Raamma Chilakamma ..prema molakamma
Raamma Chilakamma ..prema molakamma radhamma
paale telupanna neelle nalupanna gopamma
mukku meeda teepi kopaala
mooga kalla tene deepala
ganguly sandhulo gajjala gola
bengali chindulo mirch masala
a're vedekki vunnadi vennela baala
medekki digaduraa meghamaala....

ever saw this song ... Most of us probably did many many times. Picturized on a set worth 20 lakhs, dozens of dancers dancing their way with the best dancing hero in the middle ( any guesses.. yupp!! you are right) , two beautiful lasses, foot-tapping music, catchy lyrics..ooooffffffff, this song is a treat to the eyes for any Telugu Movie lover. But wait a second, what about the voice.... mmm.. sounds different, the pronunciation...could
be better.. but who is singing it..definetely not a person whose Mother Tongue is not our beloved Telugu. Yes, it was sung by none other than Udit Narain, a person who had swayed Bollywood for years. Let us analyze the entry of other language playback singers into our beloved Tollywood in this article.

The entry of non-Telugu playback singers to Tollywood is not new today, it has been there for years. Moving our memory pointer about thirty years back we realize that it was Swargiya Dr. NTR who introduced Mohammad Rafi to Tollywood to sing for his movie Aaradhana. The makers of that movie wanted to use a same tune that was used in a Hindi movie. The tune was "Aaja Tuj ko pukaare mere geet re.. o mere mithwa". They were of the opinion that Mohammad Rafi was the only playback singer who could modulate his pitch so effectively and so he was approached with the offer. Mohammad Rafi said that if the producers felt that he would not kill the language he would definitely sing in Telugu. And so he sang the same tune in Telugu as "Naa madi ninnu pilichindi gaanamai venu gaanamai naa praanamai" and then the entry of non-Telugu singers started into our beloved Tollywood.

This trend continued for some more films like Akbar Saleem Anarkali etc. After some more films, the regular playback singers again dominated the stage. After Rafi, singers like Jesudas entered Tollywood. Jesudas was never treated as an outsider because of his proper pronunciation, thorough knowledge of Carnatic classical music and his proximity to Telugu heroes. His mesmerizing voice still sways the Telugu Land and also won him several Nandi awards. It is said that music directors like Ramesh Naidu and Satyam used to like Jesudas's voice a lot.

The situation is no different for female playback singers. Many bollywood singers sang in our beloved Telugu. "Jeevitham saptha saagara geetham velugu needala ..." song in Chinni krishnudu, "Em talapidi ...." in Pavithra Bandham were sung by Asha Bhonsle. "Raavamma Raavamma nidura ravamma raave nemmadi ga raave" was sung by the one and only Lata Mangeshkar. New generation singers like Kavitha Krishnamurthy sang lot of songs in Telugu.

Coming to the present day scenario, we observe that a lot of movies in which Mani Sharma scores music have atleast one song sung by either Sukhvinder or Udit Narain. Some people say that it is an unhealthy trend because these singers charge atleast 5 times than what experienced Telugu singers charge thereby increasing the overhead for the producer. Some people counter the charge by saying that the change in voice creates a curiosity in the song and could add to the variety factors of the film thus making it different from the remaining films which could make the film a hit.

Browsing thru some webzines we read some complaints saying that if this trend continues it could result in local talent getting suppressed. But have we ever paused to think that our very own Telugu play back singers have sung in all the other three South Indian languages and Hindi for years and they still do.

Looking at history we realise that the trend of non-Telugu playback singers singing in Telugu did not last long in yester years. It remains to be seen how long the present day Telugu audience accepts them this time.