India: Punjabi rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh tops 2012 Youtube views

Missing Ravi Shankar? Try foul-mouthed-but-supercool Punjabi rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh — though not if you're looking for classical sitar.

Best known for a song with an unprintable title (at least in Hindi), Yo Yo Honey Singh is arguably India's biggest non-Bollywood popstar, topping Youtube searches in 2012 with around 9 million viewers for his song "Brown Rang" (Brown Color), according to FirstPost.in.

The rapper gained mainstream Bollywood recognition with the song Angrezi Beat from the film Cocktail, however, much before that he was quite a phenomenon on the web and was ruling night clubs too, the website writes. And let’s not forget the Punjabi Weddings with songs like High Heels and Lak 28 Kudi Da. Infact, his song Lak 28 Kudi Da reached No 1 in BBC Asian Download Charts in May 2011.

Youtube revealed that this year’s most watched video in India has been selected not just on the basis of views, but the number of shares and searches as well since likes have also been taken into account, the website said.

Note: His most famous song apparently didn't meet FirstPost's censor's approval, either.