By A Correspondent
In a unique initiative, people across the country will now get a chance to show their love for the Anthem through India’s first-ever crowdsourcing of the Anthem. Called My Nation, My Anthem, the initiative will give filmmakers, musicians and singers an opportunity to render their interpretation of the Anthem. The shortlisted entries will be supervised by an expert panel in their creation of a new film, set to a new tune and sung by new voices. This is an initiative by Talenthouse India, a Reliance Entertainment division, along with PVR, Rising Sun Films and Rampage Motion Pictures.
The idea behind the initiative is to engage with the citizens of the country and give them a sense of ownership of their proud heritage by helping them create a lively rendering and an engaging video for our Anthem.
Crowdsourcing may be relatively new concept in India. An example of this, however, was the Government of India crowdsourcing the Indian rupee symbol wherein the new rupee symbol was chosen amongst thousands of new designs as proposed by the citizens of the country. The power of this mechanism is only set to grow. From the entries that captured various interpretations of the symbol, the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, India’s current President, chose the design submitted by D Udaya Kumar, a B Arch student of IIT Bombay.
Similarly, Talenthouse will now empower the people of India by giving them an opportunity to contribute to a fresh take on the National Anthem.
This creative invite is open to three different categories of budding talent – music composers, film makers and singers. Winning participants across the three categories will be creatively supervised by popular Bollywood director Shoojit Sircar along with Ronnie Lahiri and Ram Mirchandani to create a final film of The National Anthem to be showcased at PVR Cinemas before a movie screening.
Aspiring music composers and musicians are invited to create a new rendition of the background score for the National Anthem and the winning entry will receive Rs. 30,000/- to produce the final track.
Ambitious film makers get a chance to share their work that captures their representation of the National Anthem. The winning entry will receive Rs. 50,000/- to produce the final film. Apart from this, upcoming singers can render their voice to the National Anthem by submitting samples of their singing.
With submissions open till February 21, 2013 the winners will be announced by February 23. They will then get a chance to be mentored by the established mentors in their creation of a final film of the National Anthem that will be showcased at theaters.
Shoojit Sircar of Rising Sun Films said, “India has more than 50 percent of its population below the age of 25. In times where there is unnecessary discord between communities and regions, My Nation My Anthem promises to be an exciting project to evoke the patriotism within us towards our country and fellow Indians. I look forward to working on this initiative that embraces the diversity of our country, while bringing people together.”
Gautam Dutta, COO, PVR said, “My Nation My Anthem has been designed to be a true representation of our diversity, captured by the youth. Movies bring people from all walks of life together and PVR is proud to showcase this version of the national anthem across our theatres.”
Arun Mehra, CEO, Talenthouse India said, “We are incredibly excited to launch My Nation My Anthem. At Talenthouse, we believe that crowdsourcing has a unique power to bring out the best talent. This project is even more special as it is an inclusive initiative that every Indian will be inspired by.”
