Bhopal, Mar 8: Bharti Airtel, India's leading mobile service, has partnered with Doordarshan to host the first of its kind musical talent hunt - Airtel Desk Ki Awaaz. This programme is a unique competition, which shall provide a platform for choosing One Best male, One Best female and One Best child singing talent who can emerge as tomorrow's sensation. It's also the first ever-customized program done by any mobile service provider on Doordarshan providing an opportunity for aspiring singers from any part of the country.

The Airtel Desh Ki Awaz team would soon enter smaller towns, mini-metros to audition singers providing an opportunity to sing in any language on national television. Participants would be judged on voice quality, tune, originality, variation, range, confidence, and seamless performance. Talat Aziz, the popular Ghazal singer, is the host for the show. The competition has some of the eminent stalwarts of the music industry as judges including lyricist Nida Fazli, music director Khayyam, Uttam Singh, singers Ravindra Jain, Anup Jalota, Shailendra Singh, Munna Aziz amongst others. Airtel Desh Ki Awaz is being telecast every Monday 10pm onwards.

The programme is on air now with 1st level of auditions. This contest will allow the singers to sing in any Indian language they desire. Each episode will feature 2 males, 2 females and 2 children pitted against each other in their category eliminating one and giving one winner. The competition will be over in 2 episodes and all will sing 4 songs each.

A 2nd level of auditions would be announced shortly in semi-urban and mini-metros to find hidden talent in those cities. After auditions 26 males, 26 females and 26 children will be chosen for the prelims. The episodes would be divided into 12 prelims spread across 12 weeks followed by 8 episodes of Quarter Finals across 8 weeks and finally 2 episodes of Finals spread over 2 weeks.

Over the past decade, one of the key reasons for Airtel's continuing leadership position in the highly competitive telecom business has been the ability to connect with its customers through simple communication focusing on culture especially music. This partnership with Doordarshan, which offers the most significant platform to cater to the largest reach of customers in India namely youth, new users in rural market, semi-urban markets, help to create a stronger brand affinity for Airtel.

Shishir Kumar, COO, Mobility, Bharti Airtel Ltd Bihar and Jharkhand says, "We believe Music brings people together and breaks barriers. The association with this musical talent hunt program is completely aligned with our strategy to own music and be a leader in the mass mobile music segment. This programme is also a platform for aspiring singers especially in smaller towns taking forward Airtel's association with music and its commitment to connect with all segments of customers across the country."