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Kailash Kher exclusively reveals Bam Lahri’s folk origins, its Jogiya tradition, his father’s influence and how he wrote and composed his own version.
Kailash Kher reveals the folk origins and history behind his song Bam Lahri.
Long before Kailash Kher’s voice became closely associated with Bam Lahri, the devotional refrain had already travelled through homes, temples and villages in different forms. An old YouTube recording titled Original Bam Lehri – Shri Bansi Jogi and Party, 1995 has once again drawn attention to the older folk lineage of the song, raising questions about where the composition originated and how Kailash eventually arrived at his own widely known version.
Speaking about its history during an exclusive interaction with News18 Showsha, Kailash explained that Bam Lahri belongs to a far older oral tradition and cannot be understood simply as a song that began in a recording studio. For him, its roots lie in the way Indian folk music itself survived for generations: through listening, memory and repetition.
Kailash Kher Says Folk Music Belongs To The People
Kailash began by placing Bam Lahri within the broader tradition of folk music rather than treating it as an isolated composition.
“Folk forms belong to the people. And the forms that belong to the people come from villages. India, after all, is a country of villages,” he said.
He explained that before writing and documentation became common, cultural knowledge was passed from one generation to another orally.
“There was a time in India when there was no system of writing. There was a system of listening. We learnt about our culture, our scriptures and our education by listening. These stories have therefore been sung for generations and generations,” Kailash said.
According to him, that oral transmission is crucial to understanding why the same folk song can exist in several versions without necessarily belonging to one individual singer.
‘Our Great-Grandfathers Sang A Version Of This Story’
Kailash said the tradition was also present within his own family.
“We have a version of this story in our family that our great-grandfathers used to sing,” he recalled.
The singer grew up in a Brahmin household where devotional singing was closely woven into everyday life.
“In Brahmin families, there is a strong tradition of satsang. People sing the words of saints and participate in sankirtan,” he said.
His father, Kailash added, was a priest.
“My father was a priest. Whenever there was free time at the temple, there would be sankirtan. Even sankirtan in our home was performed in different musical forms,” he recalled.
That environment, he said, exposed him very early to devotional forms that had already been circulating for generations.
Kailash Kher Says The Song Was Sung In The ‘Jogiya’ Style
While explaining the older musical form behind Bam Lahri, Kailash identified what he called the Jogiya style.
“This traditional form is called the Jogiya style. These stories were told through the Jogiya style,” he said.
The memory is also deeply tied to his father.
“My father used to play the ektara and sing these stories,” Kailash said.
He then recalled the sort of devotional lines he would hear around him: invocations asking people to sing in praise of Ram and worship Shiva, eventually moving into the familiar “Bam Bam Lahri” refrain.
For Kailash, the important point is that this was never a rigid composition preserved word for word. Folk music, in his telling, was constantly being carried forward and reshaped.
‘In Folk Traditions, New Things Keep Getting Added’
Kailash explained that one of the defining characteristics of folk music is that each generation can add something to what it inherits.
“The speciality of folk traditions is that even when something already exists, more is added to it from time to time,” he said.
He cited his own father as an example.
“My father also wrote and added things in his own way,” Kailash said.
The basic melodic and stylistic framework, however, continued to remain connected to the older tradition.
That is how folk music, according to Kailash, could change without losing its original identity.
Kailash Kher Says He Changed The Sound, Not The Tradition
When Kailash eventually created his own Bam Lahri, he approached the inherited form through the sensibility of his own generation.
“When we were born, it was a different era. Our thinking was different and our sensibility was different. So I wrote my own words, but I did not break the tradition. I only changed the sound,” he said.
Kailash then used a simple analogy to describe the process.
“Think of it this way: the vessel changed, but the dish remained traditional,” he said.
He elaborated that an old preparation can be served in a new vessel without changing what it fundamentally is.
“We changed the vessel of the sound and gave it an international vibe,” Kailash explained.
That, according to him, is what happened with Bam Lahri.
‘I Wrote, Composed And Sang My Version Of Bam Lahri’
Kailash was also clear about his authorship of the version that became associated with him.
“The Bam Lahri that was created by us was written by me, composed by me and sung by me,” he said.
At the same time, he acknowledged that his version retained traces of the traditional tune.
“I kept some of the traditional melody in it. I took the original emotion and created it in my own way,” Kailash said.
His explanation draws a distinction between the folk source and his individual version. The devotional refrain and musical spirit existed within a much older tradition, while the lyrics, composition and treatment of the version he released were his own.
He added that this relationship with folk music runs through much of his work.
“Most of my songs, in one way or another, reflect folk music,” Kailash said.
Kailash Kher Says Even Classical Music Emerged From Folk Music
Kailash then widened the conversation beyond Bam Lahri and spoke about the place of folk music within Indian musical history.
“Even classical music came from folk music,” he said.
The difference, as he explained it, is that classical music eventually developed systems of notation and writing, while folk traditions continued to survive largely through oral transmission.
“Folk music did not have a written script. It was sung by listening to it. It was carried forward from one generation to the next in that manner,” Kailash said.
For him, that is why folk compositions cannot always be traced through written records in the same manner as later formal musical traditions.
“You simply heard it from the previous generation, and the next generation continued those traditions after listening to it,” he added.
From Holi To Teej, Festivals Had Their Own Music
Kailash also pointed out that folk music was inseparable from festivals, seasons and community life.
“Songs were sung during Holi. Dhamar was sung. There were songs for Diwali. When Teej arrived, there were songs for Teej. During Shravan, there were songs for Shravan,” he said.
Different regions, he added, developed music around their own festivals and customs.
He referred to Chhath Puja as one such regional example while explaining that every place had its own musical vocabulary.
“Wherever there was a particular festival, there was music corresponding to that festival,” he said.
Kailash also mentioned songs connected with Ramlila and other traditional performances.
‘Music Existed Even Before Films’
For Kailash, the larger point is that Indian music did not begin with cinema or the modern recording industry.
“A hundred years ago, films were not even being made in India. But music still existed. There were emotional songs, there were performances, and there was folk music,” he said.
That, in essence, is how he situates Bam Lahri.
The version audiences know through Kailash carries his writing, composition and contemporary sound, but the devotional impulse behind it is much older. It belongs to a tradition he says he first encountered through his family, his father’s ektara and the songs that travelled across generations without needing to be written down.
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Ask News18Kailash Kher explained that Bam Lahri stems from an older oral tradition passed down through generations via listening and memory rather than written scores, specifically drawing from the traditional Jogiya style played by his father on the ektara and sung in Brahmin family satsangs.
Ask News18About the Author
Yatamanyu Narain is a Sub-Editor at News18.com with a passion for all things entertainment. Whether he\’s breaking the latest Bollywood news or chatting with rising stars in the OTT world, he’s always…Read More
September 18, 2026, 18:40 IST