Priyanka Gope and Samarjit Roy’s ‘Behager Shure’ strikes a chord

Priyanka Gope is a noted classical singer who made her debut in the film, Anil Bagchir Ekdin, in 2015, for which she had won the National Film Award for the best female playback singer. She completed her MA from the Department of Music, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. She is a faculty member of the Department of Music at University of Dhaka.

Samarjit Roy, on the other hand, is a versatile vocalist and composer. He is trained in Indian classical music and is famed for his unique compositions. He was nominated for Global Indian Music Awards (GIMA), in the category of Best Popular Music Album in 2011.

Priyanka and Samarjit have teamed up for a duet classical song for the first time, on the occasion of Durga Puja. The song, titled, Behager Shure, was released on the YouTube channel of G Series recently.

Samarjit has composed the song, written by GK Dutta. “I have composed a western-classical song before, after which, Priyanka expressed her interest in doing a similar piece with me,” says Samarjit. “Haimanti Sukla was supposed to sing Behager Shure in the first place, but later, we decided to do it as a duet.”

Priyanka stated that her experience of working with Samarjit was delightful. “Samarjit wanted it to be a solo song. However, I wanted it to be a duet. He agreed to team up with me, and it has turned out really well,” she says.

 The artistes further shared their views on the state of classical music in the country. While Priyanka believes that classical music is not for the mass audience, Samarjit shares that winning the hearts of classical music listeners is more important, irrespective of the number of views and likes a classical song receives.

Priyanka is currently busy with some television programmes, and intends to sing more classical songs.  Samarjit is also busy with his upcoming projects.