Popular Sambalpuri folk song Rangabati makes a comeback in
yet another version, in the voice of a young Mumbai based Odia girl Pragya Patra, unlike its last MTV Coke Studio remix version which ran into legal
trouble last year.
A new folk cover of Rangabati was released on the eve of
this Independence Day on YouTube by Punyaa Production. Young Odia singing
sensation Pragya Patra has given voice in this music video mixed and mastered
by Anil CJ.
The short music video completely shot in Odisha also highlights
the popular tourist destinations, food and culture of the state. Pragya Patra
is one of the founder members of the Punyaa Production.
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(Photo: Pragya Patra/FB Page) |
The original Rangabati song enjoys a cult status among the
Odia music lovers over the last four decades ever since it was first composed
in the mid-1970s for the Sambalpur centre of the All India Radio. The original
song was written by lyricist Mitrabhanu Gauntia and composed by Prabhudatta
Pradhan. Jitendra Haripal and Krishna Patel had given voice for this
composition. Following its huge popularity a Kolkata based company Indreco
released its first recorded version in 1978.
This was the first Indian folk song to be aired by BBC and Voice
of America in the 1980s is the proof of the immense popularity of this song
composed in the folk style of western Odisha.
Controversy with Coke Studio Remix Version
Well known music composer Ram Sampat released a remix
version of the song in July 2015 in the voice of Sona Mohapatra and India’s Raw
Star fame Rituraj Mohanty for the MTV Coke Studio programme. Though the remix
version received over a million views on YouTube it ended up in a legal battle.
In the remix version Sona voiced the folk part of the song
while Rituraj Mohanty blended it with ‘Bande Utkal Janai’, the state anthem.
This led to a huge controversy with a police complaint filed against Sona
Mohapatra and Rituraj for hurting the sentiment of the Odias.
The controversy escalated to serving of a legal notice to Ram Sampat and MTV
for a copyright infringement and a week long debate over the taste of the remix
version on social media and television studios.
Very dry; real emotion in punctuation punctured !!!
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