Kolkata's music fraternity to record city anthem

Luminaries of West Bengal's music and film fraternity have come together to create a star-studded tri-lingual anthem for Kolkata.

Poised to be a "contemporary and peppy" track, the song titled "Anthem Kolkata", will be a token of appreciation and a way to give something back to the city, said sitar player Purbayan Chatterjee - the brainchild of the initiative.

"It's speciality is that it will be tri-lingual...with Bengali, Hindi and English lyrics. I wanted to give something back to the city and the fraternity of artists feel the same. So its a tribute to the city from the whole fraternity," Chatterjee, who has composed the tune, told IANS.

Hindustani classical vocalist Ustad Rashid Khan, singers Rupam Islam, Rupankar and Lopamudra Mitra will lend their voices to the anthem.

Poet-lyricist Srijato has penned the lyrics in Bengali and Hindi, with noted percussionist Bickram Ghosh contributing in English.

"The contributors have worked for free. We are now trying to gather funds for the production, including shooting," said Chatterjee.

Enthused by the venture, icons like footballer Baichung Bhutia, cricketer Sourav Ganguly, actor Prosenjit Chatterjee and actor-director Aparna Sen have agreed to star in the video.

Moreover, to make it an all inclusive project, denizens of the eastern metropolis will be welcome to upload videos offering a glimpse of the city, via their website.

"There are two aspects in which we need help, the finance and the logistics. For the latter, everybody is welcome to put up videos for locations in the city they think it could be shot at. We will also include the selected clippings in the final video," said Chatterjee.

Slated for an August launch, the anthem's shooting will kick-off after the financial and logistical details are ironed out.