Odisha’s migrant worker raps his way to fame | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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Odisha’s migrant worker raps his way to fame

Hindustan Times, Bhubaneswar | ByDebabrata Mohanty
Jul 10, 2020 07:01 PM IST

With the songs going viral, Duleswar Tandi, a 27-year-old science graduate and a migrant worker himself, is being compared to the character played by Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh in the 2019 Hindi film Gully Boy.

A 27-year-old Dalit in Odisha’s Kalahandi district has found fame with rap songs on migrant workers turning the focus on their plight after the lockdown enforced on March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Duleswar Tandi, who wiped tables and washed plates at an eatery in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, for a living, came back to his mudhouse in Borda village in March just a day before the national lockdown was announced.
Duleswar Tandi, who wiped tables and washed plates at an eatery in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, for a living, came back to his mudhouse in Borda village in March just a day before the national lockdown was announced.

With the songs going viral, Duleswar Tandi, a 27-year-old science graduate and a migrant worker himself, is being compared to the character played by Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh in the 2019 Hindi film Gully Boy.

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Tandi, who wiped tables and washed plates at an eatery in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, for a living, came back to his mudhouse in Borda village in March just a day before the national lockdown was announced.

“As I watched the Covid cases grow in China, US and European countries, I could sense that it was matter of weeks before the virus comes to India. So I decided to come back,” said Tandi.

Several of his friends in the villages nearby who worked in states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chennai and Karnataka could not return for more than a month. Many of them returned a couple of months later, by hopping onto a bus or walking or cycling.

Sitting at home without work and seeing the videos of migrant workers travelling in pitiable conditions stoked the inner angst in Tandi.

After coming back, Tandi, who goes by the nickname Rapper Dule Rocker in Kalahandi, did a 2.45 minute rap video called Telling the Truth in which he vents his anger against the politicians, calling them thieves. In May, Tandi made a 3.5 minute rap video called Sun Sarkar, Sat Katha (translation) in which he raps about how the coronavirus disease and subsequent distress came as a rude jolt to migrant workers.

“In that video I rapped about how the migrant workers who had saved their hard-earned money lost everything in a matter of days after the factories and construction sites were closed due to the lockdown. All that the leaders were doing is giving us sermons instead of helping the migrant workers. I was angry and so wrote down the rap song,” said Tandi, who first migrated for work soon after completing his B. Sc degree in chemistry from a government college in Kalahandi in 2013.

With the two acres of land mortgaged with a bank in 2014 for Rs. 50, 000, when his mother had to undergo a surgery in a hospital in Visakhapatnam, Tandi said he had no option but to work. He initially wanted to be a doctor, but his family’s financial condition meant he had to forget that ambition. In 2017, his father, Nilamani Tandi, a farmer and local police station assistant, passed away.

The Dalit man had his set his heart in rap music since his college days. “When I used to write lyrics for rap music, everyone used to dissuade me. Everyone used to say what would you gain out of it. But in my heart I knew that I wanted to be a rapper,” he said.

In 2014, someone from Punjab saw one of his videos on Facebook and called him to perform in Chandigarh. “It was a new experience for me as I performed in different competitions,” he said.

In 2015, he came to Bhubaneswar and made the round of studios for making videos. No one helped him because he did not have the money required to make slick rap videos. “One needs at least 50,000 for making each such rap video which I did not have. So I decided to stick to making the videos on my mobile phone.”

The rap songs on migrants that Tandi composed during lockdown have slowly become popular. After hearing his songs, Odia singer Humane Sagar recently gave him 30,000. A local recording studio recently called him, expressing an interest in recording his music.

Tandi says his songs would be about common people and their hardships. “I don’t want to promote sleaze or liquor in my songs. Migrant workers like us have too many issues. Those things would find a place in my songs,” he said.

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