Dil Chahta Hai : Berklee Indian Ensemble Ft. Shankar Mahadevan | T-Series

The incredible Shankar Mahadevan joins the Berklee Indian Ensemble in an exciting new version of “Dil Chahta Hai” featuring 112 artists from 21 countries. Presented by Berklee India Exchange (BIX) and T-Series, this #BIXCovidFund initiative supports marginalized Indian artists whose livelihoods have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. While the world has turned to art for solace, Indian artists from folk musicians to instrument makers are in dire need of help.T-Series will donate all proceeds from this song to the cause.

To Donate:
T.M. Krishna’s Sumanasa Foundation
Salim-Sulaiman’s Zariya Foundation

BIX hopes to amplify the work of these foundations and galvanize even more global philanthropic support for this oft-overlooked community. Once their fundraising goals are met, other organizations supporting the Indian music fraternity will be identified by BIX.

A total of 112 musicians, actors, industry leaders, and Berklee students sent personal messages of hope, resilience, and optimism relating to “Dil Chahta Hai” (what our hearts want), gratitude, and post lockdown hopes. Those who are able to have been encouraged to match their creative contribution with a pledge of financial support to these foundations.

We are grateful to our extended BIX family from Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Dubai, India, Israel, Indonesia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Mexico, Japan, Jordan, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey and USA for making this video possible.

Song: “Dil Chahta Hai"
Composers: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani & Loy Mendonsa)
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Producer/Arranger: Guy Bernfeld
Additional vocal arr: Annette Philip
String co arr: Inna Dudukina
Horn co arr: Nerya Zidon

Artistic Director, BIX: Annette Philip
Asst Manager: BIX: Rohith Jayaraman
Asst, BIX: Lydia Renold
Senior Director, Global Engagement, Middle East & India: Clint Valladares

Choir
Agney Mulay (New Delhi, India)
Amira Gill (New Delhi, India)
Annette Philip (Kerala, India)
Belyana Hristova (Plovdiv, Bulgaria)
Blake Johnston (La Center, WA)
Harshitha Krishnan (Lagos, Nigeria & Chennai, India)
Ishita Sinha (Patna, India)
Katyayani Krishnan (Singapore)
Purvaa Sampath (Bengaluru, India)
Rachel Singh (Mumbai, India)
Rohith Jayaraman (San Jose, CA)
Sahaj Biyani (New Delhi, India)
Sanjana Raja (Chennai, India)
Shai Portugaly (Rishon LeZion, Israel)
Srishti Biyani (New Delhi, India)
Swarathmika Swaminathan (Mumbai, India)
Vasundhara Gupta (Kolkata, India)

Band
Yogev Gabay (Israel) Drums
Guy Bernfeld (Israel) Bass
Annette Philip (India) Piano
Ronojit Chaliha (India) Rhodes
Yotam Ishay (Israel) Keyboard
Shai Portugaly (Israel) Moog
Aleif Hamdan (Indonesia) Guitar
Yoel Genin (Israel) Guitar
Lior Tzemach (Israel) Guitar
Giri Subramaniam (India) Tabla
Daniel Feldman (Mexico) Percussion
Takafumi Nikaido (Japan) Percussion

Horns
Ron Warburg (Israel) Trumpet
Nerya Zidon (Israel) Alto Sax/Flute
Yuval Sorkin (Israel) Tenor Sax
Yoshie Nakayama (Japan) Trombone

Strings
Layth Sidiq (Jordan) Violin I
Bengisu Gokce (Turkey) Violin II
Dan Lay (USA) Viola
Cristobal Cruz-Garcia (Mexico) Cello

Berklee College of Music
Mark Wessel: recording/mixing engineer
Cal Brockie: recording engineer
Yair Amster: recording engineer
Reuben Cohen: mastering engineer, Lurssen Mastering, LA, CA

Production House: BToS Productions
Creative Director: Nazeef Mohammed
Post Supervisor: Allan Fernandes
Offline Video Editor: Sagar Parikh
Online Video Editor & Grade: Parth Reshamwala

Press & PR: Lily Ahluwalia
Berklee Media Relations: Colette Greenstein

Gratitude to our video collaborators from the Indian arts community
Aamir Khan
Ameen Rahman
Andrea Jeremiah
Benny Dayal
Bianca Gomes
Brian Tellis
Clinton Cerejo
Farhan Akhtar
Haricharan
Jonita Gandhi
Louiz Banks
Merlin D'Souza
Neeti Mohan
Raju Singh
Rhys D'Souza
Salim Merchant
Sangeeta Mahadevan
Shankar Mahadevan
Shalmali Kholgade
Siddharth Mahadevan
Shivam Mahadevan
Shweta Pandit
Sulaiman Merchant
Vijay Prakash
Vivienne Pocha
Viveick Rajagopalan
Zakir Hussain

Berklee Family
Aarya Ganesan
Alexia Riner
Aman Sagar
Amogh Agarwal
Anika Chandra
Anoushka Kotak
Apoorva Krishna
Avanti Nagral
Bharathi Palivela
Bhrigu Sahni
Caitlynn Savari
Cimone Rajan
Danny Godwin
Dhruv Goel
Esha Nijhoff Asser
Gayathri Karunakar Menon
Gayathri Krishnan
Geet Barua
Inna Dudukina
Janani Sharma
Kanika Patawari
Karan Pandav
Levin Valayil
Medha Nair
Meghna Rajaram
Nalini Krishnan
Pankhuri Singhal
Payal Kumar
Priya Mani
Prithvi Prajosh
Priyant Sundas
Ranajoy Das
Richa Saran
Rishabh Sharma
Sai Raman
Sahana Simha
Sanjeeta Bhattacharya
Shilpa Ananth
Shradha Ganesh
Shrivant Singh
Shwetank Gupta
Sumeet Sarkar
Tanya Myrick
Thara Dhishay
tea
Vikram Bam
Vidushi Goyal
Zoya

Special thanks
Susan Whitehead
Tamilyn & Bodo Liesenfeld
Mirek Vana

[himanshugharat]

Guitar was just awesome n that part always gave you goosebumps. All time favorite song. Shankar-Ehsan-Loy always rocks. Fabulous

[rutvijsonawane]

Neha Kakkar se thoda aaram toh mila... 😌😍 Had Goosebumps on "Ooooo" part..!!

[musicdilsebyprabhu]

Dil Chahta Hai during COVID Times!


I always look forward to new productions from Berklee India Exchange (BIX) as there is always something to learn - be it the arrangement, choice of instruments, fusion elements, in short creativity at every level. It’s great that they recently came out with a beautiful cover version of the #epic song Dil Chahta Hai - an album that catapulted Shankar Ehsan Loy into the music Industry. It was the perfect song to choose as there are a lot of chorus sections in the song where they could engage the marquee list of musicians that BIX managed to get for this music video. While many of them have performed with BIX in the past in various collaborations, I could also see some new faces as well.


However, the most amazing thing of the video was BIX could manage to get Shankar himself to sing the main melody!! This to me made the cover relatable to the original version despite so much experimentation all around - in chorus, choice of instruments, rhythm and not to mention a whole new change in the visuals from the lovely beaches of Goa to locked-down, yet happy and hopeful faces enjoying from their respective drawing rooms! Berklee has an amazing knack to get this ‘holding plackard’ thing right (remember Jaago Piya?). I found the messages quite meaningful and reflecting hope and optimism, which is needed the most during these challenging times!


Coming to the composition, it is indeed a masterpiece. While Shankar owned it, which is a given and expected, the team really seem to have put in a lot of hardwork to co-ordinate and pull it off so well. The composition has everything - electronic music, indian classical, retro-organ type music, brass/strings section, reggae-type patterns and also acapella style choral sections. You name it and you’ll find it mixed somewhere in this wonderful potpourri! :)


I also managed to discover three new instruments - Hammond, Rhodes and Moog in the credits section and was curious to know their usage. So I believe the very first musical chords being played at 0:46 are played on Rhodes while the initial bass sections 01:13 is played on Moog which again re-appears in the transition from the first antara to mukhada at 03:25. It has a very characteristic tone to it and somehow has a great recall-value in this composition. Other than Shankar’s voice, I seem to remember this instrument the most!


Coming to overall composition, I love the way its structured - a lot of electronic sounds to being with in the Dil Chahta Part and then the mood shifts to soft percussion and keys in the extended mukhda part - Din Din Bhar Ho at 01:30 which lets the listener breathe, relax and enjoy the soothing vocals. And then suddenly the DCH part re-appears, this time with very prominent brass sections along with the usual electronic parts, building up the arrangement and thus leading up to the chorus part - Ho-Ho-Ho at 02:34, where all hell breaks loose. :)


The Antara is the best part for me, where in comes tabla and somehow Shankar brings in the Indian Classical element so well. He goes on to re-introduce the classical piece towards the end with the beautiful alaaps and sargam. The classical part adds a whole new dimension to this song for the first time ever. Otherwise, this was always your quintessential pop genre with modern instruments. Particularly love the part where Shankar does the alaap at 04:18 and the harkat to end it - was my 'aha' moment! Also must mention the sargam which keeps the listener’s focus while so much is happening around both musically and otherwise!


In short, a beautiful cover that one must listen, see and feel at the same time and in loop of-course (as you cannot do all at once! :) ).
Enjoy this one and yes, please do donate to their cause.


#Covid #ThisTooShallPass


Musically Yours,
Prabhu

[meerashetty]

Dil Chahta hai is my Bachpan ka favourite song .. thank you Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy 😍😍..meri pehli film theatre mein😂😂😂😁😁🤩🤩...farhan Akhtar thank you too

[bizdas]

Dil Chahta hain ki Berklee Indian ensemble performs in Toronto again this summer. We loved them when they were here before. 👍🏽👏🏽

[shreyasnaik]

You want me to pause this beautiful song and read everyone's card ?

[chaudharysforever]

*Dil chahta hair* Is one of the fav movie ....

[shafichowdhury]

After listening to the rendition of dil chahta hai, I am amazed that Aamir Khan still has this song in his memories back when he was in the actual film. Shankar Mahadevan did a superb job singing this. As a matter of fact, I saw Shankar perform this song 2 years ago in Maryland!!! He was amazing!

[SaurabhRaghunath]

I have watched this movie 24 times in theater and dont know how many times on other places, One of the most important movie of our lifetime.

[shafichowdhury]

I would like to let everyone know that the dil chahta hai song rendition is available on iTunes. I am not sure if everyone had noticed that part. I thought I share that information out! Well done and the video is absolutely flawless! I saw this many times and I cannot get over this song! It makes my day go so smoothly!

[S.S.P.]

कोरोना जल्दी खतम हो जाए सभी की तकलिफे दूर हो जाए और दिल चाहता है part-2 उसी पूरी टीम के साथ जल्द से जल्द बडे पर्दे पर आजाए । यही मेरा दिल चाहता है ।

[Aastha-Sharma]

Berklee is my favorite 💙💙
Especially jiya jale ❤❤
Amazing collaboration in such a gloomy time 💛💝💛💚❤💙

[blackandalittleyellow]

Kindness the only thing we need and deserve

[sandeepsandhu]

Please guys may this reach 100 billion / 100 trillion views....its for a good cause and i am going to replay this atleast 100 times....my little contribution to help in the little way i can ....peace and #JaiHind

[rinkykakwani]

Sachi yaar Dil chahate din bhar ho pyari baatein, humko raho mein multi rahe yuhoin khushiya

[Danish_malik]

Ji Sahi kahaa hum sabhi kaa😉
Dil Chahta hai
Kabhi naa beete
Chamkile din...
#stayhome #staysafe 😘😘😘

[arvindkadam]

Many reasons for goosebumps....💓
❤️The top ones are...
🧡Shankar's vocal

💚The guitar....
💙The presence of💓😍 Ustad Zakir Hussain Sahab in the video...
💝The Lyrics

[akashsarna]

I was searching for this version from few days...as I heard it on FM one day & was not able to find it. And today I finally did. This song from Dil Chahta hai was love. And this version is awesome ❤️

[sunilkumarchoudhury]

How a man can be so perfect.... Mr perfect.... But I m a fan of Bhaijaan...

[theentirety-.]

Dil chahta h each and every animal and bird will have the same happiness that they have every thing is back to normal