Rohan Rathore

It’s a story that would touch anyone’s heart — Rohan Rathore, an IIT-Guwahati student, loved a girl who didn’t reciprocate his feelings. He composed a heart-wrenching number for her and died of cancer 15 days later. The song, titled Emptiness, became a rage online, with around 15 lakh views and eight dedicated Facebook groups with thousands of fans. However, there is a hitch. Apparently, Rohan Rathore does not exist. Gajendra Verma, a 21-year-old sound recordist from Mumbai, says that he has sung the song, written by Aseem Ahmed Abbasee, a writer, and Verma’s friend, Monami Roy. To counter the Rohan Rathore story, Verma will be releasing the complete album with six songs next month, and has already posted the song on YouTube, with a slideshow of his pictures. “I had composed the tune for a project one-and-a-half years ago. I had sent the song to some people for feedback, and I think it got leaked then,” says Verma. Reacting to allegations that he and Aseem cooked up this story to publicise the song and increase downloads, he says, “Why would I publicise my song using someone else’s name?” He adds, “I feel really bad when I see someone else’s name on my song. I don’t even know how Rohan Rathore’s name got attached to it. I know that the voice is mine.” Aseem Abbasee, the lyricist, says he is unaware about the Rohan Rathore story. “I wrote this song when Gajendra approached me for it. Its unfortunate that it got stolen and people attached a false story with it.” Shortly after the song became popular, fans got curious. Sumit Lal wrote, “I finally dug out the story. No one at IIT-G knows who Rathore is.” “People like the song because of the story behind it,” read another comment.