The excitement around
Shivarajkumar
’s next, Tagaru, is something else. The film’s songs have also been topping music charts. One song in particular,
Tagaru
Banthu Tagaru, has become a rage, with its powerful lyrics and catchy tune. The voice behind the song is Tamil folk singer
Anthony Daasan
, who became a household name with the track
Kaasu Panam
in the Tamil film Soodhu Kavvum. This is his first
Kannada
song.
Anthony, who likes to be known as ‘Folk Marley’, is happy with the song’s response. “It gives me goosebumps to see it has become such a big hit. Frankly, I didn’t know much about Tagaru when I agreed to music director
Charan Raj’s request to sing the title track. As an artiste who’s sung in Tamil, Telugu and
Malayalam
but never in Kannada, it was an unfulfilled wish to sing in this language. So, when the offer came along, I pounced on it. It was only during the promotions and launch of the film that I got to know it was Shivarajkumar’s movie, and that felt like I had signed up for a
Rajinikanth or
Kamal Haasan movie in Tamil.”
Singing in a language that one is not familiar with comes with a set of challenges. “I did struggle initially, especially with the pronunciation. But the bigger challenge was to get the intense emotion of the song right, which I was able to do by listening to the sample track that Charan had sung and recorded. Giving the track my signature style, however, proved to be a bigger task because Charan had sung it so well,” confesses Anthony.
The movie team recently released a video of the song’s recording session, in which director Suri, Shivarajkumar and Charan can be seen having a good time listening to Anthony singing in the studio. Anthony lights up when asked about the session, and says, “Seeing Shivanna enjoy the song in the studio made me very happy. It motivated me to sing better and with more energy. Even in the parts where I had to whistle for the song, he was whistling with me. He was so happy with the track that he gave me his phone number and invited me for lunch. I knew he had a warm, humble personality, but not to this extent.”