In preparation for Holi this year, Bihar’s Bhojpuri music scene is once again rife with sexual innuendo. The festival lends itself to songs with double entendre, because of the symbols popular at this time: water pistols, balloons, and horns with rubber air bladders (bhopu).
The transition from folksy family songs that documented seasons, relationships, and festivals, to raunchy music with double meaning has taken place over the past couple of decades. Particularly popular at Holi, upto 100 songs are released for the festival. They are often played in spaces like private buses that ply in mofussil areas or at local melas.
Perhaps not anymore. Congress MLA Pratima Kumari raised the issue of Bhojpuri music’s vulgarity in the Bihar Assembly this week. In reply, the State Planning and Development Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said that action would be taken against those making and playing songs with a double meaning and obscene videos. “The special branch of Bihar police has already issued instructions to district police units to file a complaint in this regard,” Mr. Yadav said in the Assembly on Wednesday.
Three days before, police in Bhojpur, in western Bihar, had booked a Bhojpuri singer Pramod Premi Yadav for vulgar Holi songs. He had allegedly used the word pichkari, and in the song aimed the water gun at the mothers and sisters of politicians at the Centre and State level. An FIR has been lodged against him for using derogatory words against politicians.
A senior police officer in Bihar said that anyone who violates the instruction of the government will be booked under IPC section 294 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC – obscene song or words in or near a public space). They are liable to be jailed or fined or both.
“The Bhojpuri music industry – that includes both film music and independent albums – is worth about ₹2,000 crore,” says Ranjan Sinha, who handles the launch of most Bhojpuri songs. “Annually, about 1,000 to 1,300 songs are released, and of these 20-30% are vulgar. The trend reached its peak in 2017,” says Mr. Sinha, adding that the singers are between the ages of 25 and 35, with listeners being even younger.
Songs like Holi Mein Maja Milela Na Pura by Neelkamal Singh, Ye Driver Jija by Neha Raj, Rang Marchai Lega Laage by Shilpi Raj, Bhauji Ke Dewra by Rakesh Mishra are popular this year. A generation ago, Pawan Singh, Khesari Lal Yadav, Guddu Rangeela, Sunil Chaila Bihari and Indu Sonali sang double entendre numbers until their popularity soared.
In Patna’s Bakarganj, there are more than a 100 shops that people can visit to download songs. They carry along pen drives or memory cards and pay ₹30 to ₹50 for 1 GB of worth of songs. A shopkeeper in the area said there are several reasons these songs are popular: song and album names that evince interest, music videos that are often raunchy, and the fact that Bollywood doesn’t release new Holi songs anymore. “Rang Barse and Holi Khele Raghuveera Avadh Mein are still played,” he says, adding that younger people don’t necessarily identify with those anymore.
Bhojpuri singer and actor Khesari Lal Yadav said he had stopped making songs with double meaning when he got trolled on social media. “I would like to change the perception of Bhojpuri films and songs and make them more family-oriented,” he added.
Ravi Kishan, Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur, and a Bollywood actor who has also acted in more than 350 Bhojpuri films, told The Hindu, “If we want to save the rich culture of Bhojpuri, we must stay away from vulgarity in any form, be it in song or cinema.”
