The melodious journey of bap ka beta

The duo is known as "Bap ka beta".

A six-year-old boy and his father has been taking the internet by storm recently. Dressed in same clothes, the duo makes videos covering modern Bangladeshi band songs with their guitar and a shaker. Besides, the smile on the little boy's face is enough to melt anyone's heart. 

The first time I learnt about this father-son duo was last year, when a television commercial caught my eye. In the commercial they were covering a popular bangla song created by Shayan Chowdhury Arnob. Then I searched online and found a Facebook page by the name "Baap ka beta". When I reached out to them, there was an interesting story in the background.

"The story began five and half years ago when Rituraj was just six months old", said his father Shuvashish Bhowmick, the country director of a multinational company.

"When Rituraj was only six months old, I made a video and posted it on my Facebook timeline. I used to play my guitar and sing to him and I thought he enjoyed that daddy-son moment as much as me", Shuvashish recollected his memories.

Soon Shuvashish found out that his little son enjoyed it and would also try to sing along with his father. The boy started growing up with a keen interest in music, especially the modern-day band songs – just like his father. Sometime later, the father and son started singing together and Shuvashish posted the videos on his Facebook timeline. They were appreciated by friends and family and many would share the videos on their timelines too, Shuvashish said.

But last year they attracted the spotlight.

"We covered the song Alo by Tahsan Khan and I posted the video on a Facebook group called Pencil and my Facebook timeline. The response was beyond my imagination. We were going viral with millions of views and thousands of people sharing our video", Shuvashish said, adding that Tahsan also shared the video.

Soon after, Shuvashish created a page Baap ka beta and uploaded the videos. Currently the Facebook page has over 1,54,000 followers and the Youtube channel has 82,000 subscribers. So far, they have 31 videos on Facebook and around 27 on Youtube.

"After the video went viral, we were contacted by a renowned telecom company to do a commercial on internet speed. That was Ritu's first television appearance," his father said, adding that the TVC had also contributed to their fame.

"I opened the Facebook page on 8th July last year and the Youtube channel a few days later", Shuvashish said, adding they have received lots of love and support from the people in the last one year.

Asked about one big moment of the journey, Shuvashish said that this year on January 11 they were invited to a concert by Tahsan Khan where the superstar called them on stage and performed the song Alo with Ritu.

"Ritu's favourite singer is Tahsan," Shuvashish said, adding that Ritu is learning music and can play the guitar, identify all the chords of the ukulele and knows the beat of the shaker.

Talking to this correspondent, Shuvashish said that he always wanted to have a close bond with his son and chose music to do it. "People keep so busy these days that it gets difficult to spend time with children. Nowadays children are growing up with devices and loneliness. I did not want that for my child," he also said.

The six-year-old boy goes to an English medium school in the capital and wants to become an army officer just like his grandfather. He loves to play cricket.

How does he enjoy the fame? We asked Shuvashish.

"Ritu loves to be loved," his father said, adding that he is a bit shy around girls.