MUMBAI: More and more radio stations are gearing up for singer talent hunt shows. Radio Mango is the latest to join the beeline.
Malayalam Manorama's radio venture Radio Mango has planned to invest over 20 millions for a new talent hunt show "Naatiley Taaram" - star of the countryside. The show kicked off on 10th April will conclude on 4th June.Elaborating on the talent hunt, Radio Mango director programmes Ravi Nair says, "Generally all talent hunt shows take place in the cities but here we hope to spot talent at a village level. So, we have a studio van which travels to 800 panchayats touching over 200 centres in Kerala, record the video and audio for the auditions."
The shortlisted contestants will further perform in mega final round to be held in Kochi and the finale will be held in Trivendrum where two winners, one male and the other female will be declared.
Mango also has plans to cut an album with the top 10 finalists selected across all cities. "The album will be launched under our own music label Malyalam Music. It will be recorded by five of Kerala's leading music directors - Jassie Gift, Deepak Dev, Mejo Joseph, Rahul Raj and Balabhaskar", says Nair.
The finalists will get tips on the finer aspects of singing from renowned playback singer Padmashri Chitra and grooming from noted stylist Ambika Pillai. A prize money of 25 lakhs is on offer for the contestants. The grand finale will be telecast on MM news.
Radio Mango, Kerala's first private FM station by Malayalam Manorama already has three radio stations at Kozhikode, Trichur and Kannur and would be starting its Kochi station within a month.