MUMBAI: The Indian Music Academy has announced the names of six winners from among 18 finalists of its national level talent hunt held in December 2009. The performances of these winners will be officially up for public view on the show Idea Jalsa – Music for the Soul on 21 and 28 February on Doordarshan at 11 am
The unique part of this show is that musicians and singers from across genres competed for the honours. Age was not a barrier as participants ranged from a 12 year old flautist, to a 32 year old thumri singer. This was a first of its kind complete Indian music talent hunt that included all forms of Indian music such as Ghazal, Bhajan, Sufi, Folk, Qawwali, Hindustani and Carnatic (Vocal and Instrumental).
After an intensive three month nation-wide search across six centers: Chandigarh, Kolkata, Chennai, Bhopal, Mumbai, Nagpur – with participation from over 2000 contestants, IMA discovered 18 Indian musical gems of Gen Next who participated in the national semi finals and the national mega finals that were held on 11 and 12 December at Rangsharda, Bandra (W), Mumbai.
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Speaking about the national talent hunt for which Art and Artistes director Durga Jasraj and her team searched for talent across India, she says, “I was hopeful of finding talent, but I was not sure about the quality. But by the end of it, I was convinced about the caliber of the shortlisted performers.”
Wasn’t it a challenge to judge across genres and age groups? She is quick to respond, “That is one of the reasons I decided to leave the job of judging to musicians like Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt. Jasraj and singer Hariharan.”
But on a serious note, she explains, “It’s all about potential – you can make out when they perform, and the nine finalists that we chose had really shone during the hunt.” While three of the nine finalists couldn’t make it to the finals, Jasraj said that she would be keeping a tab on their musical progress.
The show will have nine national finalists – Gurpreet Kaur, Mukul Gill, Kakali Bhattacharya, K. H. Vineeth, S. Jananiy, S. Akash, Ramendra Singh Solanki, Ranjit Panwar, Prabhakar-Divakar Kashyap competing for a scholarship that will allow them to get trained with some of India’s best classical musicians.
IMA will not only provide one year free music scholarship to these six national finalists declared in Mumbai, but will also groom them into professional musicians. Every six months the progress of the six national finalists will be reviewed on the basis of which their scholarship and training will be extended.
Interestingly, the popularity of the show has been steadily rising with close to 93 per cent of loyal audiences watching the show. From Doordarshan, the Idea Jalsa is also tapping regional audiences through DD Sahyadri, DD Gujrati and DD Punjabi
Speaking of the programme’s success, she says, “Adapting music for television is very challenging, and we have to package it right keeping in mind the format, audience and sponsor backing. In the past, people have tried to present a live concert on TV – but the challenge lies in packaging it tastefully for the TV audience – that is one of the reasons why we also invest a lot in post production,” she adds
IMA will also be giving these contestants a platform to showcase their talent along with legends of Ghazal, Bhajan, Sufi, Folk, Qawwali, Hindustani and Carnatic music. In addition, it will also provide opportunities to each of the other remaining national finalists who were exceptionally talented.
