Sona Mohapatra’s ‘Ahe Nila Saila’ sparks controversy
Renowned singer Sona Mohapatra seems to be a favourite child of controversy, at least for the people of Odisha. She has managed to grab the eyeballs, for all the wrong reasons once again and this time she wrongly pronounced a couple of words from the iconic Odia bhajan “Ahe Nila Saila” by renowned Odia poet Salabega, just few weeks ahead of world famous Rath Yatra.
The singer on Monday posted a video on YouTube that she had performed the epic bhajan in a live concert in Mumbai last year. In the video, she is heard pronouncing Salabega as “Sale bega”, Charana as “Charane” Shrianga as “Chhiranga” and Matta as “Maatra” in her rendition.
Soon after Sona posted the video, she started getting hate comments and she received severe backlash for the same.
As a free citizen you have evey option to choose your own path, but you have absolutely no rights to denegrade others love for their language and culture. You are a serial offender of Odia identity and be happy with that. You are free to be arrogant. https://t.co/vb6S4DGgK0
— Kedar Mishra (@MishraKedar1) June 18, 2018
1) Yes, that is always the endeavour, to learn & try & improve.
2) Not the easiest task considering it’s not really my 1rst language or even 2nd.
3) Does it occur to anyone that customising each live set for each part of the country like I do is quite a gargantuan task? https://t.co/zTydt1Y5MR— Sona Mohapatra (@sonamohapatra) June 18, 2018
Actually the body language, the voice, the pronunciation, the attitude she was carrying with the song was totally unacceptable , amateurish and inauspicious.#SonaMohapatra #ଆହେ_ନିଳୋ_ଶଇଳୋ
— Odia Adrenaline #ଓଡିଆ #Odisha #ଓଡିଶା (@OdiaAdrenaline) June 18, 2018
It is not an isolated case of controversy for Sona. The singer had previously invited widespread criticism for her remix of iconic Sambalpuri song ‘Rangabati’.