Recently held India’s biggest musical conference ‘All About Music’ hosted panel discussions about emerging regional music in India. The conference witnessed a panel about Odisha- ‘Spotlight On Odia Music Industry’ having Sitaram Agarwal (Founder, Sarthak Music), Sidharth Agarwal (Director, Sidharth TV Network), Saugato Roy Choudhury (Music Supervisor & Journalist), and Antara Chakrabarty (Odia Playback Singer) on board.
The panel discussed the role of regional music in the Odia music industry’s foreground.
“People will always invest their time and emotion when the music is good. As a music label that’s been in the hearts of the Odia people through music for more than 4 decades, we have always taken care to evolve with the taste and the preference of what the people would want to listen to. The main challenge has never been in modernizing the sound and injecting the energy, punch, and dazzle, rather it’s more about the creation of unique music that stands out from the saturated type of music in our industry,” said Sidharth Agarwal.
Replying to Saugato’s question on aligning mainstream media to accommodate folk music, Sitaram Agarwal said, “Currently, with the launch of our three Odia Satellite channels, our team had launched a unique singing talent reality show “Mun Bi Namita Agrawal Hebi” which is mainly designed to revive the Timeless Odia devotional songs among the newer generation singers to come. It has already been garnering much appreciation by the people of Odisha & more than 500 girls have participated in the audition in the 1st season itself. In the coming future, we are also planning a coke studio-Esque setup for one of our channels “Sidharth Gold” where we will be focusing on the sounds of our soil as well as the revival of traditional and folk music.
Our cultural heritage is an undeniable part of our identity, our ultimate connection to what we call our home. India, being home to a wide variety of distinct flavors of folk music, is something we as an audience will always go back to, even in the face of westernization.”
Talking about the request ratio of Hindi and Odia songs at live performances, Antara said, “Earlier I used to sing other’s songs because I didn’t have my songs. But now I am singing my songs at live shows and the audience loves it. Apart from that, we change our playlist to Hindi songs at times when we perform for the non-Odia audience.”
All About Music conference has filled the gap in India’s calendar of music industry conferences and B2B networking events by engaging attendees through discussions around innovations and advances in the business of music. Acting as the gateway to the Indian market for the global entertainment industry, All About Music has been a meeting ground for 6000+ stakeholders and experts from key areas of the entertainment industry with participation from more than 300 companies from 25 countries.
Edited By: Debamitra Mishra
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