Coke Studio returns

Coke Studio’s debut in India last year might have drawn fierce reactions from certain quarters, but that is not stopping the makers from returning with a new season of the show this July.

Coke Studio’s debut in India last year might have drawn fierce reactions from certain quarters, but that is not stopping the makers from returning with a new season of the show this July.

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“My belief is that you’ve got to start somewhere, which we did last year. And now the project only gets better. This year’s approach is to celebrate diversity,” says Aditya Swamy, executive vice-president and business head, MTV India.

In Coke Studio 2, the spotlight will shift from singers to composers. The eight-episode show will feature 12 composer-producers and over 200 musicians. Each segment will have a composer bringing together his team of musicians to create tunes. Amit Trivedi, Nitin Sawhney, Karsh Kale, Ehsaan-Loy, Clinton Cerejo and Shantanu Moitra are some of the musicians who will be seen on the show this time round. Continuing with the show’s fundamental premise of bringing together known and less well-known talent, there will also be artistes from the hinterlands such as the Noora Sisters (of Sound Trippin’ fame), Saawan Khan Mangniyar and Master Saleem.

Confident about hitting the right notes, Wasim Basir, director, integrated marketing communications, Coca-Cola, says, “The first season witnessed a huge viewership and downloads of the tracks. We’re in a great place and the onus is on us to make it better. If the first show hadn’t been a success, we wouldn’t have had some of the biggest names of the music industry associating with us this time.”