Musicians come together to stand for the country’s unity through the anthem One India My India. By Team Viva

Be it a group of women rowing the boat in the Kerala backwaters, the Sikhs praying at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, hermits with their ash-smeared bodies bathing at the Kumbh, a mother cradling her baby, children holding the national flag at schools or all the four flags, showcasing four major religions in the country, changing to the Tiranga within the blink of an eye — the music anthem One India My India/ Ek Bharat Mera Bharat makes one run through the streets of nostalgia.

Written and directed by Shailendra Singh, the song he tells us, took more than a year to complete. “It included real-time expressions of people. No scene is scripted. The moments have been captured by their due permission. However, they are absolutely candid. The song is spread across 21 different locations of India, most of which hold a religious importance like the Jama Masjid or the Golden Temple.”

The director says that this was quite a different experience for him as he wanted to capture, in the visuals, the same level at which he has “enjoyed” India. He says, “We were only three people in the unit who completed the production. There are usually 35-40 people in a unit who work for the production. Our cameraman, Vishwanath (19), from South Goa, started using a camera only a year before the project began. We travelled to places like Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, New Delhi, Varanasi, Allahabad. There are many historic locations in the video which appear only for a flash of a second but it has, for us, taken as long as 16 hours to get the perfect shot yet maintaining its natural element.”

Talking about the idea of celebrating India and its culture, legendary cricketer Kapil Dev, who has been the inspiration for many and someone who has best represented India, says that the fact that India has so many languages itself is a reason to celebrate. He adds, “With every few miles, the language changes in the country. When you go to the USA, they only know America. But we have a lot more to talk about, which in itself is a celebration.”

The struggle, he laughs to recall, included waking up Lamas from sleep, standing in the Ganga (at the Kumbh) for six hours without motion, explaining the kids to not think about the camera and follow their routinely schedules, surviving the cold weather at places around Ladakh without “Maggi noodles,” and many more. He says, “There are very less of such nationalist songs now like Maa Tujhe Salaam, Chakde India. The feeling while listening to such a song is world apart. I wanted to make another song which could give one goosebumps and make one’s spine shiver. And for that, it was important to make people enjoy every bit of our country and culture. I wanted to give an emotion.”

Singer Zubin Nautiyal tells us that the album has been made “without any commercial target” and for the people of India, no matter the community. “Even now, the song has three languages — Hindi, Punjabi and English. But to make it region-specific, we can translate the verses in any language, be it Bengali, Rajasthani, Marathi, Gujarati, Bhojpuri and many more. We want it to reach out to the maximum number of people in the country. Hence, the project is ongoing.”

Mithoon adds that it “depends on how far it goes.”

Talking about his idea of nationalism, he says that it starts from the smallest of things. “Not throwing our garbage from the car on the streets is nationalism for me. It is about every duty and right that a citizen has and is mindfully aware of. It is a vast topic which cannot be covered in a matter of minutes.”

Zubin adds that it is the unity which matters the most in a country. “Nationalism is all about about unity. It can only be held as an emotion. Either you can write about it or you can hold it inside you. True nationalism is to feel it and keep it alive for the country. This song aims just that,” says he.

Art, especially music has a huge responsibility towards the society as it has the power to influence people upon various aspects. So how do the musicians see their project as something that could make an impact and call for a change in the society? For Mithoon, the role of art has never changed and it has only meant, “to communicate with the society, to encourage and build up for the good. Art is never constructed with an agenda.”