Singers Sona Mohapatra and Ram Sampath perform at KIIT’s annual fest in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 18: Unarguably one of the most popular Odias in Bollywood, singer Sona Mohapatra along with her composer husband Ram Sampath was in the city yesterday evening to perform at a concert.

The couple with their high-octane performance left one and all craving for more. The concert was a part of Kolosseum, the annual festival of KIIT School of Management.

Sona, proving that she is a khanti Odia, began her performance with the famous Odia folk song Jai Phoola calling it her homecoming song.

The crowd of around 1,500 youngsters that mostly comprised local students just could not stop cheering. Sona, whose voice stands out from rest of the Bollywood playback singers, enjoys a huge a fan following in the city.

She garnered the audience’s attention by crooning some Indie pop songs such as Tere ishq nachaya, Bolo na, Aaja ve among others making her a voice to reckon with.

She also regaled her fans with the hit songs from the Aamir Khan’s TV show Satyameva Jayate. Everybody had a lump in their throats when in her mellifluous voice she sang O ri chiraiya and Mujhe kya bechega rupaiya.

But the loudest cheers were yet to come and they were saved for her mainstream hits such as Jiya lage na from the movie Talaash and Ambarsariya from the flick Fukrey.

“I am amazed to see how rapidly Bhubaneswar has transformed and developed in these past two years, when even Mumbai seems to be in a standstill. Your campus is by far one of the most beautiful I have come across and you are one of the most vibrant crowds I have performed for,” said the singer to those gathered at the campus lawn. She ended her performance with the colourful song Rangabati.

Her performance was interspersed with witty one-liners and jokes in Odia and she even managed her husband Ram to utter a few lines in Odia. Ram admitted that he was trying to learn the language from his better half.

With major hits such as Tanha Dil, Bhaag DK Bose and Switty tera pyaar from Delhi Belly, Jee le zara from Talaash, he gave the audience a lot to cheer about. He occasionally added a pinch of funk and popular music into folk and Indie pop songs.

“It was an unexpectedly pleasant evening, all of us stood together and swayed and sang along with her. It felt like a fun solidarity meet,” said 23-year old Aanshu Das, a management student.

Her friend Samata added, “It was touching - an adjective we do not usually associate with a rock concert, especially because she performed Odia songs.”