"I had been toying with the idea of doing a simple yet unique version of the national anthem for a while…I did not appreciate the basic versions played in the cinema (halls) showcasing a pixelated Indian flag and a tacky recording of the anthem. It didn’t instill pride in me,” Shayan Italia (pictured) told Parsiana on February 14, 2019. His rendition on the piano of Jana Gana Mana posted 
online last year has garnered over 101 million views.
The project started with the arrangement of the anthem on grand piano, "which many seemed to really appreciate as and when I played it for them in person… From there grew the idea of recording it in a heartfelt way based on a true story of a boy whose lost his mother when he was very young and she leaving him with the ability to create music. It’s that simple, yet incredibly effective,” stated Italia. His mother Mahrook passed away in April 1998. "I thank those that both saw and shared the video, for honoring my mother,” says Shayan. His father Dr Fareed passed away in 1999.
Director Farhad Vijay Arora and Italia recorded the video "within a few months... What we did uniquely was take the video technically to the highest level possible by recording it for the very first time in 8K Ultra HD (High Definition) and in Dolby Atmos which had never been done before for any music video or national anthem the world over. It was also the first version of any national anthem to feature a single instrument,” he said.
Italia will, later in 2019, release his debut Hindi vocal track which "features some of the best musicians globally recorded across a number of top studios in the UK.” The Secunderabad-born Bombay-based artiste states that the video of the song Yeh Dil (Sha la la la) aims to be ground-breaking in concept.” A one-minute audio clip of the new track is hosted on his website. Calling himself a pianist/songwriter by passion, Italia, who studied sound engineering, and music production and arrangement in London, says, "I set up and sell businesses in India and I consult for the same.” In the midst of raising funds for the launch of his third business (in the dairy sector), having sold the previous two, Italia said, "I have been working on this idea for a while now and it seems like a promising business model if I can get it off the ground.”