upGrad's #AageKiSoch anthem banks on home production

Featuring Radhika Apte, Vikrant Massey and Aparshakti Khurana, the upGrad anthem aims to inspire youth to upskill amidst the lockdown.

In the time of the panic, paranoia and uncertainty, where our lives are challenged with, upGrad, an online higher education company and Big Bang Music, a pop culture label, have come together to create #AageKiSoch. The upGrad anthem encourages the youth to spend this time at home productively and engage in activities that will upskill their existing knowledge base in order to prepare for the new world post the COVID-19.

Written by Akshay Dhawan and composed by Shashwat Singh, the collaboration witnesses Jonita Gandhi rapping for the first time. The music video consists of an ensemble star cast that includes Radhika Apte, Vikrant Massey, Naveen Polishetty, Anto Philip, Fatima Sana Sheikh, Shantanu Maheshwari, Rohit Raj, Aparshakti Khurana, Karan Tacker, Abish Mathew, Akansha Ranjan, Elnaaz Norouzi, and ‘Jordindian’ - Naser and Vineeth.

Conceptualized by the higher education company upGrad to drive the productive habit of learning from home during quarantine and produced by Big Bang Music & KWAN, the partners have joined forces to bring together this eclectic mix of pop culture icons across Film, Music, Corporate, TV & Comedy for the upskill anthem. The 3 video renditions for the same song have been conceptualized, written, shot and edited in all of 72 hours, being directed remotely on video calls.

Talking about this exciting launch, Gaurav Wadhwa, CEO & Co-Founder, Big Bang Music said, "These are unprecedented times and while it’s important to keep the spirit alive, it’s more important to gear up for the world to come because we all know there is light at the end of this tunnel. We truly believe that music unites like no other and no better time than now to encourage people to use this ‘forced’ time at hand meaningfully."

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"Influencers are an integral part of any campaign, and more so today as they become custodians for keeping the morale high and mindset positive during the pandemic. We have carefully put together renowned and diverse names to be able to reach out to a large cross-section of people and encourage them to be productive while locked down in their homes," added Dhruv Chitgopekar, Founding Partner and COO, Kwan.

“With this upskill anthem, we want to encourage people to stay home and use the time meaningfully to enhance their skill set which otherwise would have parked in their to-do list. Preparedness for the coming economical storm is essential so that the youth and the working professionals can smoothly bounce back to their careers or make a new transition once we resume to our regular lives,” concluded Mayank Kumar, Co-Founder and MD, upGrad.

As a part of the campaign #AageKiSoch, influencers in the music video will tag their friends and urge them to "Bahar Nahi, Ab Tu #AageKiSoch" epitomising the future-forward thinking that, we need to do during the lockdown. The idea is to create a chain of audience propagating the message of strictly staying at home and using this time to upskill oneself with the education programs of upGrad.