BHUBANESWAR: The dust over 'Rangabati' controversy refuses to settle. Odisha-born singer Sona Mohapatra on Friday took to the microblogging site Twitter to question rendition of the popular Sambalpuri folk song by Bollywood singer Shankar Mahadevan during opening ceremony of the 22nd Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar.
She said original singer Jitendra Haripal could have been asked to sing the song during the prestigious event instead of Mahadevan. "Did it not occur to you that Jitendra Haripal could've been asked to sing at BBSR?Where did your Sambalpur/Odia pride vanish? Hypocrites much?" tweeted Sona, who had earlier landed in controversy for remaking 'Rangabati' for MTV Coke Studio.
While stating that the issue has nothing to do with either Mahadevan or Haripal, she blamed the State Government for not supporting her version of the song. Sona alleged that unlike in case of Mahadevan, Odisha Government did not negotiate or facilitate a meeting between her and Haripal before rendition of the remixed version of the song.
In a series of tweets, she clarified that like Mahadevan, she and her team had invited Haripal to be felicitated before the Coke Studio version of 'Rangabati' was released. "He had agreed but backtracked after the politics took over," she wrote.
On the other hand, Haripal said he had no issue over Mahadevan singing 'Rangabati'.