Legendary singer Asha Bhosle is among 200 musical artistes who have recorded a song to "uplift the mood of the nation". With the lockdown in place, the process was not easy. About 200 singers including Bhosle have united for the new song "Jayatu Jayatu Bharatam, Vasudev Kutumbakkam". It is a salutation to each and every Indian who has stood together as a family in these difficult times.
"I made a plea to our government asking them how I could help the nation in this time of need. Since all movement is disallowed, I was correctly asked to stay put at home and keep safe. Sitting at home, I felt restless and wanted to contribute in some way to the nation. I wired funds to the PM Cares Fund but I felt that wasn't enough. So, I felt we should do a song to uplift the mood of the nation," Asha told IANS, when asked what made her join hands with so many singers for one song.
"After all, 130 crore people are in lockdown for almost two months. ISRA (Indian Singers' Rights Association) was most helpful in getting together over 200 singers from different parts of India to collaborate on this song. On my request, Shankar Mahadevanji and Srinivas agreed to compose the tune. Prasoon Joshi agreed to pen the uplifting lyrics and so the song was born," she shared.
The song is in 14 different languages, and Asha has sung in Sanskrit. "Many of India's languages are born from Sanskrit," she said.
Talking about recording the song, she said: "This was the most difficult part. All of us are under lockdown in different parts of India and yet we somehow managed with the help of technology. We didn't have professional studios, equipments or technicians to record us."
"I recorded my portion on a phone and uploaded it to a central collection station ably run by Srinivas, Shankar Mahadevanji and Sanjay Tandonji, who then processed the recording and put it together as one song. Very tedious job but well, worth the effort. Just shows that mankind can adapt to any situation and find a way," she added.
The song will be released on May 17.
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