Playback singer Sravana Bhargavi recently put out a song on her YouTube channel. The same is a rendition of the Annamayya Keerthana 'Okapari'. Bhargavi did a cover version and is seen flaunting her saree-clad look in the video. The same has clocked more than 2 lakh views at the time of writing.

But the video has been slammed by many orthodox persons who are offended by how the song's sacredness has been "desacralized" by the mundane depiction and choreography. They are asking Bhargavi not to demean a timeless Keerthana that was written with a pious and devotional intent.

When a God or Goddess's beauty is praised in a Keerthana or a Bhajana, it is imbued with a sense of devotion. Without this pure emotion, the rendition is bereft of its inner beauty.

Interestingly, Bhargavi has turned off the comments section on YouTube, probably because she sensed a backlash from devotees.

The singer has been married to singer Hemachandra. The couple recently dismissed the divorce rumours that had cropped up. Hemachandra joked that stupid rumours spread faster than his songs. "Unnecessary, irrelevant, stupid information spreads much faster than my independent songs," he wrote on Instagram.

@SBhargaviSinger @YouTube is it the way to present #OKAPARI keerthana?? Watch the difference between two performances. How YouTube is allowing such type of videos. I request YouTube to avoid uploading of such vedios pic.twitter.com/5DLsT5Y35o

— Surya (@UNSURYAN) July 19, 2022