More than lending his voice for playbacks, directing and producing music are keeping Shovan Ganguly busy. The singer, who calls 2023, a learning experience for him, speaks with us about his plans for the year ahead. Excerpts:
How was 2023 and what are the plans for 2024?
Earlier this year, I worked for Abhimanyu Mukherjee’s film Kirtan. I also worked on the title tracks of a few television projects. I am exploring my role as a music producer and director, and I am getting some great responses. Next year, I have a few web series and films in the pipeline and have plans to create a few original tracks, too. I want to fall back upon our Bengali classic genres and create four songs, toppa, puratoni, kirtan and rammyageeti, to ensure that these genres don’t get lost by acquainting the younger generations with these. My primary goal was not only to sing, but also direct and produce musical pieces. All in all, this year was musically different, and emotionally too, life took a different turn. I learnt newer things that I would like to try to execute in the future.
2023 was a learning experience for you musically. How did you overcome the challenges?
See, there is no such thing as a musical challenge since there isn’t any musical fraternity here. If you want to do something, you have to do that individually. At present, it seems that how you present yourself socially is everything. It’s about showing off more than the actual deeds. But in reality, how you present yourself to the audience, and how you present your art should be the main focus. But that’s again completely a personal choice. Music is a self-centered subject. Different people have different
perceptions of it and I don’t want to share mine with anyone. But yes, whatever I do, I will focus on a few original songs next year.
How is Bengali independent music doing right now?
It is doing fine. Along with popular film music, audiences have accepted Bengali independent music all of a sudden. But there is a catch. If something is accepted fast, it can be rejected faster. Even a few years ago, most of the independent, original tracks didn’t even come to the fore, but now, the audiences are spoilt for choices and are not getting enough time to listen to them all. But to keep up with the pace, the quality of songs should not deteriorate. Whatever I do, the main intention has always been to create good music, and respect the art form, so that people accept my work.
As in other industries, has your scope of work increased with OTT platforms?
Not really. It is still the same as before. The type of content here hasn’t changed much like that in other
regional spaces, or even the ones made in Bangladesh. Nothing pathbreaking or extraordinary is happening. A few friends of mine including Ranojoy, Prosen and Debdeep, are trying to do something revolutionary in the music space but still, they have a long way to go I feel!