Since the song Saranga Dariya was released from the movie Love Story featuring Sai Pallavi, there has been a controversy around the ownership of the folk song. Issuing a clarification, director Sekhar Kammula took to social media on Wednesday and assured that the makers of the film would give due credits to the folk singer who initially popularised the song.
A folk singer, Komala Totte, popularised this song when she sang it in Rela Re, a folk music show in TNews. Speaking to The News Minute earlier, Komala said that she heard this song from her grandmother, who sang it while working in the fields. However, in the song that was released on YouTube, Komala was not given any credit, which triggered a row.
In his note, Sekhar Kammula reassured Komala that, “As promised, we would give credit to her in the film. We will give money to her and would also call her to the audio function and ask her to sing over there.”
Sekhar Kammula acknowledged that Komala was offered to sing the song after the release of the promo, which was sung by another singer, but she couldn't take up the offer as she was unwell.
“After verification, we have come to a conclusion that it was Komala, who first popularised this song. We then called her and asked her to sing this song. However, since she was suffering from a cold, she said she could not sing back then. Since we already announced the release date for the song, we were in a hurry and brought a music composer from Chennai and went ahead with Mangli. We have explained our situation to Komala and said that we cannot wait further and would give credits and money to her,” added the director.
Since its release, Saranga Dariya has been a major hit on YouTube and has garnered over 33 million views. The current version of the song is written by Suddala Ashok Teja and was sung by Mangli.