Dooars greens for debut album
ANURADHA SHARMA LAKHOTIA
Debojit and his wife in the lobby of a hotel in Siliguri before leaving for Calcutta on Wednesday. Picture by Diptendu Dutta
Siliguri, March 29: Mumbai has come calling to north Bengal again.
This time, it is not the often-used Darjeeling locales or the Toy Train for a film shoot. Instead, a Mumbai film crew has chosen the lesser-known sites here to shoot the music video for the first solo album of Debojit Saha, the winner of Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma Challenge.
After Abhijit Sawant of the Indian Idol fame, Debojit from Assam is the latest singing sensation to hit the jackpot by winning the music contest organised by a private TV channel. He has created a phenomenon of sorts in the Northeast, particularly Assam, where people across racial and political lines came together to vote for him in the reality show.
The young icon was here to shoot for Jeena o Haseena, a number for his new album — which he declined to name — produced by Saregama HMV. Debojit, who found the tea gardens and the greenery here much like those in his state, was thrilled with the place. "I did not get much chance to come close to nature during my earlier visits to Siliguri, where I have some cousins," he said. "During the shoot, I discovered the beauty of the place. Shiv Khola is splendid and the rest of the place resembles my state."
"We chose to shoot here because the landscape goes well with the fresh look and feel of the song," said Benoy Mitra, the director of the video. Mitra, who runs Kaveri Productions in Mumbai, had earlier directed videos for Abjijit (Kya Tujhe Bataaoon) and Fame Gurukul's Kazi and Ruprekha (Ye Pal).
A part of Debojit's song, being shot by cinematographer Sunil Patel — known for hits like Hum Tum and Salam Namaste — was canned in the lush green locales of Sevoke on Monday and Shiv Khola on Tuesday. The rest of the video will be shot in Calcutta, to be followed by post-production work in Mumbai.
Though he insisted that he was more of a singer than an actor, Debojit did not have any complaint about having to emote for a song in front of the camera and dance around trees. "Singing is tough, acting is not that difficult," he said. "One has to emote even when one is singing and that's why acting comes naturally to good singers."
All praise for reality shows, he, however, agreed that they sold dreams. "Dream-selling is everywhere, but here they actually help you make your dream come true," he said.
He thanked the unifying power of music that brought the whole of the Northeast together in his support. "I am sure that people there will no longer feel left out of the mainstream as they used to feel earlier," he said.
This is an old article, but posting anyway. 😊
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