Singer Aditya Gadhvi can’t believe that his song, Khalasi, has fetched him fame overnight. Composed by Achint Thakkar, the Gujarati song that was released in July this year, has made waves globally, and is a hit on social media.

“During Navratri nights, I could not leave the stage without performing this song. At some places, I had to sing it twice and thrice. People were always like ‘Gotilo Gotilo’. Even famous singers like Falguni Pathak sang the song during her garba sets. My life can be classified into pre- and post-Khalasi; it’s a milestone in my life,” beams the 29-year-old, who has already started receiving several offers for Hindi projects.

But as is the norm, any hit folk song or single is immediately recreated Bollywood. How would Gadhvi react if Khalasi was remade for a film? “The definition of a folk song is one which has been accepted by the masses. Khalasi is lok geet now, meaning logon ka. So why not recreate? If they recreate it for a film, maza aayega. I will look forward to see how people respond to tha,” quips Gadhvi.

The singer realised Khalasi had gone global when he began to track the number of reaction videos being made on it. The song even hit the 47 million mark on YouTube recently.

“People who could not understand it, put on the subtitles. When we made it, we knew Gujarat mein kamal karega. But we never knew it would be popular all over the world,” he ends.

If you’re a social media user, you’re unlikely to have missed the countless renditions and dance performance videos on the viral song Khalasi that have flooded social networking platforms. The Gujarati track, composed by Achint Thakkar and sung by Aditya Gadhvi, was released in July, but it became a hit during the Navratri season. Thakkar is amazed by the love it has received.

“We worked on it last year and it got a good response [when we released it in July]. But because of the sudden Navratri boom, the song had a snowball effect. I got to know the extent of the virality only a few weeks ago, when a lot of people started calling and texting,” he says, exclusively.

While the 33-year-old is still catching up with the craze around Khalasi, he adds that he is quite low-key on social media: “I didn’t know what was happening on Instagram, because I just access it to post something and leave. I am not too active. I remember seeing Quick Style (Norwegian dance group) making a reel on Khalasi,” he adds.

Interestingly, the song has got music lovers from across the board grooving, including non-Gujaratis. “This shows how inherently universal music is,” says Thakkar, adding, “It could have been in any language. We just hum the tune of so many songs, Despacito (by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi), for instance. It’s also how Punjabi music works, even if most of us don’t speak Punjabi.”