Ankur Tewari, Kausar Munir on creating Coke Studio Bharat and the indie music scene in India

The stage seemed set for a resplendent new era; the ballroom is bright with chandeliers and flowers at every table, three rows of tables filled with musicians, and a trailer voiced by the inimitable baritone of Amitabh Bachchan. The raison d’etre for the glamour? The launch of Coke Studio’s newest edition in India. After an eight-year-long hiatus, the series is back in a new form, with a new name and mission: Coke Studio Bharat.

Apna Sunao (tell us about you/make your voice heard) is both the tagline and the mission. “We want to move the spotlight to the youth, allowing them to tell the stories they want to,” said Ankur Tewari. The music director and singer-songwriter who has worked on films like Gully Boy and Gehraiyaan, is the helmsman for the new edition, curating and hand-picking artists from across the country.

Ankur Tewari speaks during the ‘Coke Studio Bharat’ launch event in Mumbai
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Special Arrangement

It all started with a phone call, he says. Ankur was invited to pitch, and once he got the green light, it was time to search for the voices. He started by creating a think-tank, an idea he credits to Xulfi from Coke Studio Pakistan. On this team are National award-winning music producer/ sound engineer KJ Singh, and noted lyricist-writer Kausar Munir, known for her work in films such as Dear Zindagi, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Pad Man and Qala.

The team scouted for artists everywhere; the internet, friends, gigs, and so on. “The idea was to make a final product which moves your body, your soul and has the audacity that the youth have; something that doesn’t burden itself with too many rules.” Ankur shares that he doesn’t want his artists to worry about where they come from — be it a small village or a big city. “I come from a small town and the first time when I entered a five-star hotel, I was nervous… I don’t want our India to be like that. I want everybody to be equally confident and walk on the same land,” he says. And once the artists have crafted their songs, “We would love to take the music to the villages and play it for the people there, because we’re telling stories that belong to our land.”

While Ankur has an impressive musical repertoire of his own, he has consciously taken a backseat for this edition, saying that the spotlight “had to be on the young.” This time, he will be more of a mentor. “Because India truly needs stories to come from the mouths of young people, not the older generation. It’s their time and they need to tell the story.”

Ankur hopes Coke Studio Bharat’s music will rule not only the Indian charts, but all over the world. “I see Korea and I am jealous,” he jokes, referring to the K-pop music wave that has engulfed the world. “I feel like India has always had great artists, but we have been lacking on the infrastructure front. I am an artist myself and I know what goes into presenting a song.” He points out that we don’t have many elements — from management and producers to somebody making you look a certain way — in place. “We just go with instinct and some people have the flair, and they shine more than others.”

“There’s a whole industry behind K-pop. From CAs, lawyers and management to choreographers and designers; there are people who construct your look and make your work shine,” he adds. While such support and backing are common in film music, the indie space is lagging behind. This is where Coke Studio Bharat has stepped in. “They have empowered [artists] with this infrastructural element. Once this infrastructure gets more formalised and takes shape and it empowers songs, then I don’t think there’s anything stopping us because we are a richer, deeper culture.”

The world and India are ready to listen to music from anywhere, he says. Or, as he quotes on stage, from a song he co-wrote for Gully Boy : “ Apna time aayega.”

What was the ‘Coke Studio Bharat’ think-tank like?

Kausar Munir (centre) lights a lamp at the Coke Bharat Studio launch event in Mumbai; she is flanked by Piyush Pandey and Amruta Fadnavis

Kausar Munir shares that she was thrilled to take on a new role, which used the faculties she had gathered over many years in the trenches as a lyricist and a writer-at-large.

She also points out something that is very important and personal to her, something that should matter to the country, “Very few women are in the business in the music industry, as composers or lyricists, and fewer women are included in the decision-making process.”

“So putting me in the curation team which decides where, why, and how the sounds from various parts of the country are going to come together… felt like an honour.”

As for how the songs came together, she describes it as an organic, participative process. “Ankur came up with a philosophy. We just put people who knew how to get the job done in a room, with no brief on what to do, and apply the apna sunao principle.”

Besides her work as part of the think-tank, Kausar Munir has also written the song Udja, and added pieces to other songs which needed a connecting bridge.

Going regional

“We are actually going regional this time,” Kausar shares. “It’s about different places, languages and the regional ethos, so there are different kinds of flavours. Not just of language and musical traditions, but the cultural ethos, and I think that is best represented in the word ‘indigenous.’”

At the launch, Piyush Pandey, a guest of honour, recalled when he wrote the song Mile Sur Mera Tumhara. “Little did I know what impact it would create in the heart of India,” he says. “That was a time for classical music, but now, it is time for ‘massification’ of that classification.”

This is reflected in the diverse line-up of artists featuring and participating in the edition, including the likes of Amira Gill, Achint, Aditya Gadhvi, Arijit Datta, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash, Ashima Mahajan, Armaan Malik, Bombay Brass, Burrah, Charan Raj, Deveshi Sahgal, Dhruv Vishwanath, Diljit Dosanjh, Donn Bhatt, Hashbass, Jasleen Royal, Kanwar Grewal, Mahan Sehgal, Mansa Pandey, Maithili Thakur & Brothers, Mohammad Muneem, Noor Mohammad, OAFF & Savera, Osho Jain, Prabhdeep, Rashmeet Kaur, Seedhe Maut, Sakur Khan & Sons, Sanjith Hegde, Shillong Chamber Choir, and Tajdar Junaid.

This edition also puts the spotlight on traditional instruments like the algozha, chimta, duff, sarod, sarangi, tumbi and rabaab.

With this variety of musicians, also comes a plethora of genres and languages, and Kausar enjoyed working with artists across the land.

“That’s where having a story helped; we have a general Coke Studio Bharat story, which is to find music from different corners of the country and bind it with a sort of a musical intention. Within each song, there is a story and the story helped us understand the emotion.”

A case in point is the song she wrote in Gujarati. It was, incidentally, the first song to be released, on February 7. The song, featuring OAFF, Savera, Jasleen Royal, and Burrah, has already notched more than eight million views.

Where do we tune in?

Unlike the previous edition of Coke Studio, launched in collaboration with MTV, Coke Studio Bharat will see a more digital presence. Universal Music India serves as executive producer for the season, and songs will be released on YouTube and music streaming apps like Spotify, Gaana, Saavn, Wynk Music, and Audible.

Nine songs are currently on the anvil, although Ankur confesses that he secretly thinks that “Everyone is really excited and we might make more songs.”