Seventy-six years after India won independence, three-time Grammy winner Ricky Kej has got the British to sing the Indian national anthem. This is the first time Jana Gana Mana is being conducted in collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with a 100-member set of musicians.
The album is to be released on the eve of August 15 and is dedicated to Indians across the globe. While recording the album, Kej even joked with the musicians that the British ruled over India for 200 years. “I told them ‘It is time for you to give us a gift. The best gift possible that the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra can give is to play our national anthem’. They really took this to heart. They played it very well and gave us their very best,” Kej said.
Ricky Kej spoke exclusively to News18 on the prestigious project and how PM Narendra Modi changed the course of his career.
Edited excerpts:
This is the first time that the Indian national anthem is being played by you in collaboration with the famous Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. This is huge for India.
Correct. This is the largest orchestra to ever record the Indian national anthem with a 100-member orchestra and it is British. It is also my favourite orchestra in the world and the most in demand in the UK. This is a huge honour. I have collaborated with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the past, but this is the biggest version that I have recorded with them.
Was it a breeze for you to have collaborated with them?
It was not a breeze, the orchestra was absolutely amazing and they made it much easier for me to conduct them. When the musicians are fantastic, then the conductor’s work becomes very easy. That is exactly what happened to me. It took a very long time… how to conceptualise it and figure out what each musician is going to be playing, and how they are going to harmonise with each other. All of this took about three months.
Were there any challenges as this was a very big project?
Not many challenges. I think the only one was to be as respectful of the Indian national anthem as possible. I wouldn’t call it a challenge. It was more of a responsibility. This was always on my mind. The anthem is such an important song for me that I didn’t have to consciously try to be respectful as it would come automatically and come directly from my heart.
You have done some exceptional work when it comes to compositions around environment and sustainability. You have derived inspiration from the environment. Is there a particular inspiration for this composition?
This version of the national anthem was about giving the national anthem its epic due. Making it large, huge in magnitude, and ensuring that anybody who listens to this version of the national anthem does not listen to it without getting goosebumps. People who are not normally exposed to the Indian national anthem, from different countries who may not have heard it before will sit up and take notice of the Indian national anthem.
Each time you have interacted with PM Narendra Modi, we have seen the pride with which he interacts with you. Has he heard this?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is truly an amazing world leader and there is no doubt in my mind about that. When I met him in 2015, after having won two more Grammys, I interacted with him multiple times, including the state dinner hosted by President Macron in France. I sat with him and President Macron, and saw them interacting and saw how much the French president respected our Prime Minister.
President Macron kept holding my hand and telling me that the last time France had hosted a dinner at the Louvre was when Queen Elizabeth II had visited in 1957. The next time was when the Indian PM visited. He was so excited that he was able to host a dinner at the Louvre because PM Modi was there and they were rolling out the red carpet for him. These were very inspiring moments that I had with PM Modi and I am very grateful for that.
You said PM Modi changed the course of your career. How did he do that?
In 2015, when I met Prime Minister Modi after winning my first Grammy, that is when he told me that he would be attending the climate change conference, COP 21, the biggest conference in the history of nations for climate change.
At that time, he told me about his philosophies about the environment, and what he was going to be speaking about on stage. He was going to be launching the solar alliance which was an alliance of countries that have tropical climates to come together and help build solar energy that could help globally. That is when he saw my passion and the work that I had done with the United Nations. He is the one who suggested that I stop all forms of commercial music and concentrate only on making music with a focus on the environment and sustainability.
Obviously, when the leader of your country gives you advice, you are going to take it very seriously. I left his office framing in my mind that this is exactly what I am going to do. That was a huge inspiration for me.
Has the PM heard this particular track of our national anthem?
I am not going to answer that question. (Laughs)
What new projects are you working on?
I just finished another album with Stuart Copeland, my collaborator from the Police. This is a beautiful album that is called Police Beyond Borders. We have taken 10 of the most famous songs of the Police like Every Breath You Take, Message in a Bottle, Roxanne, and all the beautiful songs. We have orchestrated it for the Symphony Orchestra and we got a singer from a different country singing it in their language.
Every Breath You Take has been sung by a South African choir in Zulu. Shankar Mahadevan has Murder By Numbers in Hindi, Roxanne has been sung by Salim-Sulaiman in Hindi, then we have Cui Jain, one of the biggest rockstars in China, singing a song in Mandarin, we have Serj Tankian singing a song in Armenian. It is going to be a beautiful album and we will be releasing it on the 18th of this month.
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