Naina Chaar

Development

The exclusively online initiative by Sony Music, of which the song was a part, was titled 'Project Resound' and it marked the first collaboration between veteran Indian singers Shreya Ghoshal and Kailash Kher, who were asked to share their knowledge about music genres and Indian languages. 'Upgrade your ears' was the tagline of the project, and according to Sony, its principal target was to make the youth generation aware of the different qualities of music that they hear on their headphones. Thereby, "Naina Chaar" was recorded as a promotional song for Sony Headphones. Regarding this, Sanjeev Jasani, senior vice-president of OgilvyOne, stated in an interview— "We understood early on that no product advertising could achieve our client's objectives. Sony wanted to target music lovers who were listening to music on-the-go. Also, the company observed how closely young music lovers follow their music idols. The power of recommendation commanded by celebrities can be leveraged only when the brand message is not all about pushing products."

The mission was aimed at presenting a pristine form of music through their vocal and musical abilities, which was beyond the boundaries of the music of Bollywood or filmi music. It was also decided that the singers' collaboration would be recorded in series and presented in the form of an episodic documentary, such that music lovers too could experience the process of composing music. Finally, a web concert featuring both the singers was planned in which the full song would be officially unveiled. Kailash Kher, who has written and composed "Naina Chaar", described it as 'a rustic song with earthy lyrics'. Besides the web episodes and web concert, Sony also introduced other engagement activities like quiz on the journeys of both the singers, AR app from Ghoshal and Kher greeting fans and sharing signed photographs and an online voting system for the selection of songs to be performed at the web concert. A new microsite was also launched by Sony for their home audio-video products. In an interview, Sanjeev Jasani commented— "Kailash sings at a very high octave and Shreya signs at a lower octave with a much softer voice which helped the project to bring in two different sets of music experience for the ears of the music lovers."

Web episodes

The 'Project Resound' were shot over 45 days and were digitally released as nine web episodes by a Delhi-based production house UnCommonSense Films. Prior to the web episodes, personal interview videos of Kailash Kher and Shreya Ghoshal were also released.

Web concert

The 'Project Resound' web concert, held on September 12, 2013 (from 4 p.m. onwards), marked the end of the nine web episodes, when "Naina Chaar" was released. Both singers Shreya Ghoshal and Kailash Kher performed some of their chart-busters, which were selected through an online voting system operated by Sony, to all their fans.

Release and reception

"Naina Chaar" was an instant success since its release. The official song was digitally released on September 16, 2013. Reportedly, the 'Project Resound' web episodes received 4,60,000 visits during the campaign period. "Naina Chaar" also got about 2,85,000 downloads and above 3,00,000 views on YouTube (as of March 2014). A research by Nielsen Holdings also revealed a remarkable success of Sony. Besides rising sales, Sony also experienced a record increase in inquiries across multi-brand outlets. Owing to the success of the song, Shreya Ghoshal was also reported to have crooned the song in many of her concerts. As per a report of Unmetric, "Naina Chaar" was one of the top 5 popular videos of Sony India's YouTube channel. Also, the campaign received traffic from 70 different countries other than India, thereby giving evidence of the global impact of the song. A commercial advertisement of Sony headphones featuring Ghoshal was released afterwards, and "Naina Chaar" was used in the background.

Personnel

As listed by Sony Music India.