With barely a day to go for the annual festival of Rath Yatra, YouTube and other social media channels are getting flooded with music videos related to Lord Jagannath and his siblings. While the Odia music industry has become quite active and releasing new Odia bhajans of Lord Jagannath, internet singing sensations Antara Nandy and Ankita Nandy have released their version of the popular Odia bhajan 'Ahe Nila Saila'.
The Nandy sisters, who shot to fame with their musical balcony concerts, now chose a scenic location for the Odia bhajan, giving a twist to the original tune. Music lovers will certainly love the twist in the bhajan as well as the song in their melodious voice.
The caption for the video read, "This Ratha Yatra, May Lord Jagannath end all suffering and fill our lives with positivity, love and everything nice. This is for all our wonderful listeners from Odisha. Please take the time to watch the full video on YouTube. Link on my story ❤️ #JaiJagannath"
Further, the caption read, "Pardon our mistakes if any - we do not understand or speak Odia but we love the language and the people, so here’s our way of returning all the love you give us ❤️ Special thanks to Shibani Panda and my dear friend Akanksha Kujur for helping us with the Odia pronunciations."
Antara Nandy also shared the stage with Raw Star fame Rituraj Mohanty and sung a 'Thanks Giving' song titled Dhanyavad and composed by Salim Merchant. The purpose of the song was to celebrate Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Earlier, the sister duo had presented Sambalpuri folk songs, ‘Dalkhai Re’ and ‘Rangabati’. The sister duo dressed in Sambalpur sarees accessorized with Odissi dance ornaments and tribal headgears, and strummed their ukulele to the folk songs.
‘Ahe nila saila’ is an Odia bhajan closely associated with Lord Vishnu and Lord Jagannath circulating for decades and is quite close to the hearts of every Odia. In modern times, music makers and singers have come up with their versions including Ram Sampath and Sona Mohapatra.
Here's another music video or another version of Ahe nila saila: