Sixty-five singers have come together to collaborate on the AR Rahman classic Tamizha Tamizha in five languages in celebration of this year’s Independence Day. The song was released on August 14. AR Rahman shared a link to the video on Twitter on Saturday.
“Happy to be released #TogetherAsOne, a track of unity during these difficult times,” the Academy Award-winning composer wrote, adding, “65 singers have come together to present this Thamizha Thamizha reprise for a very important cause.”
Happy to be releasing #TogetherAsOne, a track of unity during these difficult times ! 65 Singers have come together to present this Thamizha Thamizha reprise for a very important cause
— A.R.Rahman (@arrahman) August 15, 2020
https://t.co/KtMHXtPR2h@usctofficial #USCT #TogetherAsOne
The video was also tweeted by actors Mohanlal and Yash.
In the video, the singers reprise the hit by AR Rahman from the 1992 film Roja, which was released on Independence Day 28 years ago. Titled ‘Together As One’, the song has been released in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. The soulful song also features rapper BlaaZe spitting rhymes with a cat on his shoulders.
The song and video was produced and released by United Singers Charitable Trust (USCT), a nonprofit founded by playback singer Srinivas, along with P Unnikrishnan, Sujatha Mohan, Rahul Nambiar and Ranjith Govind, all of whom are featured in the video.
According to the press release, the group planned to generate funds for singers and musicians who have been struggling due to the pandemic. The group is also planning a global concert in September to raise funds.
The video features a number of renowned singers, including SP Balasubrahmanyam, KS Chithra, Mano, Janaki Iyer, Krishnachandran, Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan, and Mahalakshmi Iyer. Each singer recorded their part entirely from their homes due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown. The video shows each singer in various locations, edited and compiled to have them singing together.
Together As One was curated by Srinivas, Rahul Nambiar and Aalaap Raju. It was mixed and mastered by Ishit Kuberkar.
Roja, written and directed by Mani Ratman, was AR Rahman’s debut film as a composer. The music from the film has lived on, even nearly three decades since its release. Rahman won a National Film Award for Best Music Direction, Filmfare Award for Best Music Director — Tamil and the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Music Director.