A freak comment by a radio jockey about Marathi songs being too 'downmarket' to be played on FM stations prompted Kaushal Inamdar compose one of the biggest Marathi songs ever called Marathi Abhimaan Geet which radio channels had no option but to play on a loop after its release. Fiercely protective about protecting and promoting one's regional language, it pains Kaushal to see a strange inferiority complex being attached by Indians to their own mother tongue and hence was born Abhimaan Geet (Song of Pride) a song which epitomises the importance and purity of one's local language. After having conquered India with Marathi Abhiman Geet, Kaushal is today on the brink of making history again by aiming to record 15 classic Marathi poems in the best of music environment available globally. We caught up with this talented singer-composer to know more about his project. How did Marathi Abhimaan Geet happen? In 2008, when I had gone to a radio station in mumbai for composing a jingle, I happened to ask the radio jockey there as to why marathi songs were never played on the station. The RJ simply said it's our policy which made me curious. I questioned the logic behind it and told him it didn't make any sense to not play Marathi songs in the capital of Maharashtra because of some strange policy. The RJ tried explaining that Mumbai is a cosmopolitan city and hence no Marathi songs were played. I replied saying if that's the case you shouldn't be playing Punjabi songs as there is nothing which made Punjabi cosmopolitan and marathi vernacular. He didn't have an answer to that. And then he said something which left me shocked. He said that playing a Marathi song would give the radio station a downmarket feel. What happened next? It set me thinking. About 10 crore people speak Marathi so it had to be a perception which made it feel downmarket.It was also discrimination at its best because the decision to not play Marathi songs was a decision taken not on merit but based on language. The identity of a musician is in his songs and not in the fact that he comes on television or other electronic medium. His identity lies in the muysic that he composes. Naam ghum jaayega, chera ghum jaayega but aawaz hi meri pehchaan hai. Worldwide it is a commonly known fact that to promote local music there is no medium better than radio. But for marathi songs the space remained closed in our state. After all, Marathi is not played in Maharashtra where will it be played? Go on... So I thought of making a song that nobody will dare call downmarket. Lots of other languages have this problem today where some sort of an inferiority complex is attached to speaking in your own mother tongue. So I thought let me make a song of pride and called it Marathi Abhimaan Geet. Although I titled it as Marathi Abhimaan Geet, I wanted this song to be a representative of all those regional language songs. It is for all those people who have got a mother tongue. How many people were involved in recording this gigantic project? It took me one and a half year to make this song. In all, 450 people were involved out of which 112 were established singers. All the big names from the industry from Suresh Wadkar to Shankar Mahadevan were involved. 66 musicians were used and the song was recorded in three sittings. And did it serve the purpose? Oh yes. The song was released on 27th February 2010 and radio stations started playing it right from 28th continuously. In another two years, awards were also started for Marathi music. So I believe it served its purpose. The song it became a symbol of pride for people and their mother tongues. Talk us about your current project? When I did Abhimaan Geet, I knew it only alone wouldn't solve our problems. There are a lot of regional languages where pride is not assoiated unlike south indians who have ferociously maintained the culture and pride of their languages. To change the perception associated with langauge, I had to increase my benchmark for Indian languages are not just regional langauges but global languages. Marathi for instance is the 15th most spoken language in the world. So now I have decided to take classical poetry of Marathi language and record it in world's best standards. What are these best standards? There is a Marthi poet Kusumagraj who composed lovely poems. I would like to go to Czcheslovakia and record his poetry with City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. I would like to record another poetry with Macedonia philharmonic orcherstra in greece. I have chose 15 poems and the project will be called Marathi Asmita. How are you planning fund this project? I hope to crowd fund a major part of this project just like Marathi Abhimaan Geet where I got funding from 1800 people each of whom gave 500 rupees. We didn't have a sponspor for the same but those who donated money we promise them the world's biggest song in return. Now since 'Project Asmita' is 100 times bigger than Abhimaan Geet, we are thinking of state funding too. When do you plan to complete this project? 2016 is our target date and we have started the initial ground work. We are ready with our 15 songs and have put in my own initial capital.