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The Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And
Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY) has joined hands with national public
broadcaster Doordarshan, to produce ‘Naad Bhed – the Mystery of Sound’, a
national-level classical music reality show that aims at promoting and
popularising Indian classical music and rewarding the best young practitioners
of classical music.
A first of its kind in India and possibly the world, the
show will go on air soon. The common format of singing competitions on TV has
been around for decades and has also made stars out of middle-class Indians who
can sing, dance, emote or laugh in front of the camera, all in the name of TRPs
but SPIC MACAY, in the business of preserving and promoting Indian cultural
heritage for 36 years, is surely not looking at finding new “singing stars”.
Even though the TRP-inducing high drama on TV and classical
music are miles apart, the prospect of such a show brings about new excitement
for the lovers and followers of classical music. The central idea is to earn
respect for the rich Indian heritage of classical music. Those who participate
or watch the show may or may not become converts to the cause but if a parent
were to say with pride that their child participated in this reality show, just
as he or she is doing now for other genres, then the show will have achieved
its purpose.
Hoping to bring about a positive change in peoples attitude
towards classical arts, SPIC MACAY and Doordarshan are putting their strengths
together to launch this show. It will follow the pattern of elimination rounds
familiar with Indian audiences. The proposed format is designed to attract
participation from all states of the country.
DD Kendras in 15 major cities shall organise auditions followed by shooting of the Regional Rounds which will
be telecast on regional channels. Later the selected candidates from each of
these 15 regional rounds shall proceed for furthering filtering to Kolkata for
all Hindustani music contestants and to Chennai for all Carnatic music
candidates. The grand finals shall be held in Mumbai. Both the semi-finals and
finals shall be aired on the national network of Doordarshan and on its other
channels including DD Bharati.
One of the strong points of this show is the USP of
Doordarshan itself vis a vis its nationwide reach and its desire to promote
Indian culture. The network also has an advantage because of its public service
mandate to handle various logistical issues that other broadcasters cannot.
SPIC MACAY founder-Chairperson, Prof Kiran Seth has also stated that the prime
purpose of collaborating with DD was to attain a pan-Indian reach. He said,
“There are some shows which only Doordarshan can handle, we are intending to
attain the widest reach possible to have the most refined participants.”
To make it more attractive and bring in credibility, SPIC
MACAY has taken on board some great maestros of Indian classical music as
probable judges, like Us Amjad Ali Khan, Prof. T. N. Krishnan, Pt. Shiv Kumar
Sharma, Begum Parween Sultana, Vidwan T.V. Shankarnaraynan, Pt. Hariprasad
Chaurasia and Sh R.K. Srikantan.
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Anshuman Jain
Senior Volunteer of
SPIC MACAY
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