Students of St Xavier’s College hum along to Kolaveri Di. File picture

It’s a question on everyone’s lips across campuses in Ranchi. “Why this Kolaveri Di?”

Ranchi youngsters have woken up to south Indian actor Dhanush’s killer rage — the “soup boy” song of a jilted lover — that is making waves worldwide. Students are busy downloading the nation’s newest youth anthem, with cyber cafe owners cashing in on the craze.

The number, from a forthcoming Tamil film Three Star, has gone viral on the web after its online release on November 16, notching up the tag of being the most downloaded video on Youtube.

In the capital too, youngsters agree this was the first song from across the Vindhyas to have created such hype.

“Though the lyrics are not clear, the tune is very rhythmic and on everyone’s lips,” said Mansi Singh, another third-year history honours student.

Students from St Xavier’s College were all praise for the song.

“It has spread like wildfire on social networking sites. The quirky use of Tanglish, or Tamil and English lyrics, makes it different,” said Ritu Kumar, a first-year student.

“We listen to the song whenever we are free,” said commerce student Naina Singh.

They also listen to it whenever they call each other up. Most have set Kolaveri di as their ringtone or callertune.

Cyber cafe owners are laughing their way to the bank as they now charge Rs 5 extra if someone downloads the song.

“Everyday we get customers, especially youngsters, who request us to download the song,” said cyber cafe owner from Kutchery Chowk Milan Kumar. “The craze is as if some board results have been declared.”

“We get at least five to 10 customers who want us to download the song on their mobile phones,” said Ramesh at a Lalpur Chowk cafe.

At Daily Market, the hub of pirated CDs, shop owners were making hay while Dhanush played. “We copy the song on a CD, which is then sold at Rs 20,” said a shopkeeper.

However, city music shops have to wait till the film’s music album is officially released. Babloo Ghosh, owner of Ghosh Musicals at Firayalal Chowk said since they were yet to get the album, the youngsters were downloading the song from different websites.

“Many youths ask us for the CD but we have to refuse. They download the song from a cyber cafe,” he said, adding that he himself was waiting for the album slated to hit the stores later in the week.