Over the last few years, short-form content has become increasingly popular. When you go to social media platforms, especially Instagram and YouTube, you find a large number of reels and short videos. Consuming short-form content does not require you to invest a lot of time. Whether you are taking a stroll in a park or at work, you can easily watch a reel or a video which has a duration of a few seconds and get back to what you were doing.
In her illustrious journey as a singer, lyricist and composer, Anwesshaa worked on several full-fledged songs designed for films made in different languages. She also released a lot of music independently. With ‘Millennial Wala Love’, a newly released song, she got the opportunity to experiment with short-form content for the first time.
In this interview, the multi-faceted artist talks about joining hands with IPRS and Meta India on ‘Millennial Wala Love’, thoughts on short-form content and more.
‘Millennial Wala Love’, which you have composed, sung and written the lyrics for, is the result of a joint initiative by IPRS and Meta India. How did this collaboration happen?
IPRS and Meta India approached me for this project. For a while, I was observing this trend of releasing 1-minute long songs or music pieces online. Many composers, singers and musicians would put up such content, which was supposed to be Instagram-friendly, quite frequently. This was a space I had not had the chance to explore. ‘Millennial Wala Love’ led me towards trying out short-form content for the first time.
When IPRS and Meta India approached me, they told me that they were planning to launch the Young Songwriters Program. They had shortlisted songwriters and composers from different parts of the country to create original songs. They wanted them to create songs that would have a minimum duration of 60 seconds but these should not be full-fledged songs. They wanted these songs to reach out to the Instagram audience. I found this initiative to be quite interesting and decided to give it a shot. It was wonderful collaborating with IPRS and Meta India on this track.
Who came up with the concept for the song?
I came up with the concept. The generation, which I belong to, saw many transitions happening. We saw things moving from analog to digital. We also witnessed the emergence of social media. Since I was trying out a new format, I wanted to create something that would be different from regular love songs. I thought of making a song on how millennial look at love. I felt the younger audience would be able to relate to it. Since it was going to be a 1-minute song, we had to pack in a lot of things in a short time frame.
How long did it take you to put together the song?
It took me less than half an hour to create the song. Since I wrote and composed the song on my own, the process did not take very long. After the audio track was ready, we started working on the video. The process of shooting the video was quite interesting. In my earlier videos, people have seen me singing. I spoke to the video team and told them we should do something to ensure the video stands out. I shared them some ideas I had in my mind with the video team and they were very supportive.
I decided to get some people I knew from my gurukul in Kolkata on board. Tousif Alam Chowdhury is a theatre actor in Kolkata. Prakriti Dasgupta and Dhrupadi Banerjee are wonderful artists from my music school Lalit Kala. All three of them have featured with me in the video. It was wonderful working with them as a team. The song became all about a group of young people communicating to the youth and sharing a thought or idea with them. A lot of VFX was used. I had never been a part of a production of this nature. The entire video team executed everything very well.
Short-form content has become extremely popular in today’s day and age. What are your thoughts on it?
I think the audience likes watching all kinds of content. Whether you make a three-hour long film or a thirty-second reel, it will work if it connects with the audience. I enjoy consuming long-form content like cinema and podcast. I listen to two-hour long podcasts in one go. The quality of the content, irrespective of its length, has to be good. Personally, I prefer long-form content over short-form content. However, I like trying out new things. One should also be aware of current trends. Creating and being a part of ‘Millennial Wala Love’ was a lot of fun.
Do you plan to release short-form content independently in the future?
I feel if you have long-form content, you can create short-form content out of it. You cut some portions out of a full-fledged song and share it as reels on Instagram and shorts on YouTube. In the recent past, there have several instances of younger people discovering old songs through reels. Sometimes, when you discover a song through a reel on Instagram and then, go to YouTube to listen to the entire song.