Rapper and singer Badshah’s latest music video Genda Phool has landed in controversy. Bengali folk artiste Ratan Kahar has alleged that his lyrics were used in the song without any credit to him. Kahar is in his 70s and hails from West Bengal. He told, “The lyrics of this song were written by me and music composition was also mine. But I never got any recognition for the song and it pains me a lot. I am Ratan Kahar, who never got recognised for the song. You judge what kind of justice is that.”
He said he first got to know that his song was used in the video after a theatre personality showed the video to him.
He also said, “I am extremely poor. Many people have taken my songs, but have not given me credit. I live in a hut. I write songs of the soil. I don’t have the financial strength to drag them to court.”
And now after much criticism, Badshah has finally come out to speak about the same. He wrote on Instagram, “We had done our due diligence before releasing the song, and nowhere on any copyright societies or on any of the previous reprises or versions of the song was Mr. Ratan Kahar credited as lyricist. Information all across say that it is a traditional folk song from the Bauls of Bengal. Just for general information, traditional songs are open for recreation/reprises or sampling globally.
He also wrote, “Genda Phool is my attempt at presenting the gorgeous melody of the Bengali language and the forgotten instrument Dotara, packaged in a commercial song to make it consumable for people not just in India but across the world. Infact to retain the authenticity, we have gotten the dotara played by one of the veteran instrumentalists of Bengal, Tapas Roy. The lyrics have also been sung by the super talented vocal artist Payal Dev who is Bengali herself, to do justice to the linguistics.”
He also said that after people raised the concern, he has been trying to reach out to him to solve the conflict but due to the lockdown, he is unable to do so.
