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In a bid to create a unique connect with customers in the highly competitive market for beverages, Coca-Cola Inc has brought its popular music show Coke Studio to India. It helps that the show already has a huge fan following in the country through the Internet.
To be produced by MTV India in partnership with Red Chillies Entertainment, the show will invite artists from all over the country to jam and create new sounds, said a Coca-Cola spokesperson.
Leslie Lewis of Colonial Cousins fame is the music director of the show and will hand-pick 45 artists for the first season.
Artists including Shankar Mahadevan, Kailash Kher, Papon, Richa Sharma and Shruti Pathak shared the dais at the premier of the show in the city earlier this week. After a much-applauded performance, Shankar Mahadevan announced to a packed audience that a non-Bollywood sound had arrived and was here to stay.
Kailash Kher said, “We call it new sounds, but actually these are old sounds. Only to appeal to the new generation, we have to repackage them and sell as naya maal .”
No auditions
The show will have no auditions, no judges, no voting and promises to be a pure musical experience that can be enjoyed by people of all age groups, said Mr Wasim Basir, Integrated Marketing Communications, Coca-Cola India.
It promises to be experimental and every episode will feature one established musician, one up-and-coming artist and one folk legend.
So Baul singer Saurav Mandal will jam with Bollywood playback singer Shaan. A glimpse of it was offered on Monday when multilingual singer Mathangi sang a soulful Thyagaraja composition in Telugu in sync with Tochi Raina's powerful rendition of a Punjabi folk song.
But artists and audiences alike have expressed their reservations.
“Coke Studio Lahore is my favourite and today's evening proves that it would remain so,” said a musician on the sidelines of the event. Another pointed to the trousers that the Baul singer was wearing, emphasising the manipulation of the artist's individuality.
It was felt the sound of the Indian Coke Studio on Monday night lacked the Lahori punch and that it will be a big challenge for the show in India to match up to it. Coke has tied up with Hard Rock Café to organise mini concerts of live performances by Coke studio artists in eight cities including Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi over the next 45 days.
From humble beginnings in Brazil in 2007, the show has gone on to become a rage in Pakistan as an adapted format in 2008 where it is currently in its fourth season.
On Facebook, the official page has 6,82,485 fans and more than 7,000 followers on Twitter.
Artists including Shafaqat Amanat Ali, the Sabri Bros, Sanjeev T, Raghu Dixit, Advaita, Wadali Bros, and KK will perform on MTV starting Friday 7 pm.
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