at Giriraj Government College in Nizamabad said that some of the folk songs such as Tinnateeram Padutale, Anademanna Antina Tirupathi, Sekkerentha Bukkina, released on a YT channel of Sytv fetched her fame by garnering millions of views. For instance, Anademanna Antina Tirupathi clocked 2.01 million views alone, while Seekerentha Bukkina also had the same number of views.

Encouraged by teachers

The daughter-in-law of Peddapalli recalled that these folk songs helped her to draw attention of ace director Sukumar, who wanted to have her on board for his magnum opus project, Pushpa 2. She attributed her success to school teachers Digamber, Praveen Reddy, Shashikala, Ramulu, YouTuber Gaddam Ramesh of Jagtial, music directors GL Namdev, and Matla Tirupathi and her husband Sherla Srikanth.

Aims to enter Bollywood

The mother of a one-year-old son, Laxmi says her ambition was to lend vocals for Bollywood films as she believes that folk singers are endowed with talent to excel in a genre. She said that she had already rendered folk songs in Marathi and Banjara languages. She sang the title song of movie ‘Dasara’ and songs in another Telugu film, Batch.