Coke Studio goes back to the future!
Iconic musical brand Coke Studio made a comeback in a new avatar on February 2, 2023 by announcing the launch of Coke Studio Bharat in Mumbai. This fresh season combines the talent of over 50 artists pan-India to create over ten memorable tracks celebrating the roots of Mother India.
The current season features celebrated artists like Amira Gill, Achint, Aditya Gadhvi, Arijit Datta, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash, Ashima Mahajan, Armaan Malik, Bombay Brass, Burrah, Charan Raj, Deveshi Sahgal, Dhruv Vishwanath, Diljit Dosanjh, Donn Bhatt, Hashbass, Jasleen Royal, Kanwar Grewal, Mahan Sehgal, Mansa Pandey, Maithili Thakur & Brothers, Mohammad Muneem, Noor Mohammad, OAFF & Savera, Osho Jain, Prabhdeep, Rashmeet Kaur, Seedhe Maut, Sakur Khan & Sons, Sanjith Hegde, Shillong Chamber Choir, Tajdar Junaid, and others, to promote musical diversity. The season will spotlight regional Indian instruments like algozha, chimta, duff, sarod, sarangi, tumbi, and rabaab, among others.
Coke Studio Bharat’s concept of “Apna Sunao”, in turn, becomes a well-deserved funnel to provide these talented artists a musical stage to tell their story of a Bharat that remains ingrained in culture and, yet, is contemporary. The platform will host music that pays homage to various musical parts of India that artists still call their home, connecting stories that are enriched in history and diversity in languages and, simultaneously, using atypical regional musical instruments to bring out the flavour of that state/genre.
This season of Coke Studio is curated by acclaimed, award-winning musician Ankur Tewari. In support, Tewari has onboarded an effective musical team containing critically acclaimed poet, lyricist, and scriptwriter Kausar Munir along with award winning sound engineer and music producer KJ Singh.
Listeners can tune into Coke Studio Bharat across various audio OTT platforms including, but not limited to, Spotify, Gaana, Saavn, Wynk Music, and Audible, with distribution managed by Universal Music India (UMI). Providing musical life support to Ankur Tewari’s vision for “Apna Sunao”, UMI has roped in Misfits Inc for audio production, and Colosceum Media for video production. The first song of the season releases on February 7, 2023.
Reflects Devraj Sanyal, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, UMI: “What a magnificent, monumental day for music, (and) a monumental day for culture… (with) India 1, India 2, and India 3 melding to one unified Bharat with the biggest unifier of them all…music!”
Coke Studio Bharat is an obvious extension of Coke Studio India which, when Season 1, curated by Leslee Lewis, premièred on June 17, 2011 on MTV India, was officially titled ‘Coke Studio @ MTV’, featuring live studio-recorded music performances by various artists running through their respective musical influences ranging from Hindustani, Carnatic, and Indian folk through to the contemporary sounds of hip hop and rock.
While this writer hopes that the standards of the past are maintained this time around too, one also hopes that listeners are provided an opportunity of also returning to the heydays of ‘Coke Studio Megacert’ where the participating musicians could literally re-live their recordings on-ground.
Looking forward to Coke Studio continuing to fuel future indie music…
