Teamwork above all

KOCHI: The Covid-19 lockdown has offered a much-needed break for many artists and musicians from their super busy schedule. Though most of them enjoyed being at home with family and taking part in the household chores, the uncertainty regarding how long it will go on for has raised an obvious question–what is next. Discussing this, Arun Gopan, singer and music director, has come up with a music video named ‘Enthappo Cheyya’ (what to do), featuring collaborations by around 90 artists from around the world. 

The video features celebrities like Suraj Venjaramoodu, Miya, Tini Tom, Krishna Shankar, Siju Wilson, Shabareesh Varma, Ranjini Haridas, Sarayu, Krishna Prabha, Arya, Rachna Narayanankutty, Bijukuttan, Noby, Pearly Manney and Mithun Ramesh, to name a few. In the video, the artists can be seen cooking, working out, fishing, washing clothes, practising music and dancing at home. Arun Gopan composed, arranged and sang the song while the video was directed by Saheer Abbas.

“Saheer and I worked together for the short film ‘Death Offers Life’ which won many awards in International film festivals. We were in discussion about a movie project and then the lockdown happened. We were wondering how to use this time effectively and came up with this video,” says Arun. Nearly 90 artists from different locations have come together for this project. “It really proves that lockdown can’t be a barrier for exhibiting creativity,” Arun adds, admitting that bringing such a big crew together was indeed a big task. 

“Suraj chettan was the first person I called after finalising the project. He happily agreed to join the video and that gave us confidence. Though there wasn’t a script for the video, we made our friends enact some portions. Many of the artists were busy working on scripts despite the lockdown, so we just asked them to shoot and send across their parts,” says Arun. 

The song written by Vishnu Raj is mixed and mastered by Mithun V Dev. Antony Nikhil Varghese edited the music video, which was released on Tuesday. “We completed it in around 10 days. Antony had the most strenuous job of compiling the shots,” adds Arun. The video was shared on social media by celebrities like Deepak Dev, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Sithara Krishnakumar and Ramesh Pisharody.“The song has been noticed well and we are getting good reviews. The credit goes to the team and all the artists who collaborated with us,” he says. So, is Arun still confused on what to do next? “Not at all. I’m working on a Tamil song now. Hopefully it will be out soon.”