Coke Studio 2 focusing on originality, diversity

New Delhi: After a successful maiden innings, the second season of the popular music show Coke Studio is all set to grow larger in scale and creativity. The focus of the second season, to be aired on MTV in July, is on diversity and originality with eight unique episodes, 12 producers and over 200 musicians being involved. The first season saw a number of mainstream as well as folk and classical singers collaborating to deliver an unusual live performance in various episodes. "Two things which do not usually come together, is united at MTV Coke Studio. The key theme for season two is diversity and originality. This season too we`ll have music across all genres coming together - be it rock, pop, classical or fusion," Aditya Swamy, EVP and Business Head, MTV, said. The new season will have seven episodes being directed by one composer each and one episode will have five new talents composing for it. Shantanu Moitra, Amit Trivedi, Ehsaan-Loy, Nitin Sawhney, Karsh Kale, Hitesh Sonik and Clinton Cerejo are the composers who have been roped in this time, as opposed to last season where there was just one producer for all the episodes. "The tremendous response we received for the first season led us to launch the second in an even larger scale. The new season is even more diverse - for example we have folk artistes from Rajasthan collaborating with somebody like Clinton Cerejo, whose style of music is totally different. "The coming together of the unlikely is the USP of Coke Studio," said Wasim Basir, director, Integrated Marketing Communications, Coca-Cola India. Providing creative freedom to the artistes is also on the agenda. "Coke Studio is one platform where we get a chance to experiment. This season I am concentrating on original song-writing. So many song-writers are dependent on films only and don`t get a chance to create songs otherwise. "MTV has created a non-film market for music composers and song-writers. Its a lot of fun to break from the ties of film compositions," said composer Ehsaan Noorani. PTI