The Bommai administration on Friday decided that the duration of the Nada Geete composed by Rashtrakavi Kuvempu, will be fixed at 2.30 minutes, drawing curtains on the debate over how the state anthem should be rendered at public events.
“Based on the recommendation of a committee headed by renowned musician HR Leelavathi, the Nada Geete’s duration will be 2.30 minutes in the form composed by Mysore Ananthaswamy,” Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.
Ever since the Nada Geete - Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujate - was declared as the state anthem in 2004 making it a must at official events, literary circles frowned upon the lack of uniformity in its renditions.
There are two popular musical versions of the song - one by C Ashwath and another by Mysore Ananthaswamy. But depending on the rendition, the duration of the song lasts 4-5 minutes, with some going up to nine minutes. People found it too long to stand for the entire duration of the song.
"This proposal was pending for several years,” Kannada & Culture Minister V Sunil Kumar, who got Bommai to sign off on the file, said. He added that the state anthem should be sung within 2.30 minutes without skipping a single word.
A committee headed by then Kannada Sahitya Parishat president Manu Baligar recommended, in November 2018, that the Nada Geete must be standard in form wherever it is played, with its duration capped under 2.25 minutes and that no lines should be repeated. In 2014, another committee headed by poet Channaveera Kanavi suggested trimming the anthem to 90 seconds.