Category: Entertainment

Bhavik Rathod and Prajakta Savarkar Shinde, winners of the 4th edition of Khazana Artist Aloud Talent Hunt to launch their single – Le Chala Jaan

India, May 2022: Bhavik Rathod (Pune) and Prajakta Savarkar Shinde (Jabalpur), winners of the 4th edition of Khazana Artist Aloud Talent Hunt, India’s first and only talent hunt for Ghazal singers are all set to launch their single – Le Chala Jaan on April 28. Composed by renowned ghazal singer and composer, Sudeep Banerji and written by famous Urdu poet Dagh Dehlavi, the soulful ghazal perfectly emotes the feeling one goes through when they lose someone special. With Bhavik and Prajakta proving to be the most versatile after multiple rounds of judging in the 4th edition, held virtually last year, members of the jury and Artist Aloud offer the duo a platform to showcase their talent by launching this single, thereby charming ghazal lovers all across the world.

As Le Chala Jaan sees Bhavik and Prajakta making their presence felt in the world of ghazals, budding ghazal singers would look to emulate their feat/success at the upcoming 5th edition of Khazana Artist Aloud that begins May 4. Celebrating the art of ghazals, the talent hunt by Hungama Artist Aloud, a platform that supports and promotes independent content, and Khazana – an annual fundraising concert, that celebrates the art of ghazals, will feature singers from across the world. They will be judged by ghazal legends such as Pankaj Udhas, Talat Aziz, Anup Jalota, Rekha Bhardwaj, and Sudeep Banerji.

In order to participate in the fifth edition of the talent hunt, aspiring singers will need to upload videos of them singing ghazals on https://www.artistaloud.com/khazana2022/ between 4th May 2022 to 31st May 2022. Based on the entries, 20 candidates will be shortlisted and will be asked to upload a fresh audition clip on https://www.artistaloud.com/khazana2022/

Hereafter, the jury will announce two winners who will get a chance to perform at ‘Khazana – A Festival of Ghazals’ later this year, alongside some of the most prolific Ghazal singers in India.

Speaking about the talent hunt, Soumini Sridhara Paul, Senior Vice President, Hungama Artist Aloud said, “Sung with all their heart, Bhavik and Prajakta, with Le Chala Jaan have proved exactly why they’re deserved to win the last edition of the talent hunt. With last year’s edition being held virtually, we, at Artist Aloud, and members of the jury aimed to encourage these two singers by giving them a platform to let the world of ghazal know just how good they are. I congratulate the duo and wish them all the very best for the future. Having received an overwhelming number of talented ghazal singers, like Bhavik and Prajakta, in the previous edition, we look forward to the upcoming 5th edition beingimmensely successful. We’re confident that it will, like always, see ghazal lovers across the globe come forward and inspire an entire community as they showcase their talent and love for Ghazals.”

Sharing his thoughts about the talent hunt, Pankaj Udhas said, “My heartfelt congratulations to Bhavik and Prajakta for winning the competition as well as giving the world of ghazals such a beautiful song like Le Chala Jaan. It’s my pleasure to be a part of Khazana Artist Aloud Talent Hunt for its 5th edition. With each passing year, the number, and the quality of talent on display, keeps getting better. As India’s first and only talent hunt for Ghazal singers, we once again look to enable budding ghazal singers from around the world to reach their true potential.”

Khazana – A Festival of Ghazals was founded by legendary ghazal singer and President, Parents Association Thalassemic Unit Trust, Pankaj Udhas, and Y.K. Sapru, Chairman and CEO, Founder Director, Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA) with the support of ghazal maestros, Talat Aziz and Anup Jalota.

11th Comic Con India: 2022

With double the fun and excitement, Comic Con India (CCI) is back and kickstarting its 11th year as India’s greatest pop-culture experience. After a wait of over 2 years and at the request of fans, the dates for Bengaluru and Delhi have been announced. The best weekend of the year will be back with the best of comics, merch, toys, cosplay, tv, movies and gaming.

Passes for Bengaluru and Delhi Comic Con India 2022 will be soon available on the Comic Con Website.

Bengaluru Event Details: 

Date: 19th November to 20th November 2022

Time: 11 am – 8 pm

Location: KTPO Trade Center, Whitefield, Bengaluru

New Delhi Event Details:

Date: 9th December to 11th December 2022

Time: 11 am – 8 pm

Location: NSIC Exhibition Ground, Okhla Phase III, Okhla Industrial Estate, New Delhi

IIMC Film Festival’ to begin from May 4

New Delhi, May 2022: The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), in collaboration with the Directorate of Film Festivals, Government of India, is organising a three-day Film Festival and National Short Film Making Competition from May 4 to 6, 2022 as part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations. The National Mission for Clean Ganga, Ministry of Jal Shakti is also associated with the event.

The first two days of the film festival‘IIMC Film Festival-2022’ will be dedicated to film screenings and the final day would witness the felicitation of winners in a formal ceremony.The festival will have several technical and interactive sessions where the students of IIMC would address their queries to luminaries from the world of films. Veteran actor Sharmila Tagore,honoured withPadma Bhushan, would grace the festival as Guest of Honour. Producer Director and IIMC alumnus Vivek Agnihotri along with his wife Pallavi Joshi would interact with the students. Actors Producers Aashiesh Sharma and Archana T Sharma would visit the festival with their film Khejri and also will interact with the students.

Renowned wildlife filmmaker S. Nallamuthu’s film ‘Machli’ will be screened at the festival. Prominent cinematographer ModhuraPalit, who was the first Indian to win Pierre AngenieuxExcelLens Promising Cinematographer Award at Cannes in 2019, would also interact with the students. Palit’s film, ‘Aator’ would be screened on the opening day. Filmmaker Rajiv Prakash, whose film ‘Ved’, has garnered huge acclaim, would showcase his movie and also will interact with the students.

English Journalism Course Director Prof. Sangeeta Pranvendra, who is also convener of the Film Festival informed that the festival secretariat has witnessed enthusiastic response from students all across the country for the Competition based on the theme ‘Spirit of India’. Results of the competitions would be announced on May 6, 2022, the last day of the festival.

She pointed out that a total of 15 films would be screened during the two days of the festival. Six acclaimed movies from the Films Division would also be screened. Over the three days, the Film Festival will encompass film screenings, film discussions, quizzes on the theme Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and cinema and much more. ‘The Dap’s Kitchen’ is the co-sponsored of the festival.

Industry experts and artists look forward to the launch of ‘Gaana for Artists’ set to give real-time insight to audience preferences like never before

New Delhi, May 2022: Gaana, India’s favourite music app, has just launched Gaana for Artists to help artists understand their audiences & performance of content better. The app would enable artists to track audience data in real-time from Gaana’s 180 million-strong user base across the country.

‘Gaana for Artists’ is the brand’s undertaking to enrich the engagement of artists and bring transparency in audience data as artists can also view which of their songs are being played on Gaana and and the cumulative streams during a particular time period.

Gaana for Artists will allow music creators to track data from the top 8 cities where their music is most streamed from. The other primary features of Gaana for Artists include data on real-time performance of latest releases, overall top-performing songs, top playlists featuring songs and many more comprehensive metrics of analyzing preferences of audience.

Gaana, always being ahead in innovation with thought leadership, is bringing all music experiences together on the platform exclusive for its audience with Gaana Live which livestreams buzzing hot events or Happy Hours with interesting content with the most popular artists.

With innovations like this Gaana is taking forward its deep commitment to create superior products for the entire music community and enhancing the listening experience for its users at the same time. Such initiatives are part of Gaana’s continuous efforts to create innovative features & experiences which will benefit the creators and the audience.

Commenting on the launch of the app, Sandeep Lodha, CEO of Gaana, said, “The idea of Gaana for Artists germinated from the thought to enable Indian music artists & emerging talent with data on audience preferences a click away from their phones. This is going to be a revolutionary step in the music industry as artists can now access these insights in real-time and do not need to wait for weekly or monthly charts to gauge how their music is performing. Due to the PAN-India reach and market share of Gaana, the available data is going to be comprehensive.”

Renowned Bollywood composer Salim Merchant of the Salim-Sulaiman fame, said, “This new app from Gaana is going to address a big gap in the music industry with respect to audience data and I am very excited to use it and gather real-time credible insights on how my songs are performing across the country. The data from Gaana for Artists is going to be of immense help for established artists and also for upcoming singers and composers who will be able to understand audience behavior immediately after releasing a track. Gaana has done a great service to the Indian music artists’ community by launching this app.”

Commenting on the features, acclaimed Haryanavi singer Renuka Panwar, said, “With the industry being so dynamic, it is very critical for us to get real time performance of our latest releases all in one go at one place. Gaana for Artists app does exactly that and is a great futuristic step for all artists in the industry, be it budding or established artists. We create for the love of our audiences and it is an opportunity for us to see real time insights of their response and see how our songs performed in the last day, week, month and year.”

On the homepage of the app, users will be able to see an overview of how their songs are performing overall with insights on top playlists and top cities, among others. The music section of the app will provide a complete in-depth analysis of a song and the number of streams for each, including the cities where they are being streamed. This tab also has a quality parameter graph which gives a bifurcated analysis of the streams in terms of minutes played. Very soon the app will also enable artists to connect directly with their fans, create live sessions, sell merchandise, promote their songs and showcase their unheard tracks.

Popular indie musician Anumita Nadesan was ecstatic about the app and had this to say: “This is crazy and the musician in me is very excited about Gaana for Artists app. What I love most is the sharp and clear insights we get out of this. Be it the top playlist that is featuring my songs or the skip rate of songs, directly from the audience which is rarely available to us. As an artist, this adds value to our vision and work as well and Gaana is doing great work to build this holistic music community for artists and audiences together.”

Gaana for Artists is now available as a progressive web app and can be accessed via desktop and mobile by users.