Women's Equality Day: Farida Khannum, Usha Uthup, 100 women croon 'Jaago Zara'

Getting the creme de le creme of the music fraternity for the project is an unachievable feat. But such was the beauty and lure of Aashish Rego’s new anthem Jaago Zara. An ambitious piece of work in itself, Rego and his co-producers Justin-Uday Duo and Somesh Mathur have been able to bring together more than 100 diverse female achievers from the music industry for the song. Stalwarts and stars alike, female musicians from different beats and genres have joined forces for the track that essentially celebrates the essence of womanhood and its role in bringing about change in the new world order. In the post-COVID world, the song is a testament of unity and instills the spirit of collaboration amongst artists.

While the confluence of such varied people was a tough task, Jaago Zara has brought together legends like Begum Farida Khannum, Chitra-ji, Sharon Prabhakar, Usha Uthup-ji, Ila Arun-ji, Vidushi Sudha Mathur-ji, Anuradha Paudwal-ji amongst others. Stalwarts like Anuradha Pal, Hamsika Iyer, Nandini Srikar, Sunita Bhuyan, Merlin D'Souza, Vivienne Pocha and many more have collaborated in this one song.

Ask Rego, how did it pull it off and he says, “It took an immense amount of effort and logistical planning. Every project has its own challenges but on this, it was co-ordination that was the hardest part. Now as the song is ready, I realise that this was probably the most enriching and fulfilling experience of my professional career thus far. These are artists we have grown up revering. Each of them belongs to a different era and genre. And yet, when you put them in the same track, they stand out beautifully, making the song a wholesome number. I have to thank my partners Somesh Mathur, Justin-Uday Duo and everyone else. They had immense faith in the vision of this song. I can’t be grateful enough to them to believe in this massive project involving over 200 artistes and technicians from across the world in creating the magic that is Jaago Zara.”

The song has already won the Best Composer – Silk Road Film Award at Cannes, Best Song at Music Video Clip Monthly Awards, Best Music Video at Imagine Rain Independent Film Awards, Best Lyrics and Best International song at Tracks Music Award, Best Music – Bridgefest, Best Film on Women and Best music video at World Film Carnival (Singapore). Additionally, it has also won Best Original Song at New York Movie Awards, Hollywood Gold Awards & The Film Olympiad and Special Jury Award as Best Music Video at Ray International Film Festival, Best Sound/Studio Production at the Palm Beach International Music Awards as well as Best Music Video & Listener Impact – Silver Award at the Global Music Awards.