Watch: The making of Network 18's Change India anthem

By Tridip Kanti Mandal

Choosing the Song:

Sometime in mid August, Raghav Bahl, the founder of Network 18, came up with the idea of having an anthem for the Change India campaign. He wanted something catchy and recognisable – a Bollywood number, sure – but also a song with soul and message, which could speak to people’s dreams and aspirations.

A song which juxtaposed the old and the new; the senses of loss and victory. A song that spoke about the fact that as a country India has its share of problems, big and small, but we haven’t lost hope. We wanted the song to say that we are working towards solving these problems and one day we will emerge victorious – that day will eventually come – WHO SUBAH KABHI TOH AAYEGI!

The iconic song Woh Subah Kabhi Toh Aayegi from the 1958 film ‘Phir Subah Hogi’ fit the bill perfectly. Composed by Khayyam and sung by Mukesh & Asha Bhosle, the song is a timeless classic. Now, more than half a century later, the responsibility of reworking the iconic song was given to The Shillong Chamber Choir – the winners of India’s Got Talent, 2010. Their choral style of singing, their powerful voices and the minimal use of instruments gave the new version of the song an infectious energy. The choir upped the tempo a bit, too.

Making the Music Video:

We shot the video at the banks of the beautiful Umiam lake near Shillong. Since the song spoke of ‘Subah’ or ‘Morning’, we decided to shoot the video mainly during the dawn and early morning.

The 11 members of the choir had to be up by 2am every morning to get their makeup done and get dressed up for the shoot. The shoot normally began at 5am and what complicated things further is that mornings in Shillong are freezing, more so because Shillong is just 60 kms away from Cherapunjee, the wettest place on earth.

The song was directed by Tridip K Mandal and shot on high definition cameras by Suraj Chaudhary & Fourness Dhar. The first day went in choreographing the moves of the choir and since we didn’t have a professional choreographer on-board, the choir practiced on their own.

The song is in the Waltz style, so the steps had to be slow and rhythmic yet large enough to make an impression on viewers. We used a lot of tracking and glide camera movements to enhance the effect of the song. So unlike the original song which had lots of close ups, the new version primarily uses lot of low angles and extreme long shots to show the whole choir and the beautiful location. So in a way it’s a brand new “Subah” for today’s India.

Watch the video here: