A supposed musical controversy involving singing legend Ganga Bardan and contemporary icon Bipul Chettri has come to the best possible conclusion: the two artist ‘hugging it out’ before sitting down for an impromptu jam. Bipul Chettri, who is currently in Kathmandu for a string of shows, posted a picture and video of him and Bardan on Friday, confirming that the ‘controversy’ was much-to-do-about-nothing.

Last December, an online news portal had insinuated that Chettri had lifted one of Bardan’s songs and published it as its own. The song in question, Kaha Ma Katyo, was recorded in 1978 by Bardan during a recording on Radio Nepal. Once the published story became viral on social media Bipul Chettri clarified his stance on Facebook and took down a version of the song from his YouTube page. At the time he had written, “To start with, I have to mention that this song Kaha Ma Katyo, was one of the first Nepali songs that I ever heard as a child, and one which introduced and got me hooked to Nepali folk music so I have the deepest sense of respect towards it. As far as I am aware, I have been informed by various senior musicians over the years while I was growing up that this song was a traditional folk song, sung by various different people over time.” He also added, “I have never claimed this song to be mine and never will, nor have I have recorded this song in a studio and released it in the market for sale. I have only sung this song on stage and have uploaded the live cover version of it, which I do not think is illegal, unless the sole rightful owner has submitted a copyright claim.”

Now, the ‘media-created’ firestorm has come a full circle with Chettri posting a picture of him and Bardan together after hearing “the story behind his song Kaha ma Katyo.” Posting on Facebook on Friday the Syndicate-hitmaker wrote, “With the one and only Ganga dai. Lovely meeting up with him and sharing stories about his trips to Kalimpong and discussing folk music. We also got to hear one of his tunes which he had written about our hometown as well as the story behind his song Kaha ma Katyo.” 

Chettri flowed the picture up with an Instagram post with the two musicians jamming: Bipul on guitar and Bardan on vocals and makeshift drums. All’s well that ends well.