Can peanuts be more valuable than gold? That may well be the case with Bhuban Badyakar, a native of a village in West Bengal's Birbhum.
A few months back, he created a song to attract people to buy kacha badam (raw peanuts) from him. Little could he imagine that the song, titled Kacha Badam, would remain viral for three months. A video of Badyakar singing Kacha Badam was first shared on social media in late November.
In late December, THE WEEK carried a video profile of Badyakar and his song.
Multiple videos of the song on YouTube have got well over 20 million views in total.
From movie stars to internet celebrities and from Tanzania to South Korea, everyone still seems to be grooving to Kacha Badam.
Last week, a SpiceJet airhostess shared a video on Instagram of herself dancing to Kacha Badam on an empty aircraft. The video got widely shared.
Ranu Mondal, who became an overnight celebrity in 2019 with her singing at a railway station in West Bengal, also sang Kacha Badam recently, in her own distinctive style. However, while her version was widely shared, she was also widely trolled.
Badyakar is married and lives with his wife and three children in a modest house. In December, leaders of the BJP and Trinamool Congress reached out to him to help them in campaigning for civic polls in Kolkata. While he has become a social media celebrity and sells far more peanuts, Badyakar has appealed for help from the government to build a better accommodation.
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Badyakar had even recorded a glitzy studio version of Kacha Badam, but complained he did not get any royalties.
