The challenge was to bring together a potpourri of music – Hindustani, Carnatic classical and thirteen popular, both traditional and modern, languages and regions into one single piece that was harmonious to the ear as well as appealing to the eye. Raga Bharavi, a sampoorna raga (one that has all seven notes in its scale), was chosen as the base for the music.

After trying his luck with some Hindi geniuses, the director convinced a young account manager to have a go at it, so he could see if he could bring some innocence to the lyrics. At his eighteenth attempt, the young lad got it right and so emerged the now famous line Mile Sur Mera Tumhara. The young account manager is none other than Piyush Pandey. To get the right fusion of music, Mullick obtained the help of two geniuses from two different streams of music – Louis Banks and the late P. Vaidyanathan, a classically trained musician. Together, they created the magical score, rendered by three prominent singers – Bhimsen Joshi, Balamurli Krishna and Lata Mangeshkar.

This magnanimous composition on the unity of India not only instilled pride and patriotism in every Indian but also carried forward the legacy of Jana Gana Mana composed by Rabindranath Tagore and was proclaimed as the unofficial National Anthem of India.

The concept was so inspiring and the cause so noble that many celebrities joined hands to make it a success. It featured national icons of the time, including the main vocalists, sports stars such as Srikanth, Kirmani, Prakash Padukone, well-known film personalities like Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Hassan, Shabana Azmi, Hema Malini, Waheeda Rehman, Sharmila Tagore, Javed Akhtar, Tanuja, Mithun Chakraborty, Jeetendra, sitar maestro Pt. Ravi Shankar, tabla maestros Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain, artist Mario Miranda, dancer Mallika Sarabhai and many others.