Amruta Fadnavis announces ‘Mitti Ke Sitare’, India’s first music reality show for underprivileged kids

Mumbai, Maharashtra (January 24, 2019): With its diverse culture and tradition, India is a hub of immense musical talent. While some thrive in big cities, others remain untapped in regions away from the eyes of the world. Divyaj Foundation's endeavour is to reach out to the marginalized sections of the society, engage and empower them, and add quality contribution enabling a positive change in the quality of lives. 

“Mitti Ke Sitare”, a brain child of Mrs Amruta Fadnavis, renowned social activist and Vice President-Corporate Head with Axis Bank, is one of the many such projects by Divyaj Foundation, in association with Mpower that is aimed at discovering hidden talent from the slum areas of Mumbai and honing their musical skills to showcase their talent to the global audience.

For this project, Divyaj is partnering with Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (1187 schools) to identify children who are blessed with talent but lack resources to improve themselves. The Shankar Mahadevan Academy (SMA), by critically acclaimed musician Shankar Mahadevan, is also collaborating for Mitti Ke Sitare to provide musical training to the children. 

The talent hunt will be conducted for children aged between 7-15 years. It will be aimed at finding the best talent across different genres of vocal and instrumental music. The show will have 4 rounds of auditions, scouting for the hidden gems from a potential of 10,000 school children.

Each school will identify 5 students to compete in the first round of auditions. After around 3 subsequent auditions, 30 students will be shortlisted to receive training to compete in the compete in the grand finale, where they will get a chance to perform on stage with renowned artists from the music industry.

Mrs Fadnavis, while officially announcing the talent hunt today at the BMC Virtual Studio, Mumbai, said “Mitti Ke Sitare, as the name of the show indicates, is meant to discover the hidden Sitare, the hidden gems who have exceptional talent but because of socio-economic conditions and opportunities are not able to rise up in the crowd. With this music reality show, our goal is to identify the children from the MCGM schools, groom them, and showcase their talent to the world. I am humbled by the support shown by the stakeholders of the educational community and the media. The show is not for the mere entertainment of the audience, but an effort towards the betterment of the society and its children as a whole.”

Founder and Chairperson, Mpower, Mrs Neerja Birla, added, “Mpower will conduct workshops during Mitti Ke Sitare which will help children and their caregivers to handle success or failure and related stress better. This collaboration with Divyaj Foundation is also a great way to reach out to all stakeholders of the educational community, familiarising them with mental health, alleviating the stigma around it, and inspiring them to seek further training and knowledge that they need to make mental wellness an integral part of school life."

Mr Ajoy Mehta, Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai said in a statement, “It is for the first time that such a large-scale project is being organised for the children of Municipal Schools. It is possible for children studying in high-end schools to have access to musical trainings and grooming, but with Mitti Ke Sitare, the hidden gems will be discovered and groomed for the world to see. I am elated to be associated with Mrs Amruta Fadnavis and her mission.”

Acclaimed musician Shankar Mahadevan said, “I am extremely proud and happy to be associated with Divyaj and Amruta Fadnavis ji. I feel it is an unusual opportunity for children at the grassroots level who have a lot of talent but don’t have access to training institutes or vocal classes to improve themselves. Mitti Ke Sitare will be India’s first show to be focused solely on children from MCGM schools and the underprivileged sector and help bring out the hidden talent we have in his country which goes unnoticed.”

The auditions for the talent hunt will begin from February and the training will continue until May, followed by the proposed grand finale.