By Shrey Siddharth
Anurag Mohapatra has inspired the people of Odisha with his latest release “Jitijiba Odisha” during the second wave of this dreadful pandemic. The song “Jitijiba Odisha” sends a meaningful message about staying strong and staying patient during these tough times and become the support to the frontline warriors.
Throwing light on the origin of the song, Anurag discussed how Lopita Dash, the curator of this whole project, came up with the idea of creating a song relating to the pandemic’s second wave which has been more devastating. He said, “Whenever I take up a project, I make sure it has a sound of its own and distinguishes the song so that it has a different vibe and approach. Lopita came up with the idea and we got the team ready to work towards it. We made sure we put forth our best ideas even if we were working at home. That’s how the song was made.”
Speaking of the amount of time it took to create a song, Anurag said, “We had a sort of timeline. I always make sure I don’t take too much time in any project as ideas get flushed out from your mind and you may just get blanked out if you’re making creative work. I make sure I dedicate 3 to 4 hours to an idea and complete the task, and if it doesn’t work, I trash the session to start from scratch once again. While preparing the song, I designed a groove in my guitar, then we gradually produced the music, recorded the vocals the next day, and mixed it in the end. The whole song was finished within 3 days. I push myself and people who work with me to step out of their comfort zones. If you take more time, the creative connection breaks.”
He went on to explain how deadlines act as a motivating factor.”If you have deadlines, you know you need to deliver within a timeline and you need to add the right kind of emotions to your work. If you’re stuck in a loop of thoughts, you’ll feel a deficit of ideas. If your musical perspective is at the right place and if you imagine the song right, you’ll make it happen. Before composing music, I make sure I emotionally drive myself in the right way so that when the right keys hit, you realize good is born.”, Anurag said.
“Jitijiba Odisha” is Anurag’s first song where he composed the music and also gave his vocals. Highlighting his experience, he said, “My experience was really good. Although my vocals were not the first choice, for me at least. I always wanted to collaborate with a new voice since it brings a new emotion and identity. I had sung the scratch and so the production suggested to me that my voice sounds really good. Somehow while making the composition, I understood the right emotions that were meant to be in the song, and since I was giving it out, they felt I was delivering the right dynamics for the song and making it sound the right way just as they imagined. I’ve tried to make justice to the song, to the people for whom it’s meant for and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Anurag reflected on how the rap blended well with the song and gave it a better feel. He credited Saugato Roy Choudhary during the making of the song. Saugato Roy Choudhary is the music supervisor in this song. He worked really well with the team from the time of conceptualization till the time of release and he’s governed the entire process closely. He’s been a great addition and support to the team. He praised the rapper DevJ Mishra for creating the rap and performing it flawlessly. He said, “Rap music would help people to connect even more emotionally and it would bring an amazing transition in the music. It’s very polarizing. Hence we decided to have rap in the song so that it drives the song differently and people would connect more to the lyrics. DevJ is a wonderful rap artist and he completely nailed it. When he wrote the entire rap, it fit the song so well that we didn’t need any corrections and everyone in our team loved it from the producers to the channel. Everybody gave their best shot in the least possible time. Kudos to DevJ and Mousami, the female vocalist for hitting out of the right ballpark.”
In the end, Anurag had a message for the people of Odisha and the frontline workers. He said, “These are really hard times and what’s even harder is you need to cope up with your life and make it through this pandemic. We all say to stay home and take care of your families, but people need to take care of themselves mentally, emotionally, and physically. My appeal to the people who listened to our song would be that we should find ways to overcome this situation and stay inspired in the right way. Believe in the positive energy within you. People are taking precautions and getting vaccinated, so I feel in the course of next few months we’ll go back to our normal lives.”
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