PAPON
SINGER, COMPOSER, PRODUCER
Angaraag Mahanta, popularly known as Papon, is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and record producer. Blessed with a voice that’s smooth and soulful at the same time, his innovative experiments are rich with ambient electronica, acoustic folk, electro ghazals to classical sounds. Although his first language is Assamese, he also sings in Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, and Gujarati.
In Bollywood, Papon’s rise to fame was with the songs like ‘Moh Moh Ke Dhage’ from Dum Laga Ke Haisha, ‘Kyon’ from Barfi ,‘Jiyein Kyun’ from the movie Dum Maro Dum, ‘Labon Ka Karobar’ for the movie Befikre etc. Apart from these, he has sung many popular numbers such as ‘Bulleya’ (Sultan), ‘Humnava’ (Hamari Adhuri Kahani), ‘Lakeerein’ which is a poem by Gulzar, (Kya Dilli Kya Lahore), ‘Sun Ri Bavli’ (Lakshmi) among others. In 2018, till date Papon has lended his voice to songs in movie Raid, Bhavesh Joshi, Sanju and Karwaan.
Papon has co-composed songs like ‘Har Ek Baat’ and ‘Naina Laagey’ with pioneering producers Midival Punditz. He has also collaborated with renowned composer-multi instrumentalist Karsh Kale on the track ‘Absence’ for Karsh Kale’s fifth studio album. In addition, he has also joined forces with percussionist Bickram Ghosh and rising Scottish singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni, over a project called Troikala rooted in contemporary folk and an initiative of The British Council, India. Papon is one of the pioneers of Indian main steream Indipendent Music and formed his band Papon & The East India Company in 2007 (although it is now rebranded as PAPON Live for his live performances)
To the known and unknown, Papon has been a significant part of all the seasons of Coke Studio India. Papon has also featured on the critically acclaimed original TV series The Dewarists – Season 1 collaborating with music icon Rabbi Shergill over the track Khule Da Rabb in 2011. In the Dewarist Season 2, Papon collaborated with Karsh Kale, Carl Barat from Britain, Scottish musician Ross Ainslie and guitarist Warren Mendonsa from India in December 2012. In 2014, Dewarist 4, Papon has sung the song composed by Shantanu Moitra. In Dewarist 5, Papon composed a track with Nucleya. Papon has composed the title track/ theme song for the programme MTV Roadies (Season10, 2013).
Papon has produced a full episode of MTV Unplugged 2014, 2018 and produced two songs in a multi singer/ producer episode of MTV Unplugged 2015.
He was awarded as the Best Male Playback Singer 2016 at Star Screen Awards, Mirchi Music Awards, TOIFA, GIMA, IIFA-Madrid. Papon was also nominated for Best Male Playback Singer at the FILMFARE Awards and Zee Cine Awards in 2016. Papon has received two awards at the JD Rock Awards, 2013 -Best Male Vocalist and Best Song for the feisty folk track ‘Boitha Maro Re’ from his acclaimed debut Hindi album ‘The Story So Far' (January 2012) and he bagged the GIMA Awards in the Best Pop Album category in the same year as well.
In Oct 2016 Papon launched his 2nd Hindi album “The Story Now”. His most recent releases are an Assamese album- Notun Puhor (June 2017) and an Assamese Folk album – Shyamorai Kolia (Jan 2018), which are in addition to his earlier two Assamese original albums and five Assamese Folk albums released by him till date. Papon created the anthem for the debut edition of Namami Brahmaputra (2017)- billed as the biggest river festival of India which celebrated Assam’s art, heritage and culture.
Papon loves to travel and goes for trekking in the Himalayas whenever time permits. He also does the painting in his spare time.