Fifty two years after the Grammy Awards (1958) came into existence, itsIndian counterpart will finally kick off roughly around March next year. The second major music awards in the country (after the now-discontinued MTV Music Awards), it will be the only music awards that will focus on other genres rather than Bollywood or pop music.
Christened the Indian Music Awards, the awards show will fete musicians from all genres — Classical, Classical Instrumental, Carnatic, Sufi, Bhajans, Ghazals, Folk, Qawalli, Indi-Pop, Indi-Rock etc, pretty much following the award model of the Grammys.
“We have closely studied the Grammy Awards and researched on how to Indianise the model; now we’re ready with it. We will be announcing the final date of the awards next year but this much I can tell you that we are looking at the first quarter of next year to hold the awards,” says Pranay J Anthwal, spokesperson and one of the four partners who have joined hands to start this annual awards show.
Apart from Anthwal who has been working in the media industry for 15 years, there’s Sameer Dixit who is consultant to IIFW (Indian Independent Film-makers Worldwide). The other two partners are Jatish Varma and UK-based Shaukat Babul, who is the president of Care for Wales Foundation.
Apart from collecting the necessary funds, the four team members have been touring the world, meeting stalwarts ofIndian music to get them come together for the first awards.
“We have got a unanimous thumbs up and we are planning to hold a press conference to announce that. People have come forward because we have pledged to focus on the classical, fusion and other forms of music and not only on Bollywood even though Bollywood music will also feature as a category in the awards. The first awards show will be obviously held in Mumbai,” Pranay adds, as he also reveals that he is negotiating with a few international stars to come and perform at the awards show.
Comments
