The Hindu Business Line : Indian flavour to Nike ads — Saregama tunes in with unique music deal

A short Indian musical composition written not very long ago will liven up the advertisement and promotion campaigns of the world's largest sports and fitness company, Nike.

The tune was composed by Ananda Shankar, son of the dancer and choreographer Uday Shankar and nephew of the sitar maestro Ravi Shankar.

Ananda Shankar, who passed away in 1999 when he was just 57, was a pioneer in the art of fusion of classical Indian ragas and Western rock.

The deal for this composition was struck by Saregama India Ltd, a unit of the Rs 8,460-crore RPG Group, only a few weeks ago. Saregama, which is still popular by its famous brand name HMV, owns the copyright to Shankar's composition.

The deal is innovative because this probably is the first time that a multinational company has bought the copyrights for a musical composition created by an Indian to promote its products.

Saregama, which has just come out of the red and carried out a rights issue a few months ago, has succeeded in selling the copyrights for Rs 80 lakh.

However, it is not known whether Nike will use the music for promoting its partner brands such as Cole Haan (designer and marketer of luxury shoes and hand bags), Bauer (hockey equipment), Hurley International (designer and marketer of youth lifestyle footwear), Converse (footwear) and the Exeter Brands Group.

Sanjiv Goenka, Vice-Chairman of RPG Enterprises and Vice-Chairman of Saregama, confirmed this development. Talking to Business Line, he described the deal as one of the most significant ones struck by Saregama in recent times.

On whether such a development would help Saregama enter the dividend paying list, Goenka preferred to remain non-committal. Instead, he said that Saregama's financial health had improved a lot.

"We will soon be announcing our financial results. Given this scenario, I can talk only on one deal, but not on the total results. However, I can say that you can expect more good news from Saregama soon," Goenka said.

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