Nostalgia In A Box

Some years ago, Saregama India was staring at a ‘Kodak moment’. Then Carvaan happened. The company tapped into its treasure trove of classic songs to come up with a portable digital radio—a success story which turned around its fortunes.

- Abhik Sen

GROWING UP IN AN INDUSTRIAL town in the 1980s, I remember waking up to the strains of the radio on school days, and then timing myself for the school bus by listening to the programmes. Years later, I jumped on to the digital music bandwagon as soon as it was launched in India, but I’ve noted with concern records, cassettes, and CDs going out of vogue, for I am a collector of these things. I also noticed that people of my parents’ generation with access to FM radio were listening to stations playing old music most of the time, but liberally cursing them for the torrent of advertisements.

When I first got my hands on the Saregama Carvaan, the retro-looking portable digital music player, a few weeks after its launch in May 2017, I thought here’s something my parents would really like. Uninterrupted music. No ads at all. A little dipstick survey among friends last year revealed it was the most popular gift for the festive season. The Carvaan sold a million units in just 18 months after its launch.

For lovers of old Bollywood songs, the attractions of the Carvaan are many. It has 5,000 old Hindi film songs spanning 50 years all the way from movies as old as the 1953-released Aah starring Raj Kapoor and Nargis to classics from the 1990s such as 1942: A Love Story. It is designed for a generation whose favourite music dates back to a time before the digital age. Much like the traditional Indian beverages brand Paper Boat or the recently-relaunched Jawa motorcycle, the Carvaan is all about nostalgia— old classic hits packed in a modern device with a classic design. “Music is something that evokes emotions and memories,” says Jehil Thakkar, partner, Deloitte India. “It is the flood of all those special memories associated with a song which makes people connect with the Carvaan,” says Vikram Mehra, managing director of Saregama India, the company that makes the Carvaan.