Saregama has added 10,000 old songs to its digital catalogue in a continuation of its digitization initiative kicked off during the COVID-19 pandemic-induced countrywide lockdown in 2020,
The initiative, titled Punarjanam, meaning rebirth, by the 100-year-old music label has resulted in a library of 1,42,000 songs till now.
The additions include rare numbers like Ashok Kumar’s ‘Dekha Khayal Yaar Mein’ from his debut film Jeevan-Naiya (1936) and Lata Mangeshkar’s ‘Ummid Ki Rangin Jhoole’ from Lahore (1949).
During the lockdown, a team from Saregama did some research to look for long-lost tunes like these. Each track was then cleaned manually from physical records and tapes into a digital format for an enhanced listening experience.
The Punarjanam project was initiated nearly two years ago when the Saregama team converted 11,000 songs into digital format.
Commenting on the latest additions, Vikram Mehra, managing director of Saregama India, said, “With wide=ranging interest in old classics and a dearth of their availability on the internet, we took this initiative in the lockdown and will continue to make inroads in the digital music market by digitizing our catalogue. As a music label, this is our attempt to preserve our country’s music legacy and bring back the classics for the younger generation.”