Ranbir Kapoor teams up with online digital music company Saavn

Bollywood heart-throb Ranbir Kapoor has joined hands with Saavn, a US-based digital music company known as the leader in digital streaming for Indian music, as a creative collaborator.

Ranbir will work with the Saavn team on consumer marketing ideation and production, business development and content. In fact, the actor gave inputs for a commercial campaign which is expected to go on air next week.

The TV commercial has been written by Vasan Bala, who is the screenwriter for Kapoor's new film Bombay Velvet, alongside Sneha Mehta and Teddy Stern of Saavn.

"I've been using Saavn for years now, so it's exciting to be working with the team on a deeper level. I'll be helping to guide the brand, influence programming, connect with the next generation of music listeners and ultimately help build the best music product in India and potentially the world," Ranbir said in a statement.

"And this is only the beginning. I look forward to being involved in a more business-centric capacity in the near future," he added.

It was in 2012 that Ranbir met the New York-based Saavn founders - Paramdeep Singh (executive chairman), Rishi Malhotra (CEO) and Vin Bhat (president and chief strategy officer).

Singh said the partnership felt right from the beginning.

"Everyone involved in this partnership is truly passionate about the product but there's also a very human connection here as well.

"Our collaboration with Ranbir represents an evolution in the way technology companies and artists work together in India. And that bridge between art and digital is at the very heart of what we want to accomplish at Saavn," he added.

The commercial campaign was produced by Golden Gaddi Films, the ad production house of Guneet Monga, the producer of the highly acclaimed film "The Lunchbox".

The 30-second ad can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKFqtQn_6zw

The digital music company, which boasts a catalogue of almost two million tracks from both Indian and US record labels, will be rolling out a suite of new consumer-facing products and partnerships over the next couple of months in which Ranbir's inputs and ideation will play a major role.