Exclusive Premiere: Watch Debanjan Biswas and Animated Filmmaker Iman Saha’s Serene Video ‘Sahara’

When Mumbai-based singer-songwriter and composer Debanjan Biswas lost a friend to suicide last year, he says he realized the importance of “standing by each other in need.” While that’s a message that can have wider interpretation in times of a global pandemic, Biswas offers an interpretation with “Sahara,” a cinematic track released with an animated music video directed by filmmaker-animator Iman Saha.

About six months in the works, “Sahara” has gentle and pastoral sounds set to a story of a young physically challenged girl who dreams vividly of days past. Biswas says he was also inspired by the music in legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s cinema. “It really evoked so much. There’s pure feelings in this song and that was my vision with this,” Biswas says.

Produced by Mumbai-based Akshay Dabhadkar (who also plays keys for folk-fusion band Aankh Micholi), the easygoing track comes to life through the animated visuals. Biswas says he met Dabhadkar at a music school in 2017, and although the singer-songwriter dropped out, he kept in touch with the producer and worked on material.

While Biswas has been in the music space for about five years – participating in the All India Fingerstyle Guitar competition finals in 2016 and performing at venues like The Royal Opera House and The Quarter – he’s just getting started with the releases. There’s an English song called “Good Times” coming out in August that showcases Biswas’ singer-songwriter side, followed by a Hindi track. The instrumental, cinematic sound, however, will be carried forward with a six-track album called Art of Culture, due in 2021. He says, “I’ll be releasing more singles this year and I’m trying to get in touch with the major labels. We’ll finish the album by next year and we want to try to send it to the Grammys for consideration.”

Watch the video for “Sahara” below.