Launch of Vayuputras, the 1st ever musical soundtrack of a book series

Feb. 15, 2013 - PRLog -- Times Music & Westland today announced the release of Vayuputras, the soundtrack for the bestselling Shiva Trilogy books (The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas and the yet to be released The Oath of the Vayuputras). The album was launched in the presence of Amish, the author of the Shiva Trilogy, renowned musician Taufiq Qureshi and celebrated singer Sonu Nigam.

The Shiva Trilogy (comprising The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas and the yet to be released The Oath of the Vayuputras), published by Westland, has been one of the most successful book series in the history of Indian publishing. It has sold almost a million copies within a short period of two-and-a-half years, with gross retail sales of approx Rs 22 crores. The books have been released across the Indian subcontinent in various languages, including English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Telugu. The Oath of the Vayuputras, the 3rd book of the trilogy, is set for release on 27th February, 2013.

The innovative idea of promoting a book series through its own original soundtrack was conceived by Sangram Surve, and is being attempted for the first time in India. The idea of the soundtrack was extended to make way for a full album by Raajeev Sharma, who came on board as the Music Producer. All the songs in the album have been drawn out of various sections of the 3 books of the Shiva Trilogy, thus giving the life of music to the soul of the words. The lead track, ‘Jo Vayuputra Ho’, has been composed by Taufiq Qureshi and sung by Sonu Nigam. This song, in a way, captures the flow of the Shiva Trilogy books in a tune that is a classic fusion of the traditional and the modern.  A high quality music video has been prepared for the song which was showcased at the press meet and will be telecast on various channels. Many other artists have come on board to create the other tracks on the album such as Bickram Ghosh, Palash Sen, Raghav Sachar, TaTvA Kundalini, Arijit Datta, Aghor, Aditya Jain, Durgesh Khot, Sunny Thadani & Charan Singh Pathania. Amish has also performed in one of the tracks.

The album has been produced by Amish, Sangram Surve, Westland Ltd and Raajeev Sharma. Times Music has signed on as the music label partner for the album and will promote it aggressively through multiple channels.

Speaking on the occasion, Amish said, ‘Music is like my muse, it is a very important part of my process of writing. Songs of different moods are like keys which help me enter the world of my book’s characters. Therefore, having an album which captures different parts of the books through the beauty of music is magical for me indeed. Hopefully, through this album, readers can experience the story of the Shiva Trilogy the way I experience it.’

Taufiq Qureshi added, ‘It was a great experience working on the Vayuputras song as Shiva is not only the greatest warrior, but also the greatest and most complete musician who ever existed. This song tries to capture Shiva as the warrior who became a God through His deeds and who also gave the world the dance known as the Tandav.’

Said Sonu Nigam, ‘My mother's father was and my mother is a Shivji devotee and I've had a special affinity with the aura of Shivji. I’ve always found the mythology associated with him fascinating and that's perhaps why I found this project interesting. Raajeev Sharma my friend brought this project to me and although I haven't read the Shiva Trilogy yet, I am aware of its popularity. I have been a book lover all my life, thus agreed to be a part of it. Singing for Taufiq bhai is also a pleasure as he is someone I truly adore and respect.’

Gautam Padmanabhan – Chief Executive Officer, Westland Limited (Publishers of The Shiva Trilogy) – said, ‘The readers of Amish’s books have said that his books are almost 3-dimensional. Many of them say that reading his books is like watching a movie since the descriptions are so vivid and visual. This album’s music will help readers experience the rich texture of the Shiva trilogy in a totally new medium.’

Mandar Thakur, COO, Times Music, said, ‘The Shiva Trilogy has undoubtedly been the biggest success story in the history of the Indian books market and Times Music is incredibly proud to be part of this franchise and collaborate with Amish to create a landmark occasion by releasing the first ever OST to a book.’

Sangram Surve, CEO, Think WhyNot, said, ‘The idea for a original soundtrack and music video was to do another "First Ever" for The Oath of Vayuputras and outdo the marketing innovations done for the previous book, The Secret of the Nagas. This will be hopefully set a new benchmark for marketing innovations in general and for the publishing industry in particular.’

Raajeev Sharma, Music Producer of the album said, ‘When I read the first 2 books of the Shiva Trilogy, various moments jumped out and I could imagine a score or song for them. Then came the opportunity to help produce the ‘Lead track’. For me it was always going to be an album. I am glad the team supported that idea and am grateful to all the artists who came forward to help create a wonderful album, especially Taufiq Qureshi, Sonu Nigam & Bickram Ghosh. In doing so we are all creating history.’

About Amish:

Amish is a 1974-born, IIM (Kolkata)-educated, boring banker turned happy author. The success of his debut book, The Immortals of Meluha (Book 1 of the Shiva Trilogy), encouraged him to give up a fourteen-year-old career in financial services to focus on writing. He is passionate about history, mythology and philosophy, finding beauty and meaning in all world religions.

Amish lives in Mumbai with his wife Preeti and son Neel.