Voice from North-East set to captivate Bollywood

New Delhi, Jan 20 (UNI) Charged up with his high-voltage performance at New Zealand's 'Crossover Concert' with foreign musicians, Angaraag Mahanta, the musical youth sensation from Assam, is now all set to make his foray into Bollywood.

Well-versed in Indian classical and traditional music of Assam, Angaraag, who recently came up with a stupendous performance in the SAARC festival, has chalked out a plan for making his presence felt among Hindi pop music lovers.

''I am busy lending my voice to a number of Bollywood films and have also begun working on a Hindi album 'India Nation','' Angaraag, who has also set up a studio in the capital where he works with the other four members of his band 'East India Company', told UNI.

Hugely popular in Assam for his evergreen hit number 'Mon Mur Udi Gusi Jai,' the 32-year-old singer says it was Assam's traditional, devotional and folk music base that which helped him mesmerize the tens of thousands of audience in New Zealand.

At the Crossover Concert, Angaraag sang with established jazz artists from the band Onomatopoeia. One of the biggest musicians, the self-taught acoustic guitar player Rhian Sheehan also performed with him.

''Music can cross all kinds of barriers. The only distance it needs to cover is from one heart to another,'' said Angaraag, who was amazed to see people's zeal in concerts in New Zealand, Jodhpur international folk concert and SAARC here, even though they did not understand his language.

Besides providing scores for many regional films in Assam, Angaraag also composed music for the feature film 'The Last Monk', that had been entered in various film festivals across the globe.

Born to famous Assamese singer duo Khagen and Archana Mahanta, Angaraag told UNI, ''I have borrowed my homeland's traditional music in my works that reaches not only the senses but beyond them, to one's soul. It is a new version of fusion of Carnatic, Hindustani classical, acoustic folk, electronic ghazal, sufi, jazz, rock; all very fresh and unheard pieces.'' Popularly known by his nick name 'Papon' among his fans, the versatile singer had landed up in the capital 14 years back with entirely different plans to study architecture but fate had something else in store.

''Music is my passion, my dream," says Angaraag, an ardent fan of Sufi music and its maestro Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

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