Babul Supriyo, the singer-politician has managed to keep his commitments to the music industry despite his busy schedule as a minister with the Trinamul Congress and earlier with the BJP at the Centre.

His latest single, Shudhu Tomari Jonno is a Valentine’s Day release. Babul, who has been a musician at heart, said about the video that he was toying with the concept of the song and video for a long long time.

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“I wanted to showcase my college-mate Upal Sengupta’s (Chandrabindoo) exemplary talent of sketching cartoons. I needed to make a song and video that would catch the entire essence meaningfully. Thanks to HMV for believing in me, I can’t thank Joy Sarkar, Upol & Somraj enough for bearing with me in all my demands (& tantrums too). A special mention of Abhijeet A Paul for assisting me in my first ever directorial venture, for all his expertise; the cinematography & animation & beyond. Hope will get your support while we all try collectively to bring back the glory of non-film independent Bengali music,” informed Babul, who is the MLA from Ballygunge constituency.

Upal Sengupta, who is part of Chandrabindoo, which released their Talobasha recently, is very happy at his association with Babul. Talking about his association with Babul, Upal said, “We became friends during a St. Xavier’s College fest when Babul was performing and he was looking for someone who could accompany him with guitar. I played the guitar for him. That must have been around 1990-91. Then he left for Bombay and we both developed our different identities. In recent times, we have met a few times. Apart from listening to our band Chandrabindoo, he is all praise for my cartoons.

He had even expressed his interest in holding an exhibition of my cartoons in Delhi when he was a central minister. Though the exhibition did not materialise, he had said that he has planned a music launch using my cartoons. I had sketched stills for the video but Babul thought animating them would be a better option and he also got an animator for the purpose.”

He gives credit to the animator and Babul for bringing them out in layers. “Overall, it has been a very good experience. Earlier, too, I had worked with Anupam Roy for his video with my cartoons, said Upal, who has also made an appearance in Babul’s music video Shudhu Tomari Jonno. “I was only supposed to feature my cartoons, but he insisted that I also feature in it,” added Upal, who had brought out his cartoon books at the Kolkata book fair three years in a row.