On Wednesday, during his state visit to the US, Modi officially released ‘Abundance in Millets’, the song for which he “collaborated” with Falguni, an Indian-American composer and singer who goes by the stage name Falu. In 2022, Falguni won the Grammy for ‘A Colourful World’ in the best children’s music album category.“He (Modi) is a music lover. His plan is to use music to send a message to farmers to grow millets. That would help end world hunger. He wants to use music as a powerhouse to do both these things,” Falguni told TOI in an interview from New York.
The UN has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets. This was after India made a proposal, which was supported by 72 countries in the UN General Assembly.
The PM has collaborated with Falguni in penning the song, which is a mix of Hindi and English. It is sung by Falguni and her husband Gaurav. “The idea for the song came from Modi himself. He told me, ‘I want you to write a song on millets. Since you are a global musician, the song will reach farmers who will grow millets in small villages. Small far mers will benefit in low rainfall. The produce can be exported and it will help end hunger’”, said Falguni.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Grammy award-winning Indian-American Singer Falguni Shah and her family
She said the PM sent her a book on millets brought out by the Union agriculture ministry. “I read the entire book. . . I also did my own research on jowar, bajra, ragi, nachni, which are all millets. I individually did research on the nutritionalbenefits of these grains, because if you have to write a song, you better know everything about it,” she said.
Falguni wrote the lyrics and then asked Modi to write a speech, record it and send it to her. “Nobody has ever asked him to write a song. A child in me was fluttering,” she said, adding, “He sent us five different speeches that he wrote. We picked and chose the on e that matched the most with the lyrics of the song. ” The entire song took five months to complete. She said: “the PM’s reaction was fabulous when he heard the song. He really liked it”.