Singer and rapper Badshah has courted another controversy lately. He is being slammed left, right and centre for stealing lyrics from Bengali folk singer Ratan Kahar for his latest song Genda Phool 2.0. The song was released last week and features Jacqueline Fernandez in the video. The chorus of the song is in Bengali that goes, “Boroloker bitilo, lomba lomba chul, Emon mathay bnedhe debo lal genda phool (The rich man's daughter has long hair, I want to tie a marigold on it)." Apparently, this line has been plagiarized by Badshah from Kahar’s Bengali song Boroloker Bitilo that was written way back in 1970s.
Kahar, who lives in abject poverty recently spoke to a Bengali website and said that he does not even have money to drag the rapper to court. He said, “I wrote the song Boroloker Bitilo. The music, the words, everything is mine. Now, if people are dishonest, what can I do? I am extremely poor. Many people have taken my songs, but have not given me credit. They can't write their own songs. They used my songs as their own. I live in a hut. I write songs of the soil. I don't have the financial strength to drag them to court.”
He also reveals that his song was adapted by Swapna Chakraborty in 1976 as well and that time too he was not given due credit for it. However, Badshah’s misdemeanor did not escape the netizens who slammed him for lifting off lyrics from less influential but way more talented artists. Check out some of the tweets below.
Here is Ratan Kahar Singing #GendaPhoolhttps://t.co/lMKBTiTqCF
— Arpita (@arpita_dg) March 31, 2020
I remember his song from my childhood in Kharagpur, my sisters and I sang it often. Badahah needs to give open credit. Rather slimy, this plagiarism. But not surprising.
— Calmpanthi (@jomama_india) March 30, 2020
He has mentioned Bengali Folk as the original lyrics, but I don't know how that helps the original creator pic.twitter.com/qNzITAXfgb
— Nabeel Abdur Rahman (@Nabz464) March 30, 2020
What a shame. Plagiarists have to be dealt with firmly..
— Mini Nair (@minicnair) March 31, 2020
Voice for ratan kahar must be raise against these machine adjusted music makers , cause they are destroying real artists .
— tush (@tushar_JAtt) March 31, 2020
Kindly give due credit and financial support to original sing creater ketan kahar Bengali artist of the song Genda phool, u stole his catch phrase lines written by him n not given CREDIT that's not fair, u r insulting an artist being an artist.. apologize to him & help him
— Chandan Gaud (@Godchan7) March 31, 2020
However, after facing criticism, Badshah took to Instagram to issue a statement and said that as an artiste, he would never rob another of his credit. He mentions the lyrics as 'Bengali folk' on YouTube as Kahar's name was nowhere in the records. He said in his statement, “It took us time to speak to you because we were trying to find his name in the records. But then a lot of people started tagging me. There is a documentary on him, in which he mentions that he has written this song. To me, as per the records, it is a Bengali folk song. I am sure he is a great artiste... It is such a beautiful composition and piece of music and I just wanted to sample it in a song and I wanted the whole world to listen to it.
He further added, "Whosoever has tweeted me and all those who made this documentary and his well-wishers, I want you to reach out to Ratan Kahar and tell him that I am here and he can reach out to me, I would love to help him. I have heard he is struggling financially and I want all my friends from the fraternity to support folk artistes. But as of now, as per records, it''s a Bengali folk song. It''s not in the records that it's written by Ratan Kahar ji. I have no qualms in helping him. if there was no lockdown, I would have come and met you. People are saying I have taken his credit but there''s nothing like that. When we have given credit to everyone, who has worked on the video and audio why wouldn't we mention his name? It is about just two lines."
(Source: Twitter/India Today)
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