Did you know Piyush Pandey wrote Mile Sur Mera Tumhara? Revisiting the iconic song
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Did you know Piyush Pandey wrote Mile Sur Mera Tumhara? Revisiting the iconic song")
Piyush Pandey was an account manager at Ogilvy when he wrote the iconic song Photograph: (X)
No song beautifully captures India's diversity as Mile Sur Mera Tumhara. Ad-man Piyush Pandey, who passed away on Friday, was a 30-something ad man when he first wrote the song. It went through 17 drafts before the 18th one was approved.
No one understood India and its diversity as much as Piyush Pandey. The adman, often credited for revolutionising Indian advertisement, wrote the iconic song Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, much before he became the face of the advertising industry. The song, which was first released in 1988, was composed by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, who also featured in the opening shot of the music video. Pandey, back then a 30-something old writer and an account manager of advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather India, captured the beauty of India’s diverse ethnicity and culture into a song which remains iconic nearly four decades on. It was a moment that really celebrated India in its true sense, a song that remains a true representation of nationalism in India.
History of Mile Sur Mera Tumhara
The project was reportedly aimed at promoting national integration and instilling a sense of pride among Indians about their vast ethnicity, highlighting the different linguistic communities and cultures and promoting unity in diversity.
Developed by Lok Seva Sanchar Parishadand promoted and aired on the country’s National network, Doordarshan, the project was conceived by Suresh Mallik and Kailash Surendranath, who also directed the iconic music video.
Pandit Joshi composed the song in Raag Bhairavi, which could blend both Hindustani and Classic Carnatic traditions into one tune seamlessly. Louis Banks, who arranged the music, blended the Western tunes into the song.
Pandey wrote the lyrics, which reportedly went through 17 drafts before the 18th one was approved. The lyrics were not just in Hindi but also in Kashmiri, Bangla, Oriya, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Konkani, Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, and Assamese- languages present in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution at the time.
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More about Mile Sur Mera Tumhara music video
Mile Sur was first telecast on Independence Day, 1988, soon after the Prime Minister’s speech from the Red Fort.
The song, mostly played between bulletins and programs on DD, featured celebrities and achievers from all walks of life. From singers, film stars, to artists, writers to cricketers and commentators, it was a star-studded video that truly captured the essence of the rich Indian culture and diverse topography.
Many would recall, it featured Bhimsen Joshi in the opening shot. It also featured a young Kamal Haasan sitting on a beach in Tamil Nadu, Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra and Mithu Chakraborty standing arm in arms together and singing the song. The song also featured celebrities like Hema Malini, Mallika Sarabhai, Waheeda Rehman, Sharmila Tagore, Madan Lal, Deepa Sahi, and Om Puri, among others.
Kamal Haasan was not supposed to be part of the music video. His cameo was unplanned. Turns out he had accompanied his music guru, M Balamuralikrishn,a to the shoot and agreed to feature in the video at the last minute.
The song was sung by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Vidwaan Sri M Balamuralikrishna, Lata Mangeshkar, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Shubhangi Bose, Suchitra Mitra, R A Rama Mani, Ananda Shankar, and Poornima.
