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Sitar meets rock
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VJ Aditya strums the sitar to the tunes of ‘Sweet Child of Mine’
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TO A DIFFERENT BEAT VJ Aditya
The sitar and rock is an unusual combination. “But it isn’t something new. Quite a few musicians have tried fusion music before,” says VJ Aditya. The VJ from Channel V has used the potent combination of the sitar and rock to play Sweet Child of Mine for a promo on the channel. The Guns ‘n’ Roses number, which was almost an anthem in the late 80s, takes on a new dimension. “It wasn’t entirely my idea,” says Aditya, unwilling to walk away with credit for the video. “One of my producers in the channel thought it would be a good idea to have me do a promo with this concept. But he said I will need to actually play the sitar; imitating the movements would end up looking artificial.”
Strumming the guitar was something Aditya was familiar with during his college days in Mumbai but sitar was an unexplored area. “I took a crash course on playing the sitar. Both the instruments work on the same concept but I found the sitar a bit more complicated. It took me 10 days to learn to play Sweet Child of Mine,” he recalls. The feedback? “People have been telling me it’s one cool number,” he says. The video, now featured on Youtube and digg.com, has already attracted 2500 digs, the highest for an Indian music promo.
Aditya promises there will be more surprises to come. “The idea was to be realistic and believable. Now that people are appreciating the effort, we are considering more novel promos,” he says. The unruly mop of hair that originally distinguished him from the other VJs is now gone. “And I got rid of it just because of Mumbai summer. It was really tough to manage long hair in summers,” he laughs. At one time, he was the sole male VJ in the channel dominated by women. “I was completely enjoying the attention. But now there are two other male VJs. So I have company,” he says.
SANGEETHA DEVI DUNDOO
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