Badshah’s latest song ‘Genda Phool’, trending on YouTube features the very beautiful and elegant Jacqueline Fernandez. The song became quite popular not only due to its impressive audio and video aspects, but also due to the plagiarism charges that arose with it.
The rapper recently tweeted his statement, responding to these allegations: "I would first of all like to thank each one of you that loved and liked the song “Genda Phool” especially the appreciation from the the Bengali community worldwide, that has made it into the chart topper that it is currently trending World wide."
He continues, "On the 26th of March, I released a single called Genda Phool, which is a Hindi song with a Bangla folk lyrics. A couple of days after the song release, I started getting feedback on my Social media that the Bengali lyrics are originally from a song “Baro loker Beti Lo” that were penned by the Veteran Artit Shri Ratan Kahar."
"We had however done our due diligence before releasing the song, and nowhere on any copyright societies or on any of the previous reprises/ versions of the song was Mr. Ratan Kahar credited as lyricist. Information all across say that “Baro loker Beti Lo” is a traditional/ Folk song from the Bauls of Bengal. Just for general information, Traditional songs are open for recreations/ reprises/ sampling globally."
"I have always believed there is nothing more vibrant and beautiful than our Indian culture, music and languages. Which is why I have, in spite of being a commercial artist, always tried to include elements from my India roots in my music and present it to the world with the opportunities that I have."
"Genda Phool is my attempt at presenting the gorgeous melody of the Bengali Language and the forgotten instrument Dotara, packaged in a commercial somg to make it consumable for people not just in India but across the world. Infact to retain authenticity, we have gotten the dotara played by one of the veteran instrumentalists of Bengal, Tapas Ray. The lyrics have also been sung by the super-talented vocal artist Payal Dev who is Bengali herself, to do justice to the linguistics."
"After receiving so much information from the Bengali community, I have been constantly trying my best to reach out to him and connect with him to do justice to the situation to all my might. However, the lockdown situation has not been very helpful, it has been difficult to get through to the village that Shri Kahar is in and I am still trying. I urge and request any of the representatives who have been speaking on his behalf, to help me connect with him so I can do whatever possible on my part on humanitarian grounds to put this right."
"I hope my fans and country audience will understand and support that this is a very honest attempt to put our traditional sounds on the world Map and make the world aware of our worth. I urge you all to hear this song as a new way of introducing forgotten melodies to the new generation, as a celebration of Folk Music, PEOPLE’S MUSIC."
Please read pic.twitter.com/zKE47cFUn6
— BADSHAH 2.0 (@Its_Badshah) March 31, 2020