‘Dulhan Banami’: Odisha & Assam’s Musical Collab Wows Hearts

‘Dulhan Banami’: Odisha & Assam’s Musical Collab Wows Hearts

Noted American author Helen Adams Keller’s quote says, "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." Collaborative effort for any work does miracles and that’s no wonder. Recent musical collaboration between Odisha and Assam with the song ‘Dulhan Banami’ is a reminder of the same. This Sambalpuri song composed by one of the budding talents from Odisha Bijay Anand Sahu who has a long list of recent Sambalpuri hits including songs like ‘Amar Gaan’, ‘Alta Makhi’, ‘Bela 2.0’ and many others to his credit. Sung by one of the most loved Assamese singers, Achurjya Borpatra and Odia singer Kiran Dash, the music video is getting rave reviews starring Achurjya himself and Assamese actor and dancer Annanyya Kashyap opposite him. The lyrics of the song have been written very beautifully by Pratham Kumbhar, who is also the lyricist of other hit songs of Bijay Anand Sahu.

While talking to My City Links about the collaboration Achurjya said, “I have been listening to Bijay’s songs for a long time and I love them. Rani Guri is the song I liked the most among all his other composed songs. We got to connect with him and asked him to do a song for us. He also happily agreed and took 2-3 months to make this masterpiece. Everything for this song happened over a phone call and I want to mention here that whenever I talked to Bijay, there was never any strange feeling. We felt like we had known each other for years.” 

“I still remember I was afraid of the dance beats and was very conscious. But thanks to our whole team, I did it. I am not too good at dancing but this is the first song where I have danced so much. After seeing the steps for the song by the choreographer and director Sachin Baruah, I was like ‘Ye mere se nahi hoga (I can’t do it.).” But he was sure that I could do it. We practiced dedicatedly and the result is here. There is an indigenous language called Jhumoor in Assam and Sambalpuri is a bit similar to it. So few people here at first thought that it is a Jhumoor song. No matter what language it is, music itself is like a language which connects everyone across all barriers. Which is why the song is now spreading love worldwide,” he added.

Overwhelmed with the response from the audience, Bijay is happy seeing his music reach beyond the state. He said, “We got in touch through instagram for this project. Achurjya is a great singer and he has done amazing work in this project. I guided him with the accurate pronunciation and every other detail over the phone as they had little time before they released the song. We already had an audience base in Assam and this song has grown it further. This is a great collaboration and I wish we’ll continue doing such collaborations more in the near future.”

Shot in Gauhati, made with a budget of around 7.5- 8 Lakh, this song has a huge crew of about 200 people. A native of Tengahola Gaon, Golaghat, Achurjya started his musical journey from a very young age. He has been singing Bihu from his childhood. He shifted to Guwahati for his higher studies and did his bachelors in Mathematics from B Barooah college.

While talking about his musical journey, Achurjya said, “The journey started from my first album ‘Xuworoni’, but before that, for three years there have been days when I stood up in queues for hours just to sing a few choir lines. Later, I got a chance to sing in many albums. Years passed and I worked as a music composer and lyricist for movies. Then my own album, ‘Dichang’ happened, which was a turning point because I got lots of love from the people of Assam. After albums, my singles like ‘Para Jodi Huana Mur’, ‘Hoine Ko’, ‘Mini Tor Piche Piche’, ‘Moloya Baideu' and  many more had a great impact on my music career. The wedding song titled ‘Biya’ became a milestone achievement with its widespread acceptance by people regardless of age. There are many upcoming projects. I am hopeful that people will keep supporting and showing their love to my songs.”

Recently he sung another beautiful song 'Bidurgeet’ for a popular web series ‘Bidurbhai’ in Assam. This song has garnered a lot of praise from people around the country and abroad. He also sung the title song named ‘Ahi Gol Raghupati’ of a super hit Assamese film ‘Sri Raghupati’'. Being passionate about folk music, Achurjya loves promoting his own state's tradition & culture like Bihu, Jhumoor, Tokari Geet and many more through his music.