Sonu Nigam To Perform For Parliament!

When the Copyright Act (Amendement) Bill, 2012 was passed in the Lok Sabha on May 22 this year, the impassioned industry hailed Javed Akhtar’s efforts of over two years for the historic change. Now, the screenwriter-lyricist, as an expression of gratitude on behalf of the industry towards the Government of India for implementing the amendment, has organised a grand concert at Parliament.

Scheduled to take place on the evening of August 23 at the Balayogi auditorium, Parliament Library Building, the concert, titled Shukrana, will bring together on stage noted musicians from across the country for a two-and-a-half hour event. Members of both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are likely to be in attendance, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chief Sonia Gandhi and President Pranab Mukherjee. A notice on the Parliament Bulletin invites all members for the evening’s programme.

The programme has been designed by Akhtar and Gulzar and will be anchored by prominent actor and Rajya Sabha MP Shabana Azmi. The event will be recorded, however, as of now, there are no plans to televise it.

Bollywood music artistes such as Sonu Nigam, A R Rahman, Vishal Bhardwaj, Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonsa, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Sunidhi Chauhan and Rekha Bhardwaj among others will be lending their voice to a number of patriotic and old film classics.

Veteran lyricists Gulzar and Sameer and Prasoon Joshi will read out poetry.

The idea, says Chauhan, is to pay a tribute to both the nation and veteran musicians. The list of performers extends beyond the film industry to include classical musicians, santoor player Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma and flutist Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia. Ghazal singer Kuldip Singh will also perform.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/music-concert-at-parliament-as-mark-of-thanks-for-change-in-copyright-act/991342/