"Genda Phool" (English: Marigold flower) is a 2020 Hindi pop song by Indian rapper Badshah featuring playback singer Payal Dev. The music video for the song features Sri Lankan actress Jacqueline Fernandez, and Badshah.

History

The song is written and composed by Badshah, while the Bengali lyrics of the song was written by Ratan Kahar whereas it is sung by Badshah and it is set around the Hindu festival Durga Puja.^[1] The song was launched by Karan Johar, a friend of Badshah, on his social media.^[2]

Music video

The music video features Badshah and Sri Lankan actress Jacqueline Fernandez.^[3] Directed by Sneha Shetty Kohli,^[4] it was filmed in Esel Studio, Mumbai, over a period of two days.^[3] The video was released on 26 March 2020 on YouTube during the 2020 coronavirus lockdown in India.^[1]

Reception

Firstpost called the song a "foot-tapping number".^[5] Hindustan Times wrote: "[the song] is a steamy track which has a distinct folk melody fused with urban sounds".^[6] Latestly was disappointed with the lyrics, writing: "While the composition of Genda Phool is all fine, its lyrics play a spoilsport. Badshah's rap doesn't make sense and it even sounds childish at one point".^[7] Mid Day praised the music video of the song, writing, "The one thing that immediately strikes you about the song is the vibrancy with which it has been shot and captured".^[8]

Performance

Genda Phool came out to be commercially one of the most successful yet controversial numbers in the Indian history, additionally, it topped the Global YouTube Music Video Charts for two weeks with few more days and gained international listeners and attracted several other artists as well from around the world.^[9][10]

Plagiarism Issues

Badshah was grossly criticized over him sampling lines, 'Boroloker bitilo, lomba lomba chul, Emon mathay bendhe debo lal genda phool, which is from a Bengali folk number 'Boro Loker Biti Lok', without giving any due credits to the original lyricist and singer of the composition named Ratan Kahar, to be more precise Badshah was accused of plagiarism. Later he came up stating that the folk lyrics were not protected with any copyright infringement anywhere and it was not the first time that the lyrics are being used in songs, hence he doesn't find himself in any legal trouble and all what happened was nothing but a mere co-incident. When Ratan was approached by a website regarding the issue, he stated: "No one has contacted me yet since the release of the number"^[11] Responding to the allegation, Payal Dev said that folk songs do not have rights and the same song had been "used six to seven times" without any credit.^[12]

The rapper, on the other hand, came forward to help the folk lyricist on 'humanitarian backgrounds' by providing him with a financial aid of sum of Rs.5 lakhs and promised that would meet the veteran artist as soon as possible and would most probably collaborate with him as well^[13].