Odisha govt renames Bilung village after popular folk song Rangabati

The Odisha government has renamed Bilung village in the Bamra Tehsil of Sambalpur district to 'Rangabati Bilung' in recognition of the popularity of the famous folk-song.

The Odisha government has renamed Bilung village in the Bamra Tehsil of Sambalpur district to 'Rangabati Bilung' in recognition of the popularity of the famous folk-song. "The government has renamed the village of Mitrabhanu Gountia, lyricist of Odisha's popular folk song 'Rangbati' to 'Rangbati Bilung'. Respecting the creativity of these great lyricists, the government's move has made the popularity of the song even more widespread and timeless," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said.

The Revenue village has been renamed as 'Rangabati Bilung' on the receipt of a "No Objection Certificate" from the Indian government, the Revenue and Disasters Management Department, Odisha government issued a notification in this regard on Wednesday. The male singer of Rangabati is Jitendra Haripal, who received the Padmashree award in 2017. The song was first recorded in All India Radio (AIR), Sambalpur in 1975-76.

After its wide popularity, the Indian Record Manufacturing Company Limited (INRECO) recorded this song in disc format in 1976, which was finally released in 1978-79. The music composer for this number is late Prabhudatta Pradhan. The co-singer with Jitendra Haripal is Krishna Patel. The song enjoys the distinction of having been played during the Republic Day parade in New Delhi in 2007.

Mitrabhanu Gauntia, the lyricist of this song, was born in the Bilung village and has composed about 1,000 Sambalpuri songs. He also received the Padmashree Award in 2020 in addition to Odisha State Sangeet Natak Academy Award and Akashvani National Award for music. Rangabati has the unique distinction of being re-created in many other regional languages of India and the song is very popular in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar as well as Chhatisgarh. (ANI)

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