RADA 2026 Sparks Marathi Pop Culture Boom — Here’s Why This Explosive Wave Is Taking Over

It was overdue, though one can say that the initiatives were first taken as far back as early in the millennium. The Marathi pop culture scene is finally zooming! It is RAP-ping rapidly past prejudices, Hip-Hopping triumphantly through global terrain and, through its humour and sharp, social overtones, showing that the Marathi language and its ethos are no laughing matter!

With Bharatiya Digital Party (BhaDiPa)’s RADA 2026, Maharashtra’s first festival dedicated to Marathi pop culture with its mix of music, standup comedy and podcasts, happening in Pune this weekend, this event is just the first major clarion call that one cannot take this monumental pop culture lightly.

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Composer-singer-lyricist (and many more skills apart), Avadhoot Gupte is aptly considered a pioneering force in this (r)evolutionary cultural journey. He recalls how his album with Vaishali Samant, Aika Dajiba (2002) was a signature first here and hit Platinum Disc in sales. “After that, in 2003, I wrote, composed and sang Meri Madhubala. Both albums were termed ‘Combo Music’ as they were in a mix of Marathi and Hindi.”

Past imperfect

By the late 1990s, Indipop had entered a Golden phase, aided by Channel [V] and MTV, but Hindi and Punjabi music was mainly flourishing. But Gupte had fused Maharashtra’s dholki with a global sound. By that time, two key shifts also took place: the transition from cassettes to CDs and also the increased levels of music piracy. “So I went on to do other things, like directing and scoring for movies!” says Gupte.

Paula McGlynn, co-founder of BhaDiPa, who will also look into the business and other key aspects for RADA, says, “Sarang and our co-founder Anusha were my gateways to Marathi culture. I saw that there was so much potential—with films, radio, TV and literature—and was amazed that the media landscape was yet not big. My home country Canada has a population of 33 million, but there were 100 million Marathi speaking people! Even Korea with a population of just 55 million, was connecting globally with K-Pop, K-Music, stories and food!”

Agrees husband Sarang Sathaye, “Do you know that clubs then were not allowed to play Marathi songs, however successful they were? There were two ways to change that. One was protest, and the other was to actually find one club that allowed a Marathi song and put up a banger of a show. Then Kratex (Krunal Ghorpade) approached us with the track, Marathi vaajlach pahije (We must play Marathi music) that was taken up at Thane’sMH04 Club and became huge! The movement had begun!”

Slow but steady

Later, in 2024, Kratex’s Tambdi chambdi became a rage and this techno Rap track was taken up by Spinnin’ Records, the biggest techno label in the world. Kratex even gained appreciation from global names like Afrojack, Chris Lake, Claude Von Stroke, Carnage and others.

Sathaye points out that while Marathi culture is unique and unmatched, the business aspects were not that well-entrenched. This detracted from the aspirational attitude that Marathi music artistes, standup comedy and other humorists and writers should ideally have. “This is what we are attempting to correct with RADA— that one can have a dream or ambition to make headlines by participating in a Marathi pop festival!” says Sathaye.

Adds Rapper Siddhesh (Shinde), “When I started out as an English rapper, the only influences were American rappers. But in my childhood, I had grown up listening to Lord Vithal’s devotionals at home, and so English Rap felt very superficial. I wanted to bring in the colours of my roots—and so in 2018, I made my first Marathi Rap, Gutter rich, which was a remix of an existing hit. And when it made a sensation, I thought that I should Rap only in Marathi, as my culture became the magnet pulling me into its fold!”

He adds, “In the last few years, some Marathi songs have reached global levels of fame and exposure. People would earlier look at Marathi condescendingly, but that has changed now. Just a few days ago, I became the first Marathi rapper to perform at Khar Social, which until now only featured Hindi and English music. We are finally getting overdue validation!”

Standup comedian Ganesh Joshi, who hails from a tiny hamlet named Indapur in Nagpur district and goes by the Instagram handle of @comicganesh, declares that such labels are a must in keeping with global mores. “Comic Ganesh makes a greater impact than ‘Ganesh Joshi’!” he says, adding that jokes, humour and comedy are all powerful tools to engage an audience.

He, however, feels that the standup scene in Marathi started becoming slowly bigger from 2012. His own beginning was unique: Ganesh first arrived in Mumbai to sell vegetables from his farm! A friend took him to an Open Night and he was inspired to try out writing a script himself!

“But I would say that standup originated in a way in India itself with P.L. (Pu La) Deshpande, though there were others in UK and USA like George Carlin,” he declares. “There are men like Zakir Khan who later brought in the sociopolitical element in Indian standup, and now we see more scripts and acts coming from rural artistes. This is because we rural people get to ‘see’ politics from up close compared to city folks!”

He adds with cheerful optimism, “It will be a personal joy for me to see talents in standup and even Rap emerge from the smallest villages of Maharashtra.” That said, Ganesh admits that it takes some time for any language and culture to become “cool” (universally accepted by the youth). The techno versions of a 1979 hit like Dhagaalaa laagali kalla’ with its elements of rhythm and repetition was a massive hit, but it took all these years for this to evolve, Ganesh points out.

Says Sathaye, “Rap actually means Rhythm And Poetry. Hip-Hop and Rap are art forms in our blood even if they are said to have originated abroad! The laavani, the powada—they are all about taal (rhythm) and a story. (Gupte adds our mantras and taandavs too). Giants like Pu La Deshpande were storytellers with social comment, and I too, consider myself primarily as a storyteller through varied mediums. But culturally and socio-politically, the blending of cultures is always welcome. Like we do wear bandhani shirts and sooti trousers today even if we have stopped wearing kurta pyjama.”

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The last word is had by ‘first’ man Gupte, who concludes, “I am very happy at the way Marathi pop and culture are making big waves. I am also pleasantly surprised that Marathi pop music is now in line with global music. Even songs and poetry made by the guy from the village are now in sync with world music. As a musician, I enjoy following all the new global trends, though sometimes I win and sometimes not. My first Rap was the track Jaat, wherein I talked about jaati-bhed that is still rampant in our Maharashtrian community.”

So is the rise in Marathi pop the cause or the result of changing society and youth? “That’s a great question!” he says. “I think it is a bit of both! Fifty years back, we had films, music and literature also influencing society, but what we were watching, hearing and reading was also influenced by society. But generally, it’s a great feeling that Marathi pop culture has broken—and is breaking even more boundaries!”

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