Play on, Papon

Assams musical poster-boy is now Bollywoods hottest new voice.

Angaraag Papon Mahanta and his electric folk-fusion band East India Company are all set to globetrot on their musical journey… and conquer hearts

Angaraag Mahanta — a.k.a. (and much better known as) Papon — is being hailed as the next big thing in Bollywood music, after his virtuoso renditions for Dum Maaro Dum, Barfi, Special 26 and Inkaar.

The 30-something Assamese singing sensation was in Dubai recently, for the Du Music Festival in Dubai. wknd. caught up with him for a chat, hours before his electrifying performance at the Dubai Media City Amphitheatre.

His parents — legendary Assamese folk singers Khagen Mahanta and 
Archana Mahanta — gave him a beautiful name, Angaraag, which means melody that flows through each vein 
|of the body.

Papon was “trained in classical and folk music”, but wasn’t sure if he was going to follow in his parents’ footsteps (even though he had stunned his mother by soulfully rendering a famous 
Mehdi Hassan ghazal at the age of five). “I moved to Delhi to become an architect — but got lost… music again att-racted me. So I didn’t complete my course when I realised I was born to be a musician… Those days, Delhi was becoming a hub for new-age musicians. 
I got to meet many others from other parts of the country.”

His first solo Assamese album Jonkaai Raati (Moonlit Night) was released in 2004; it became a cult hit in his state. “My music started getting noticed, app-reciated… and then, I happened to meet MIDIval Punditz.” He started collabora-ting with the well-known fusion band to perform in international music festivals — in New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore, Switzerland and Norway (and most recently, in Dubai).

Papon’s unusual debut album in 
Hindi — The Story So Far — won the GIMA (Global Indian Music Academy Awards) best pop album award in 2012. In this album, he recreated some of Assam’s most famous folk numbers and showed the full repertoire of his wonderful skills by singing classical, soft-rock and jazz. “The Story So Far was loved by everyone. The GIMA award was a bit surprising considering it was my debut album. But it was a wonderful feeling…”

It was his relocation to Mumbai 
and the Bollywood hits that have now put his name on the lips of the top guns in the industry. Has life changed after Jiyein kyun and Kyun for him outside Assam (where he enjoys rock-star status)? “No, it hasn’t changed much! But yeah, there are people on the streets of Mumbai who — once they realise I am the guy who sang Jiye kyun and Kyun — want to take pictures with me. It’s nice to see the love and respect.”

The laurels in tinseltown notwithstanding, Papon has his sights set on a bigger goal: taking the folk music of the (utterly neglected) North East of India to the global stage by blending it with soft rock and classical tunes. His experiment with a tokari geet, a traditional Assamese folk song, at MTV Coke Studio was so well-received that it had more than 200,000 hits on YouTube.

At his aid, to help him in this mission, is his band East India Company, formed in 2007. How did he think of the name? It’s an interesting story. “When I decided to form my own band, I went to Assam in search of possible partners, and found the five souls (Brin, Jinti, Kriti, Dipu and Tanmay) who were meant for music,” Papon remembers. “I brought all five of them back to Delhi with me.” Even though he had a family, he ensured “all of them stayed with us in my own flat… It was like one big family. So from there started our journey. People began to like our style of folk-fusion. We got invited to numerous shows.”

rituraj@khaleejtimes.com