This singer hopes to create an independent pop music scene in Mumbai for Marathi

Ojas Joshi (in red) is working on a track on alternate energy and eco-conservation

Ojas Joshi (in red) is working on a track on alternate energy and eco-conservation

Each time Ojas Joshi would perform at music festivals or at more intimate jam sessions in the city - something he's been doing for four years - a handful of people would turn up backstage to pay the band a compliment. "Of course, they liked our performance. But what they liked more was the fact that we were singing in Marathi, a regional language that hardly gets represented on the indie scene," says Joshi, whose band includes flautist Easwaran Anantram and Omkar Kanekar on percussion. Interestingly, most of those who turned up were non-Maharashtrians who felt they could connect to the music as well as the lyrics.

"They were struck by the novelty of it. And, if you have lived in Mumbai long enough, understanding Marathi is not difficult, even if you can't speak the language fluently," says Joshi, a Navi Mumbai resident who runs a family-owned pharmaceutical business. Curious about the kind of work being done in the independent Marathi music, Joshi began to connect with fellow musicians and scour the online space. A Google and YouTube search threw up unimpressive results. "Frankly, there was no Marathi indie scene to speak of. All I could find were a couple of covers done by amateur college students on YouTube. So, instead of complaining, I decided to do something about it and get the ball rolling."

Ojas Joshi

And now, he's launched a crowdfunded initiative on Wishberry, titled, Project OjasJosh, an independent music album which aims to create melodious music using Marathi poems. The album has eight songs of which two tracks have been released. The first, Kahi Tari Karoon Dakhwa, is an exhortation to achieve your dreams by taking one step at a time, where a small-time musician is trying to make it big in life. The other track, titled Rusna (a lover's tiff), talks about how petty misunderstandings in a relationship can sometimes spell doom. The lyrics for both have been penned by poet and actor, Gauri Godbole.

"We did not want to use poems that already exist. The idea was also to give Marathi poets a chance to showcase their talent. We found an excellent poet in Gauri whose poetry I could personally connect with," he says. Joshi, although not a lyricist, says the band often tweaks the lyrics. "We need to use the kind of language that youngsters can relate to. However, their words need to have meaning," he says. But, for Joshi, an essential aspect is the social message in the songs, who is already working on a track on alternate energy and eco-conservation.

Joshi's efforts to galvanise the regional community of musicians goes back a long way when he launched Music Jammin' Mumbai, which started with 20 members and now has 3000 odd. What struck Joshi during this phase were the two extremes in the Marathi music spectrum. "You either had Marathi commercial film music, which is very less and most of the songs have no meaning at all or work being done on a grassroot community level like the Kolis and Agris. There was hardly any work being done at the mid-level, where urban youth could connect," he says.

However, Joshi felt that in order to galvanise indie Marathi music, the impetus can't come from him alone, which is when he made it a crowdfunded initiative to collect Rs 2 lakh. "This project has a purpose behind it and it'll become successful when a lot of people can come together to make it happen. It's a measly sum if you compare it to the cost involved in making an album. But, I'm ready to spend the rest of the amount from my own pocket," he says. Joshi, for now, wants the album to be an open source where people can contribute with technical or creative inputs. "To keep a culture alive, you need to support the language. While tremendous work is being done in Hindi and English, why not Marathi as a form of young genre?"