A shop owner arranges Nagpuri VCDs in Ranchi on Thursday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Mor aathara saal hoi gelek re/mor shadi karai de/jodi jamai de (I am already 18. Get me married, find me a companion).

Cheesy and catchy, Nagpuri pop songs like this one sung by Kumar Tannu were music to all ears in Jharkhand and some adjoining Bengal districts till a few years ago. Not any more.

Piracy, coupled with waning interest, has sounded the death knell of this genre of modern music that once used to be a hinterland favourite. These days, the audio and video CDs and DVDs are not finding too many takers even though there is no dearth of talented singers, rue producers.

Amit Sinha of Kuju (Hazaribagh), who sells music CDs at his mobile repairing shop and had come to Ranchi’s Daily Market to have a look at the latest hits, summed up the situation best. “There’s no buyer these days,” he said.

Agreed Deepak Sahay of Rajdhani Cassettes, who is in the music business for years and has established a distribution network operating from Daily Market. “Earlier, we would produce and sell more than 50 CDs and DVD albums every year, now it’s difficult to push even five. Piracy has ruined us. Once an album is out, it is copied as the “chips” (CDs, pen drives and memory cards) are really cheap,” he said. It is not that production of Nagpuri CDs and video albums has stopped. In fact, a new singer is born everyday.

A new album, Piya Milan, was released early this week itself (December 4) by Subodh Kumar, a young man who ventured into albums “as a first step towards film-making”. A few more will come out during Christmas.

Tej Mundu, a noted music arranger who had formed Salem Group two decades ago and brought out many audio cassettes that popularised both Nagpuri music and singers, said: “CDs and DVDs were also a huge hit when advanced technologies staged an entry. It was through these cassettes and DVDs that lead singers like Monica Mundu, Mitali Ghosh, Jyoti, Azad Ansari, Pritam and Ingnesh became famous. The albums helped the artistes establish themselves and many of them earn a decent living through live performances. Having said that, buyers are very less now. Piracy must stop to keep modern Nagpuri songs alive.”

“Unlike before, cable connection and DTH service are now available even in villages. That, being a better form of entertainment, also contributes to the drop in demand for CDs and DVDs,” added Bulu Ghosh, another music arranger.

Many in the trend are of the opinion that Nagpuri folk songs as presented by Bipul Naik, his son Nandlal and Madhu Mansuri, would survive as tradition but its modern version might just die out if the present trend continued.

Ghosh, however, is not ready to give up hope. “These songs are still in demand. We get queries from as far as Punjab and Goa. The music won’t die. Judging by the trend, I won’t be surprised if big players step in soon and online trading of these songs begins,” he said.