We launched a new artiste today. It was not done with as much fan-fare as is wont of most artiste or product launches. But hey, what I saw today was something unique. Between all the cribbing about company policies, management, HR and more specifically, bosses...here was a company that played it by the ear, literally; placed its faith in an artiste, turned a deaf ear (all intentional, yes :-)) to the trade pooh-pooh'ing and went straight ahead with its instincts. All credit to S for spear-heading the project as the A&R brain behind it. For the uninitiated, A&R is common industry parlance for Artiste & Repertoire, and yes our job is to find new artistes, make the world take notice of them and pat ourselves for doing a good job.
It will be a while until we know if the pat goes on his back or ends up falling on his bum, but I tell you, this is the thrill of discovering talent. Amidst the innumerable talent shows where a majority of good singers are lost to better looking, gyrating babes or dudes donning dark-glasses (indoors), here we had a lady from a small town, hair tied in pigtails, her best pick for the evening showcase being a bandhani salwar kameez worn under a thick black sweater, sans make-up. She walked into office and sat between us all. We exchanged some trivia on songs. There were grumpy-faced finance and admin chappies drowning their faces in paper-work and other product managers singing along tracks of their proud project launches – no one took notice of who had just walked in. Whispers turned into shameless muttering. When it was becoming too obvious, non-verbal communication took over. One open-mouthed contortion was returned with a set of knit eyebrows and soon enough we had our own version of Pushpak in office. Until, our lady decided to break into ‘Raah Mein Bichhi Hain’ from Sardari Begum. She silenced us all. Suddenly she looked like a goddess. One hour later, everyone was campaigning for her, calls were made and emails were sent to friends/colleagues/business associates pleading them to just come and sample her voice – “You don’t have to cover the function, don’t write about her, just come and listen to her sing”.
And the evening began to a small, private audience and she had us all. “Pritam will take her!”, “One movie and she will be set”, “kya pakad hai…wah”, “The return of young Abida” – the compliments flowed. She didn’t know how to handle it. “It is very cold today isn’t it?” she said with a smile, to almost everyone, and tried to melt into the crowd, joining the cue for snacks.
It wasn’t the best music I have heard or anything. She has a long way to go, lot of stage presence to build, a lot of improvisations to bring to her songs, but that isn’t the point of this all. We made someone’s dream come true. We, the biggest label, gave her the platform to showcase her talent until a Bollywood biggie whisks her away from us. And they would never know, she would probably never say, but our find she will always be, the one with 2 little pigtails.
It will be a while until we know if the pat goes on his back or ends up falling on his bum, but I tell you, this is the thrill of discovering talent. Amidst the innumerable talent shows where a majority of good singers are lost to better looking, gyrating babes or dudes donning dark-glasses (indoors), here we had a lady from a small town, hair tied in pigtails, her best pick for the evening showcase being a bandhani salwar kameez worn under a thick black sweater, sans make-up. She walked into office and sat between us all. We exchanged some trivia on songs. There were grumpy-faced finance and admin chappies drowning their faces in paper-work and other product managers singing along tracks of their proud project launches – no one took notice of who had just walked in. Whispers turned into shameless muttering. When it was becoming too obvious, non-verbal communication took over. One open-mouthed contortion was returned with a set of knit eyebrows and soon enough we had our own version of Pushpak in office. Until, our lady decided to break into ‘Raah Mein Bichhi Hain’ from Sardari Begum. She silenced us all. Suddenly she looked like a goddess. One hour later, everyone was campaigning for her, calls were made and emails were sent to friends/colleagues/business associates pleading them to just come and sample her voice – “You don’t have to cover the function, don’t write about her, just come and listen to her sing”.
And the evening began to a small, private audience and she had us all. “Pritam will take her!”, “One movie and she will be set”, “kya pakad hai…wah”, “The return of young Abida” – the compliments flowed. She didn’t know how to handle it. “It is very cold today isn’t it?” she said with a smile, to almost everyone, and tried to melt into the crowd, joining the cue for snacks.
It wasn’t the best music I have heard or anything. She has a long way to go, lot of stage presence to build, a lot of improvisations to bring to her songs, but that isn’t the point of this all. We made someone’s dream come true. We, the biggest label, gave her the platform to showcase her talent until a Bollywood biggie whisks her away from us. And they would never know, she would probably never say, but our find she will always be, the one with 2 little pigtails.
4 comments:
What a nice little story..:) I like
and what about ..ahem..someone getting themselves discovered one of these days, eh?
:) :)
Nice. Its incredible how very simple people can know a huge number of things and humble us by the things they do - they are judged based on what they look like or how they present themselves, but not all people have everything. May the one with the two little pigtails be blessed with good fortune! :)
Being a part of the same lovely evening,I can say that Carpe Diem has penned our experiences to the T.
@ Inconsequential: Yes, that is plan :)
@ Phil: It is indeed very heartening to see and a moment of great pride to see a company invest and take risks at a time when the industry curve is curving in.
@ D: Merci :)
Post a Comment