Mumbai, July 8
Playback singer Udit Narayan has spoken up on the controversy around Hindi and Marathi conflict in Maharashtra.

The singer recently spoke with IANS, and concurred that being in Maharashtra one has to respect the local language and culture. However, he said that people should also respect other languages of India as well.

He told IANS, “We live in Maharashtra and it is my 'Karma bhoomi' (workplace). So, the language here is also important. Along with that, all the languages in our country are equally important”.

Currently, the state of Maharashtra has been gripped in controversy surrounding the language conflict between Hindi and Marathi speaking people. Workers of the political party MNS have been accused of using violent measures against those who refuse to speak Marathi, a language which shares the devanagari script with Hindi.

Earlier, a resurfaced video of the veteran singer from a Kapil Sharma show made rounds on the Internet in which he spoke about how the late filmmaker Yash Chopra was very fond of him.

Recollecting how he became a part of ‘Dil Toh Pagal Hai’, he said in the video, “Mr. Yash Chopra said, I have found Shah Rukh Khan's date. Now I am not going to wait for anyone. I don't know, but he had called another singer. In the title song, you can see that there is Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar. So, he had chosen a singer for a hero”.

“I don't know what came to his mind. He said, but I want the voice of Udit Narayan. By then, I had become his favorite singer. So, he had done all the songs with Lata Mangeshkar. And he said, he will do the shooting of the song with vocals of another singer. But, you won't believe, I came back to Mumbai after 15 or 20 days. Straight from the airport, I went to the studio, and recorded the first song, ‘Dil Toh Pagal Hai’”, he added.

Hindi-Marathi conflict: Udit Narayan says one has to respect all languages