Langas & Manganiyars tread the B'wood path

Jaipur: After the success of some of the Langa and Manganiyar artistes from Jaisalmer, Barmer and Jodhpur who won name, fame and glory by participating in reality shows and doing playback singing in Hindi films, senior artistes are now preparing themselves and their children for Bollywood numbers.
It is noteworthy that Swaroop Khan, a Langa artiste from state, got an offer to do playback singing in the film PK after he got noticed in Indian Idol season 5, while Moti Khan surprised the famous music composers by his innocent singing too.
After the success, the Langa and Manganiyar artistes who were earlier getting farmaish by music lovers to sing folk songs like `Nimbuda', `Badjuband', `Hichaki', `Mast Qalandar', are also being asked to sing songs of yesteryears varying from those by Mohammed Rafi to Kisho re Kumar. “We had participated in the birthday bash of Mukesh Ambani at Mehrangarh Fort, which had a good audience. Suddenly some of them asked us to sing numbers like `Teri galiyon main na rakhenge kadam', `Aaja aayi bahar', `Musafir hun yaaron', and many more of such songs. It appears that after the success of our brothers Swaroop Khan and Moti Khan, the audiences are now expecting us to sing some Hindi songs as well,“ said Bhuttey Khan, a Manganiyar artiste from Barmer.
It is not that these artists are rigid towards learning these songs, but they have ensured that their next generation should not forget their folk songs.
“We don't need to rehearse much for Hindi songs as just by listening to these numbers once or twice, we can sing it for our audiences. However, even while learning these songs, we don't forget our numbers that actually earn us our bread and butter,“ said Khan. “I am into playback singing still the folk songs of my native desert remain close to my heart. In a live show, if I sing my song `Tharki chokro' from the film PK, I also make it a point to sing various folk songs of the desert too,“ said Swaroop Khan while talking to TOI over phone from Mumbai.
These artistes are invited at various parts of the globe mainly by the Indian community who also urge them to sing some Hindi songs.
Langas and Manganiyars are both exclusively hereditary communities who earn their living as musical performers for higher-caste patrons.Both perform together with traditional instruments like Sindhi sarangi and kamaicha.