A newly released song titled ‘Dotara’ produced under the banner of T-Series has drawn strong criticism among Goalpariya folk artists across Assam for wrongly portraying the state’s culture and tradition.
The song is sung by Bollywood singers Jubin Nautiyal and Payal Dev and produced by Bhushan Kumar. It may be mentioned that the music video for the song was released on March 21 (Tuesday), featuring Mouni Roy and Jubin Nautiyal.
Speaking about the song, folk artists of Assam claimed that the producers of the song have hurt the Goalporiya folk elements and the evergreen composition of eminent folk singer Pratima Barua Pandey.
Speaking to media persons, folk musician Joba Chakraborty said, “The entire incident is very shameful. The song has wrongly portrayed Pratima Barua Pandey’s amazing creation ‘Komola Sundori Nache’. After the song was released on YouTube, I heard that Singer Jubin Nautiyal claimed the song is his creation. We cannot tolerate this and if needed we will protest against this. Not just the lyrics, the dress and presentation of the song are also quite obscene.”
Another individual from Goalpara claimed that creating music using some other musician’s works is not acceptable.
He said, “We demand that the song is banned immediately. It has hurt our sentiments and is an insult to our culture and traditions. It is the role of everyone and not just one person in society to protest against this heinous act. As an artist, you should create your own music and not copy what others have already created.”
Notably, in the music video, Mouni Roy dances to the beat, with Jubin Nautiyal singing alongside her. The video has a similar feel to the song "Genda Phool" by Badshah and Jacqueline Fernandez, which is also sung by Payal Dev. Both songs incorporate Bengali folk culture into their remixes.
In the year 2020, singer and rapper Badshah was accused of plagiarising Ratan Kahar’s Bengali folk song ‘Borlok er Bitilo’ in his single 'Genda Phool' which featured Bollywood star Jacqueline Fernandez.
