Election anthem grooves to Yogaraj Bhat's wit

It is perhaps for the very first time that Karnataka elections will have an anthem. The idea of having one is to not only draw people's attention to the forthcoming elections but to also inspire citizens, especially the young, to cast their votes.

The Election Commission has roped in actor, director and lyricist Yogaraj Bhat for the anthem work. Known for his catchy lyrics, Yogaraj has penned the lyrics for the anthem and will also be directing it. Sharing his experience of working on the anthem, Yogaraj says, "The anthem is a call to citizens to cast their vote and not let it go waste. It talks about the power of voting and how every vote counts. We want this song to inspire people and increase the percentage of voters in the forthcoming elections."

He says that the video was shot by the 'Panchatantra' team. "Music is by V Harikrishna and the choreographer for the song is by Imran Sardhariya. The singer is Vijay Prakash," he adds.

Yogaraj says that he has been wanting to do something for the society for a long time now and the election anthem came at the right time.

"The song and video are not just meant to enlighten and entertain people, but also educate them. Songs tend to stay with people longer and people remember it more than long speeches," feels Yogaraj. He hopes the election anthem will be remembered by everybody.

Choreographer Imran Sardhariya, who has choreographed the song, says that he found working on the election anthem to be an eye-opener of sorts. He informs that the song has been shot in 30 locations across the state. "It was a new experience for us because we had to set aside our cinematic liberty and work on bringing out a practical, normal and a realistic video," says Imran.

He adds, "The brief given to us was to conceptualise the video in such a way that it attracts the attention of an 18-year-old to vote," he adds.

Imran says that the team has roped in ordinary citizens to groove to the song. "Interestingly, there is a small story woven into the song. There's a balloon that's let off from a small village. The single balloon signifies one vote. Slowly, the balloon gets bigger and bigger and grows into a massive one. This signifies the votes getting added on to make it one big balloon. This is a message that we want to convey to people," says Imran.

Sharing his perspective, music composer
V Harikrishna, says that his biggest challenge was to convey a serious message through catchy tunes.

"We are so used to working on cinematic music and making songs for
commercial purposes that handling this particular song called for a new wave of thinking and a different sort of energy," says Harikrishna.

"We had to make a song that would push people out of their comfort zone and prod them to come out and vote. We had to step out of our regular style of working and think out-of-the-box. It was a challenging, but an enjoyable process," adds Harikrishna.

The election anthem is slated to release this week.