Tihar to have its own Indian Idol

Inmates lodged in Tihar will strike a different note and get their own 'Indian Idol' as a singing talent hunt will soon be organised in the jails.

A production house --RVP Directors-- is looking for singers, song writers and musicians amongst inmates lodged in all the nine jails of the Tihar Prisons and will soon conduct audition for the same inside the prison complex.

Expected to take off in a week's time, the selected 'Tihar Idol' will be involved in developing four albums comprising of punjabi track, hindi, devotional songs and hindi oldies. The musician, the singer and the song composer, all the persons involved in developing the album will be selected from amongst the inmates, R N Sharma, DIG, Tihar Prisons said.

"RVP Directors came forward with the idea after they read about our launch of sarangi maestro Kamal Sabri's music album "Sarangi Redefined" in Tihar which features vocals and music by Tihar's inmates. So as we have our Indian Idol, here we will have our own 'Tihar Idol'," Sharma said.

Sunil Gupta, spokesperson Tihar Prisons said, "Our inmates are talented lot and this we are doing as part of the reformation programme. Their talent must get an opportunity. It will in a way help in stopping them from being repeat offenders."
"We had read the DG Prisons, Neeraj Kumar's interest in developing rockbands from within the prisons. The album already released has various genres, including Indian classical, folk, jazz, rap and more. If there is talent inside the prison then why not explore it," Rahul Suneja, owner of RVP Directors said. The audition is expected to begin in another seven to eight days.

"Once the forms are ready, we will distribute it in the prisons. We are looking for singers, musicians and lyricists from amongst the inmates. We will hunt the talent, short-list them, groom them for our album. We will create studios here inside and then devlop the CD's," he said.

Sharma said, "There is lot of music lovers amongst our inmates and they are enthusiastic about it. A portion of the profits from the CD's will utilised for the welfare of the inmates."