Ritabhari Chakraborty’s current muse is the fleeting time and she has woven a song around it to narrate the tale of “two star-crossed lovers”, that she has co-written with the US-based Josh Martin, a former sports journalist. Titled ‘Time’, the tune, created by Sambit Chatterjee, is a foot-tapping one and the music video directed by Chitrangada Satarupa is snazzy. Shot in Calcutta, Ritabhari co-stars with Chintan Rachchh of the Class fame, in the video. Time has been sung by Nikhita Gandhi and Siddhant Sharma. In a trans-continental call at midnight, t2 chatted with Ritabhari and Josh on the making of ‘Time’.

Congratulations for Time! Tell us how it came about...

Ritabhari: The song is about two people who get together, create a band and without even knowing, fall in love. And they have other lives to go back to, too. The love between creative soul mates can be passionate, platonic or not.... Josh Martin and I wrote the song. I met Josh in LA. He is also a UCLA pass-out like me. We went to concerts together and that’s where we figured out our common interest in music. It was easy to co-write this with Josh. When we wrote it, it felt like it was our song, an original. Sambit had a tune in his head and then I put some words to it, which was ‘wish we had more time, baby’, and that came from a very obvious sentiment which I have always felt honestly for anyone I have ever been with or I have seen other people. Then we kept on building on the lyrics back and forth and saw what actually resonated.

I was back in India by then. We were crazy excited when it came together. Once we had the song, it was about what we do with it. My normal reaction was let’s make a video, but who would sing it? Nikhita (Gandhi) has done a phenomenal job with the song, and the moment she heard it, she said she was doing it. I went ahead and put a story and a video together and because it was my vision, idea and concept, who would honestly understand it better than Chitrangada (Satarupa; sister and artiste)? When we were ideating the mood board, I asked her if she would direct it. She was like: ‘Would you trust me with something so big?’ It is an expensive production because we wanted to create something on par with all international and indie international productions.

I saw Chintan (Rachchh) first in Class (a Netflix series) and I thought he was out of the world. When I reached out to him, he equally loved the song and we could put this together. Hats off to Sambit and my DoP Pratip (Mukherjee). We didn’t limit ourselves, which is why it’s very fresh. We all want to express and be heard and that freedom of expression has come out in the song. The toughest bit was how to create the feeling of how I love watching concerts. Josh doesn’t miss a concert at all. He goes to two or three concerts every week and he also does photography. Our love for concerts has come together in this song. I have reclaimed my life and it was so much associated with going back to this free-spirited environment which is concerts for me. Gola pathiye gaan gao....

Tell us about the look of the song...

Ritabhari: The way Sambit had composed and how I had visualised it reminded me so much of the band Fleetwood Mac. I absolutely adore Stevie Nicks (American singer, songwriter, and producer) and all the looks in the song are inspired by Stevie Nicks (laughs). Her huge capes, dramatic clothes, her bangs... I have also taken a lot of inspiration from how Stevie Nicks looks on stage. We shot this before the release of Fatafati.

At this point in your life, what do you think you want more time for?

Ritabhari: I wish there was more time in a day! It’s very hard to have a life, take care of yourself, have a job and do well and then also give time to family and friends and then also nurture a hobby (laughs) and then watch all the cool series and movies and listen to all the good music. For me, I need 72 hours! I love living my life and my work. I just wish there was time to do more, which now I have to squeeze out from my work.

Josh, how was it collaborating with Ritabhari?

Josh Martin

Josh: It’s been great. She’s super creative and motivated and once she has her heart and mind set on doing something, she’s full-speed ahead and certainly that’s what happened with this song. She reached out from the other side of the planet. She was, ‘Hey, I need a lyric’. I sent my ideas and she sent me this riff that Sambit had put together and I sent her something. The next thing I know is here’s Sambit singing the song and then there is a scratch recording... and then a whole music video. She worked so hard at it and I was grateful and honoured to be a part of the process.

Is this your first attempt at writing a song?

Josh: I have done writing for myself and have a litany of little notes on my iPhone, ideas I have jotted down for rhymes and lyrics and there are few songs over time that I have written for myself and wrote poetry as a kid, but this is the first time anything I have committed pen to paper that has been turned into a full-fledged recorded track. I am still trying to wrap my head around all of that. It’s surreal and wild. As someone who is brand new to this, I am excited to see what the reception is going to be like.