Subhendu Biswal and his team
Arindam Ganguly, OP
Bhubaneswar, July 31: After RJ Malishka’s ‘Sonu Song’ went viral on the web, different cities of the country created their own versions of the track in their own language – Gujarati, Bhojpuri and Punjabi, for example – with each version raising issues that are critical for their respective cities. Not to be left behind, Orissa created its own version of ‘Sonu’ with the objective of highlighting the various unique aspects of Oriya culture. The Marathi version of ‘Sonu Song’ mocks Mumbai’s municipal authorities over the sorry state of the city’s potholed roads, whereas the Oriya version seeks to project the cultural richness of the state. In an interaction with Orissa POST, Subhendu Biswal, an alumnus of Xavier Institute of Management-Bhubaneswar (XIMB) and founder of Story Lab India, said: “The original song was a poem written by a Marathi poet dedicated to his wife. It was initially a hit in Maharashtra, but after listening to the Marathi, Punjabi and Bhojpuri versions on YouTube we thought we could come up with an Oriya version. However, unlike the other versions of sticking to the
exact lyrics of the Marathi poem, we thought it would be a great idea if we could promote Oriya Culture with this funny song. So we changed the lyrics and introduced some cultural aspects like ‘manda pitha’, ‘gendu fula’, and ‘rasagola’. It worked. People in Maharashtra are now asking Oriyas about ‘manda pitha’. Subsequently, other versions in different languages started trickling in and Malishka too contributed immensely in popularising the number. The video has clocked 126,202 hits since it was uploaded July 6. We have received feedback
about a possible Sambalpuri version and we are working on it.” Story Lab India is an entertainment group founded September 20, 2015 by Biswal. It has many satirical videos to its credit, comic videos that convey socially relevant messages on issues related to education and urban cleanliness. Biswal said his musical objective was to present life’s journey through stories that offer varied interpretations of life. Videos such as ‘Ollywood Tamasha’ and ‘Alaga Prakar’ have been appreciated by viewers. In
one video Biswal copies journalist Arnab Goswami’s style of news anchoring by portraying a character called Arnab Rangaswami which was liked by scores of viewers. “We hope to create many more videos because they attract the attention of people more than protests and slogans. We have a couple of Oriya web productions in the pipeline. Our effort is to build a platform where talents from different sections of society, especially the youth, can assemble and create many more entertaining projects,” said Biswal.
