"Poovukkul" is a song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

, sung in Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

, featured in the 1998 Tamil film

Kollywood

Kollywood is a word referring two different movie industries in India and Nepal, derived from the word Hollywood and their local movie centers.* Tamil cinema, the Tamil language film industry based on Kodambakkam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu,...

 Jeans

Jeans (film)

Jeans is a 1998 Tamil musical romance film. Directed and written by Shankar and produced by Ashok Amritraj and Murali Manohar, it stars Prashanth, Aishwarya Rai and Nassar in the lead roles. Raju Sundaram and Lakshmi, prominent actors from the south Indian film industry, played the roles of the...

. The song was written by the film's noted musical duo, composer A. R. Rahman

A. R. Rahman

Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...

 and lyricist Vairamuthu

Vairamuthu

Vairamuthu Ramaswamy Thevar is an award-winning Tamil poet and lyricist.Debuting in the film Nizhalgal with the lyrics for the song "Ponmalai Pozhudhu", he has now about 5800 songs to his credit as of January 2009. His partnership with the composers Ilaiyaraaja, and later A. R...

. It was performed by Unnikrishnan and Sujatha Mohan

Sujatha Mohan

Sujatha Mohan , usually credited as Sujatha, is an award-winning Indian playback singer who is popular for singing in Malayalam and Tamil movies. She has also sung for Telugu, Kannada and Hindi movies. She is widely popular for her evergreen melodies and her sweet voice is considered to be her...

.

This song achieved superhit status, primarily because of the music video, which is set in the backdrop of seven monumental sites in the world. Directed by S. Shankar

S. Shankar

Shankar is an Indian film director and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. He made his directional debut in Gentleman for which he was awarded the Filmfare Best Director Award...

 and shot by Ashok Kumar under the production of Ashok Amritraj

Ashok Amritraj

Ashok Amritraj is an Indian American film producer, former tour professional tennis player, and chairman of Hyde Park Entertainment.-Professional tennis:...

, the song helped catapult the film to blockbuster status.

"Poovukkul"'s music video features actor Prashanth

Prashanth

Prashanth is an Indian film actor who appeared in several Tamil films, as well as a few Telugu films, Hindi and Malayalam films.The son of noted actor-director Thyagarajan, Prashanth began his career at 17 by appearing in Vaigasi Poranthachu and went on to feature in other acclaimed films...

 and actress Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is an Indian film actress. She worked as a model before starting her acting career, and ultimately won the Miss World pageant in 1994...

, a previous Miss World

Miss World

The Miss World pageant is the oldest surviving major international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951...

 winner. The lyrics of the song compare Rai as a wonder of the world, citing that she is the "eighth wonder of the world". The film, which to date remains the most expensive song ever shot in Indian cinema, is set in six different countries.

Production

The team for the film then visited several other countries to picturize the song "Poovukul", which featured scenes with seven famous buildings, dubbing Aishwarya Rai as the "eighth wonder of the world". Shankar admitted that due to no real list being present, thought had been put into which wonders were selected. The team made a thirty day trip around the world stopping to can scenes at the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Leaning Tower of Pisa

The Leaning Tower of Pisa or simply the Tower of Pisa is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa...

, the Colosseum

Colosseum

The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...

, the Empire State Building

Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...

, the Great Wall of China

Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...

, the Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal...

, the Egyptian pyramids

Egyptian pyramids

The Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid-shaped masonry structures located in Egypt.There are 138 pyramids discovered in Egypt as of 2008. Most were built as tombs for the country's Pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods.The earliest known Egyptian pyramids are found...

, and the Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...

. During the shooting in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 the death of Princess Diana had taken place and shooting was delayed in the France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, due to her death. For the most part, Jeans was surrounded by world events of all sorts and for Shankar, the cast and crew of the film described the experiences as "tremendously vivid and memorable".