New TV show 'Meri Awaaz' to 'revive' Indian classical music

Indian music industry is often criticised by many for not promoting Indian classical art forms and rather getting "influenced" by Western culture. In a bid to "revive" national own musical forms, &TV has come up with a new series "Meri Awaaz Hi Pehchaan Hai" that will take viewers on a soulful journey of two singing sisters by having music in as its backdrop.

The show, which will start from March 7, will focus on the lives of two singing sisters Kalyani and Ketki and span three generations.

Actresses Amrita Rao and Aditi Vasudev, who are making their TV debut with the show, will be seen playing the role of two sisters, while Amrita's role will be taken forward by actress Deepti Naval and Aditi's part will be played by actress Zarina Wahab. The show will also feature actress Pallavi Joshi.

"Today music has changed totally. It has got highly influenced by technology and is not at all up to the mark. It has got a lot inspired from the West. It's a good time to bring this type of show. It's really going to revive our heritage and bring Indian classical into front," Deepti said at the launch of the show here on Friday.

"Hardly there are any films today, whose music stays with you for a long time. This show will somehow inspire other people to go back to our classical base," added the actress who was joined by Amrita and Aditi on the launch. Zarina and Pallavi couldn't make it the event due to personal problems.

Talking of her TV debut, Amrita said: "Since last two years, I had been approached by many TV channels to be a part of fiction. Obviously this is a game changing phase for television, so they wanted to approach Bollywood and look at something different. But I was not happy with the content that was coming across.

"But the concept of this show is unique. I've never played such an illustrious role before. I had cold feet, but I thought I have to take up this as a challenge because of the capacity of the role and I have heard that TV is a tough journey.

While the story of the show looks quite similar to the story of real life sisters and Bollywood's legendary singers Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, the cast pointed the show is not inspired from anybody's life.

"It's obvious that people will think that this show is inspired from Lata ji and Asha ji. But it's not. The writer should be credited that having this background, he has put up a different story," Deepti said.