Kaushal Inamdar reveals how ‘Marathi Pride Song’ changed private radio station’s attitude towards Marathi songs

Pune, February 28, 2023: Noted music composer Kaushal Inamdar revealed how his ‘Marathi Pride Song’ project featuring 543 artists helped change the attitude of private radio stations, who initially felt that playing Marathi songs was a “down market”.

“It was in 2008 when I visited a private radio station for work, I asked a radio jockey why Marathi songs were not played on private radio stations in Mumbai. To my shock, I got to know that the private radio stations then did not played Marathi songs, as they had a fear of getting identified as the down-market radio stations. It also trickled down to other cities like Pune, Nagpur,” Kaushal Inamdar recalled.

Kaushal Inamdar was speaking at the ‘Marathi Bhasha Gaurav Din’ program organized by MIT WPU’s School of Liberal Arts and Knowledge Resource Centre-Central Library at their Kothrud campus today. MIT WPU’s Vice Chancellor Dr Ravikumar Chitnis, counselor Dr Sanjay Upadhye, MIT School of Liberal Arts head Dr Preeti Joshi, chief librarian Dr Nitin Joshi, Director, Social Initiatives, Dr Mahesh Thorve, among others were present on the occasion.

“To do something for the Marathi language and its promotion, I decided to compose a song, which could be heard by the masses. I selected ‘Labhale Amhas Bhagya’ by acclaimed poet Suresh Bhat. We recorded the songs in three cities in nine studios. It was sung by 112 established singers including non-Maharashtrian singers like Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan and 356 other singers. We used 65 artists to record the song.

“After the song was launched on a grand scale in Thane in 2010, the next day it was played on a private radio station in Mumbai following which Marathi songs started playing on private radio channels,” Kaushal Inamdar recalled.

The 51-year-old Pune-born music composer said that the Marathi Pride Song even inspired music-maestro AR Rahman to compose for a ‘Tamil Pride Song’.

He concluded by saying that to preserve any language, it must be widely used. The program concluded with a ‘book-procession’ (Granth Dindi).

Caption Photo 1: Noted music composer Kaushal Inamdar speaking at the ‘Marathi Bhasha Gaurav Din’ program organized by MIT WPU’s School of Liberal Arts and Knowledge Resource Centre-Central Library at their Kothrud campus on Tuesday. (Sitting from left to right) Dr Preeti Joshi, Dr Mahesh Thorve, Dr Ravikumar Chitnis, Dr Sanjay Upadhye and Dr Nitin Joshi.