Simple Superstar

Indulekha Aravind talks to Wilbur Sargunaraj, hailed as India’s first YouTube star, on his climb up the popularily chart

Mummy, Daddy, I want a louwe marriage,” he sings, while alternating between a bright yellow-and-black auto rickshaw and dancing enthusiastically in an open field with a bunch of middle-aged Tamilian women who at times double over with laughter. With his white shirt, black tie, black trousers and slicked down hair, he looks not unlike an earnest door-to-door salesman. But this is Wilbur Sargunaraj, touted as India’s first YouTube star, a claim that might well be true.

Sargunaraj’s first YouTube video, the Blog Song, came out in 2007. But it was his Love Marriage, which appeared in February last year, that was the real humdinger — the impossible-to-get-out-of-your-head song, where he pleads with his parents to let him have a “louwe marriage” with the pretty girl across the street, has notched up 784,343 views so far. And fans include the likes of well-known film critic Roger Ebert.

Apart from his various music videos, Sargunaraj’s other “first-class” (a favourite Tamil adjective he generously uses) series is Super Call Solutions where he gives hilarious instructions on pressing questions like “How to use an eastern latrine” and “How to order a burger in drive through,” in heavily accented English, interspersed with Tamil. In another video, he teaches the bhangra to a bunch of westerners. The trick, he tells them, is to twitch your shoulders non-stop.

Sargunaraj is in India, for the launch of his second album, Simple Super Star. “It will be a super, first-class dance party, madam,” he says over the phone from Chennai, the first stop on the India leg of his tour. He is in talks for a movie which will feature songs from the album.

Born in Madurai, Sargunaraj shifted to Canada after finishing school in India. He took a university course in drumming there, following it up with courses in New York and Los Angeles. The musician became an entertainer after he saw the response to Love Marriage. “I was really surprised by the response to Love Marriage. I realised people are enjoying this and started to think of writing more songs,” says the 33-year-old who divides his time between Toronto in Canada and Tamil Nadu.

The YouTube sensation is an entertainer with a mission, though. He sees his music as a platform to unite people from different backgrounds. “With my music and film, I want to get people to interact with one another,” he says. In Mumbai, another stop, he will be performing at a free concert for slum children, and he says he always partners with local charities wherever he is performing.

But there’s one more twist in the Sargunaraj tale. According to various comments online, Sargunaraj is actually the alter ego of Canadian drummer Paul Benjamin, much like British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and his characters, Ali G, Borat and Bruna. Quiz him about it and he denies it vehemently, dubious moustache notwithstanding. “Benjamin is my producer and, at times, acts as my manager. He is predominantly involved with his music. And how can you think we look similar — I am more handsome than him!” When asked whether we can perhaps see them perform together sometime, he does say that will never happen.

Nevertheless, whatever his true identity, with his simple but hilarious videos, Sargunararj (or Benjamin) seems to be living up to his motto, of “making the common extraordinary.”