Covering Bollywood and the Hindi Cinema

No I’m not obsessed with the song but as mentioned by me in a previous post the people associated with the project contacted me and were kind enough to give their side of the story: Enjoy!

The video nirgun raakh liya has been directed by Ajay Kumar and sanjukta Nirgun    Raakh Liya

The start of Nirgun Raakh Liya….
A call from the tseries office sometime in November  2004 started the entire chapter of Nirgun Raakh Liya, the shabad video featuring Akshay Kumar. From there on  began the series of meetings and discussions on the creatives with Akshay. But the best part was that he left us totally free on the concept and visualization for the video. The only brief was that it should have a peaceful and a soothing feel. Keeping the religious sentiments and the limitations of presentation in mind, we have tried to extend the reach of the divine words of Sikhism through simplistic yet powerful visuals.

The shooting schedule…
The video first went into floor, last year in May wherein we and our crew traveled extensively for the outdoor portions in the video. The locations captured in our lens include kerela, Haryana, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Una, Auli and Malari village.

If we faced the sweltering heat in Punjab the extreme cold temperatures in Malari village (on china border) also came our end

But what kept all our strengths going was definitely the pure intentions with which the video was shot. The shabad gave us energy and kept us going through out the hectic schedule despite many a tensions and obstacles that came our way.

The second schedule comprised of Akshay's solo shoot in Mumbai which with computer graphics we matched with the overall feel visible in the video.

Akshay and us
Throughout our interactions with Akshay never a day we felt that we  were or still are interacting with a big star. He is very down-to –earth, simplistic and open to ideas. That boosted our confidence a lot. For we, simple hardworking directors believe in work and not high talks.

It has been our greatest priviledge to work with him on this venture which we feel will always remain a golden leaf in the history of "shabad" presentation.

This video is completely different in approach to whatever has been presented till date on this genre. And our special thanks from the heart to Akshay, Ajay Kapoor and Bhushan Kumar of T-series for giving the reigns of direction for this project to us.

Why a shabad video
The main idea behind was to make the golden verses of "shabad" reach out widely across to people at large. The video is an attempt to spread awareness amongst people- young, old, Sikh or non-Sikh about the importance of peace and harmony

for the first time......
its been a real turning point in shabad picturisation and singing.till date it was shot under the most simplistic manner where the singer sat with harmonium and tablas in some modest set up or gurudwara backdrop.But this video has been a very bold step keeping in mind the s.g.p.c the sikh group famous of banning movies and other audio visual material.

for us as directors we believe that the video talks of peace and serenity and we believed the presentation needs to have a universal appeal.it feels extremely positive that this sikh devotional video is playing successfully 0n Mtv and other similar channels (which is also first of its kind).due to its play in national channels its being exposed to the gen x which we feel very such needs to know the essence of preachings of faith 

Akshay's get up n presence
Akshay has been given a very simple attire in white designed by Anna Singh and throughout, we stressed not to portray him as a star but as a normal devotee reciting the shabad and he likes the fact that the video encompasses diversified people in diversified situations and doesnot highlight him unnecessarily.

He called us to Manali
After Akshay saw the first edited cut, we were called immediately to Manali, (where he was shooting for humko deewana kar gayee) and all he said was "you never told me that u had planned so much for this video, it's very beautiful and serene and I did not imagine so much." That day we felt real happy that our philosophy to talk less and work more did leave its mark behind…..an on such a big star.

 About the director
Ajay kumar n sanjukta's previous videos and ad-films are with Gurdasmann, Hansraj Hans, Harry Anand, Sukshinder Shinda, Pakistani artists Ali haider, Abrar-ul-haq, Archies cards etc.