Bhubaneswar, June 28: Bollywood singers Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy will sing the popular Odia song Rangabati during the inaugural session of the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship.

The makers of the song have finally given their nod to the state government for a special performance of the song after a meeting with Sambalpur district collector today. Earlier, the composer and original singers of the song had refused to give permission for its performance and had also raised their voice against its use.

"They have demanded to keep the original flavour of the song intact and I have conveyed the same to the state government. They have no problem with the usage of the song during the event. We have also invited them to attend the inaugural show," said Sambalpur collector Samarth Verma.

Original singers of the Rangabati song Jitendra Haripal and Krishna Patel along with music director Prabhudutta Pradhan attended the meeting.

"It has its own originality. No one should try to distort the song and its original tune and music with remixes. The soul of the common man is attached to it," said Haripal.

He further added: "It is a matter of pride that the song will be a feature in such a prestigious event. I cannot accept the way some people earlier had tried to remix their version of Rangabati. To get into limelight and earn crores of rupees, they had played with the sentiments of the public. I do not want that to happen again."

Rangabati performance by Odia singers Sona Mohapatra and Rituraj Mohanty at the popular musical show MTV Coke Studio had snowballed into a controversy in 2015.

The makers of Rangabati, members of the Odia music fraternity, politicians and many listeners were allegedly offended by the show.

The controversy had reached such a level that the youth wing of the BJP had even had lodged a complaint against the singers at a police station in Sambalpur for not taking permission from the original lyricist and composer and distorting the song, hurting the feelings of millions of people in western Odisha.

Since then, however, director Nila Madhab Panda used the cult classic in his film Kaun Kitney Paani Mein. He had said that he procured the rights to use the track at that time.

District sports officer Upendra Satpathy, who was present during the meeting, added: "I had discussed the issue with lyricist Mitrabhanu Gountia. He could not attend the meeting. But he has also given his consent."

The song was recorded in 1976-77. But it still remains one of the most popular songs of Odisha.

In another development, chaos broke out at Kalinga Stadium today after people found the ticket counters closed even after its scheduled opening time of 10am. The counters were opened at 12.30pm to pacify the protesters.

Another chaos broke out after when some ticket-seekers found out that the tickets for the inaugural show were all sold out. "There are 20,000 seats and counters opened only yesterday. It is impossible that the tickets were sold out so early," said Akash Jena, a protester.

Officials, however, said that the interested people could book the tickets online. Online tickets for the mega sporting event are available at www.eventsnow.com/bhubaneshwar/asian-athletics-championship.

The tickets are available separately for morning and evening sessions.