मराठी अभिमान गीत

"Marathi Abhimaan Geet" is a song written by noted poet-lyricist the late. Suresh Bhatt and composed by Kaushal S. Inamdar. The idea behind creating the "Marathi Abhimaan Geet" was due to the diminishing respect for Marathi in Maharashtra. When I met Mr. Kaushal Inamdar at a college function, he mentioned two incidents which is why he took it upon himself to record this song. The first incident was about how he was ill-treated at a retail chain in South Mumbai because he chose to speak in Marathi. The second incident was when he was working on a jingle for a radio station and he asked the RJ why the station did not play Marathi songs. He was dumbfounded when the RJ replied that the radio station considered it "downmarket" to play Marathi songs. Thus began the concept of creating this music video in October 2009.

The video consists of nearly 450 accomplished singers with 112 professional singers like Ravindra Sathe, Suresh Wadkar, Sadhana Sargam, Arati Ankalikar-Tikekar, Sridhar Phadke, Swapnil Bandodkar, Hariharan, Devaki Pandit, Bela Shinde, Uttara Kelkar, Swapnaja Lele,Vitthal Umap, Ajay-Atul, Hamsika Iyer, Shankar Mahadevan, Vaishali Samant, Avadhoot Gupte, Hamsika Iyer, Mayuresh Pai to 10 year old Mugdha Vaishampayan, Kartiki Gaikwad etc. and 356 chorus singers. Interestingly, the chorus comprised of many non-Marathi singers as well.

The actual recording of the song took place over a period of 15 months across 3 different studios in Mumbai, Thane and Chennai. Music composer Murugan Mohan employed the orchestra of veteran music composer Ilaiyaraja to contribute to the song. Sound engineers S. Shivkumar completed the Chennai leg of the song while Avadhoot Wadkar completed the Mumbai leg of the recording.

The song instantly connected with the Marathi populace and became a huge hit upon release. The music video succeeded in creating an awareness and instilling a sense of pride and love for Marathi in the hearts of listeners. Following the success of the Marathi Abhimaan Geet, leading FM radio stations in Mumbai bowed down to public pressure and demand by beginning to play Marathi music on air.