MUMBAI: Bickram Ghosh and Sonu Nigam have come together to recreate ‘Jana Gana Mana’, along with 12 other musicians, including Jyoti and Sultana Nooran, Papon, Neeti Mohan, Ustad Rashid Khan, P Unnikrishnan, Purbayan Chatterjee, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Kaushiki Chakrabarty and others. The entire track was done within 10 days, and it will have a video directed by Riingo, a Bengali film director.
“I approached Sonu with the idea of recreating our National Anthem and he immediately agreed. It was a little tough for us to execute the idea because both of us were travelling, and even the artists we brought on board for the single, were located in different places. But fortunately, the artists sent us their voice files to make it a little easier,” said Ghosh. The final touch was done collectively by Nigam and Ghosh in Kolkata.
The duo wanted a tune which is soft and introspective at the same time. “The definition of independence has changed over the years. With the youth coming into the video, it has a new generation feel with soft vocals,” he explained.
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This is the first time that the Nooran sisters have worked with Ghosh and Nigam. Describing it as a memorable experience, Sultana revealed, “When we got a call from Ghoshji’s office to work with him and Sonuji, and we were delighted as this is the first time we would be recording for such big artists.”
It took the two sisters almost an hour to record the National Anthem. Ghosh, who had previously recreated ‘Vande Mataram’, was meticulous with the words and tune. “When you sing tracks like these, emotions are extremely important. I would record a line, and then we would list to it before proceeding. If we were not satisfied with the way it turned out, I would re-record the line,” she explained.
Ghosh and Nigam have combined Indian and neo classical elements to the recreate this version of the Indian National Anthem.
