Ankur Tewari will release his new song on MTV Indies. He tells I Kaur that the channel comes as an inspiration for budding musicians
While indie music lovers have found refuge in newly launched channel Pepsi MTV Indies, the artistes who are being featured on the channel have their own pleasures to claim. Thanks to shows like Coke Studio, MTV Unplugged and The Dewarists, independent musicians got their due after waiting for months to get a good number of followers on SoundCloud, city-hopping and performing at gigs. However, this time they have an entire channel dedicated to them. With MTV Indies, bands get a chance to be profiled and have their videos aired. According to Ankur Tewari, whose band Ankur and The Ghalat Family will feature on MTV Indies, the channel has opened a fresh avenue for all independent artistes. “Till today, whenever my mom sees my video on YouTube she doesn’t get as excited as when she sees me on television. And now I have an opportunity to be seen on TV. Earlier there were hardly any channels that showed our music videos. Now there’s a channel that will show my videos, profile my band and talk about other bands, music and subcultures around us. People will finally start connecting with us with our music rather than with the Bollywood tracks we have played,” he said.
Ankur shared that he was initially inspired to become a musician because he saw lucky Ali on TV and hopes that now he can inspire budding musicians to pursue their dream. “I remember when I was studying and had just started out with my music; album music was part of television. Every time I saw those videos I felt if they can reach there, so can I. Those videos had a strong influence on me. Today I have a platform like MTV Indies to inspire the fresh crop of musicians,” he said.
The musician, known for his songs like Mohhabat Zindabad and Sabse Peeche, feels that MTV Indies will be more like looking at feeds on a Facebook page. He explained, “The duration of programmes ranges from six-eight minutes and there is no system like tuning into the seven o’ clock show. The entire channel is based on accidental viewing and it will look like you’re scrolling down a Facebook page. That experience makes this channel special.”
Ankur’s band will also be releasing their new song Tu Hi Hai on the channel. “I’ve been sitting on the video of this song since four months and I had no clue on how to release it. And now it seems like this is an opportunity I was waiting for,” he informed.