What has been Sony BMGs contribution to encourage or promote young talents?
A. While ‘Indian Idol’ is one great example of promoting young talents, our first attempt was between 1998 and 2000 the years of pop hysteria. During this period, we went gung-ho after the segment thinking that the market was ready for pop icons. But unfortunately, the the entire industry was wrong in its assessment of timing, the quality of talent, the marketing and the consumer expectation. In spite of this, there were a couple of new artistes, who got established in those years. We can take credit for providing breaks to today’s popular artistes such as KK, Bally Sagoo, Bombay Vikings etc. We also fueled the career growth of artistes such as Lucky Ali and The Colonial Cousins. But the bubble did burst, and there has been a lull for the last five years. I believe we are now leading up to the cusp of the second attempt at developing Pop Icons in India. The success and response to ‘Indian Idol’, the broad acceptance of Rabbi Shergill and the growing influence of Adnan Sami project that
