Watch Ankur Tewari’s Adorable New Animated Video for ‘Shehzaada Shehzaadi’

Mumbai-based singer-songwriter Ankur Tewari sticks to his strength of writing affable, minimalist songs in his latest single “Shehzaada Shehzaadi.” A folksy love song complete with harmonica, acoustic guitar and an unhurried rhythm section, has been released by a label called Snafu Records.

As it turns out, Tewari’s wholly accessible and heartfelt songwriting talent was honed in on by Snafu’s artificial intelligence-driven research. The label, formed in 2018, has been set up in Stockholm, Los Angeles and Mumbai. The Indian artist is among 45 other signees to Snafu, including American rapper-producer Hit-Boy.

Tewari, however, has always described his approach to making music as “organic” and unbothered by numbers and data. This has arguably changed since signing up with an AI-powered label like Snafu. He says, “I was quite surprised they even looked at me. When I started working with them, I realized they have an insight on the people consuming music and how I can reach out to people who listen to my music but are unable to access it. It’s really insightful and it’s created a balancing act to my organic approach to songwriting. I’m seeing my songs break into regions which I had probably not imagined before.”

The touching love story narrated through the lyrics of “Shehzaada Shehzaadi” is accompanied by a music video designed by animation artists Kathyrn Dsouza and Tushar Varma, and directed by Sheetal Sudhir. “The whole idea was to feel as if the whole world is taking a group hug,” Tewari said in a statement. About the music video, which revolves around two characters seated by Marine Drive in Mumbai, he says, “We were thinking of imagining a world where the currency is love. It was a fantasy world, hence animation was a choice that we didn’t need much debating. Even the style of animation—in the past we’ve worked on animation videos which have a darker edge to it—but ‘Shehzaada Shehzaadi’ speaks of crisp sunshine and happiness.”

The single comes in the midst of a return to gigging for Tewari and his band, The Ghalat Family, in addition to numerous projects. His album Akela is “ready to roll” and slated for release next year, along with more songs. He states, “I’m working with [director] Shakun Batra for his film with Dharma which stars Deepika Padukone, Ananya Panday and Siddhant Chaturvedi. I’m working with Zoya Akhtar for her film The Archies on Netflix, which is quite exciting. The script is quite pathbreaking […] Some really exciting surprises in store for the second quarter of the year.”

Watch the video for “Shehzaada Shehzaadi” below.