MUMBAI: Co-produced by Nikitaa’s go-to creator Mukund Komanduri, “Apsara” is her third song out this year, following “Bad Trip’ and “Bad Trip Lo-FI” with music director Amaal Mallik, the latter released in September 2022. The music video for the song explores a space that allows the women in the artist’s life to express their sensuality in a playful and safe way.
The pop Hindi song features a wonderful opening flute that runs through most of the song. A playful and hypnotic sound that very deeply ties into Nikitaa’s identity as a singer. Feeling like a spell weaved within a song, the song is inescapable, mysterious, and captivating. The song feels nostalgic, but also entirely new. Capturing nostalgia through the bass, the 808s, and several of the samples,
while also keeping her individual sound alive and reinvigorating the track with synths that incorporated the sitar, veena, bansuri and so much more.
Talking about the inspiration behind the song, she comments,’ Apsara translates to a beautiful supernatural feminine being. They would often sing and dance, and were pure sensual creatures – existing naturally as such. In Hindu mythology there were Apsaras that dwelled on earth as well as in the “heavens” with the Gods and Goddesses. They are often compared to nymphs, sirens and demigoddesses. I wanted to use the concept of the Apsara to reintroduce my own sensuality and sexuality. Previously on Clutch I’ve sung about this with the sole perspective of defining myself beyond the male gaze, but this one is more about the allure of what being feminine and comfortable with my sensual nature means to me.”
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Adding further, she quotes,”I also wrote Apsara during the pandemic – a time I felt absurdly free to explore different ways to write, what to write about, and felt free and willing to write more in Hindi as well.”
Talking about shooting the video, Nikitaa adds,”
Every single one of them is a part of my closest circle of friends and core community. They all embodied Apsaras for the night of the shoot! I have such beautiful women in my life – inside and out – and I wanted to spotlight them as much as myself in the video. It also feels incredibly powerful to have an all WOC cast, a BIPOC photographer and a queer crew for this. It’s been an ongoing endeavor for me, and we pushed for this while shooting Bad Trip as well, but really nailed it this time around.”
Apsara out on all platforms on 27th October, 2022.
