MUMBAI: Dark Horizon from Shillong, Skrypt from Hyderabad, FARENHEIT from South Zone, Frequency from Jaipur, S.S. from Chandigarh are the rock bands that will finally slug it out at the finale of the Campus Rock Idols, India`s largest inter-collegiate rock music competition currently in its fourth edition.

Titled the Hero Honda Motorola Campus Rock Idols, the annual independent competition for amateur bands at the campus level offers bands to perform on a professional, technical and a much evolved production offering. The competition was held across ten cities in India over a period of two months commencing on 27 October 2007 and is now approaching the finale to be held on 2 December 2007 at University Polo Grounds, North Campus in the North.

Talking about Campus Rock Idol, DNA Networks` VP, marketing Sunil Mathew says, "Rock music in India is certainly growing at a very fast pace. Touring in general has become strong with western artists hence a lot of international artists are keen to come to India. Today India and China are two strong markets for live entertainment. With a lot of International Rock acts coming to India and with proper platforms, there will be more and more young musicians every year wanting to make it big. We see at lot of talented bands participating in Campus Rock Idols."DNA Networks now plans to create more annual properties like Campus Rock Idols and the DSP Black Rockilution to give young and talented musicians a platform to showcase their skills on a much evolved production setup, says Mathew.

The Campus Rock Idol event aims to promote music and support to deserving bands. The event offers international exposure to the winning band as well. The winning band gets a cash prize of Rs 75,000, the first runner up Rs 50,000 and second runner up Rs 25,000 as prize money. This year`s winners will also get a debut opportunity to open for an international rock iconic artist who is promoted by DNA Networks. Says DNA Networks MD T Venkat Vardhan says, "Campus Rock Idol initially got a few hundreds of entrants and over the years has progressed to an astonishing 300 bands as it is now an annual event to look forward to. This event has given and continues to give a platform to the upcoming bands to showcase their talent and take the music world by a storm. Each year the number of applications has increased as the winners get an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform with an international band thus taking them a step closer to being internationally renowned." He further continued, "Last year`s winner could never live it down, of his experience as opening band for Iron Maiden." Prestorika from Delhi, winners of the event in 2004 performed the opening act at "THE RASMUS" concert while The Super Fuzz BigMuff" Delhi, 2005 winners, performed the opening act at "Bryan Adams" concert held in 2006. FTN from Delhi winners in 2006, performed with Iron Maiden.

Talking about the CRI experience, Akshay Raheja of Frequency, a Delhi based band who won from Jaipur adds, "We weren`t free on the day of finals at Delhi and hence, we participated from Jaipur. Competitions like this are a great platform and it offers good publicity since it is been telecast on VH1 and the reach to the masses increases."