Star studded music launch of Jodha Akbar

The music of UTV Motion Pictures and Ashutosh Gowariker Productions’ Jodhaa Akbar was formally released by the Royalty of Jaipur (who are the direct descendants of Jodha) - His Highness Maharaja Bhawani Singhji and Her Highness Maharani Padmini Deviji of Jaipur and His Highness Maharaja Brajraj Singhji of Kishangarh.

Present in the magnificent Royal Tent, especially erected for the unveiling, were singers Sonu Nigam, Javed Ali and Bela Shende along with the cast and crew of the film including Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, A. R. Rahman, Javed Akhtar, Punam S. Sinha, Sonu Sood, Ronnie Screwvala and Sunita and Ashutosh Gowariker . Cinematographer Kiran Deohans, action coordinator Ravi Dewan, production designer Nitin Chandrakant Desai, costumes designer Neeta Lulla and character artistes Raza Murad, Ila Arun, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and writer and character artiste Haider Ali were present. The other guests who attended the launch included Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha and Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay and Zarine Khan, Zayed Khan, Amar Singh and others.
Said Ashutosh Gowariker, “The experience of producing the music of Jodhaa Akbar has been fascinating, exciting and unique. One of the pleasures of working on a film is repeating your team. And if that team happens to be Javedsaab and Rahman then the process of creating music is all the more wonderful and joyous.”

Speaking on the music, A R Rahman comments, “It has always been a pleasure to associate with Ashutosh on his projects. We started off with Lagaan and then Swades, both of which gave me immense creative satisfaction as a composer. It was an honour that Jodhaa Akbar was offered to me.”
The music of the film marks the launch of UTV Music and UTV chief Ronnie Screwvala said, “A film of the magnitude and calibre of Jodhaa Akbar with its outstanding music compositions is the perfect vehicle for the launch of UTV Music.”

Ummeed
Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray made a personal appearance and Amitabh Bachchan formally released the Times Music album Ummeed at Mumbai’s Rang Sharda Auditorium, which was jam-packed with dignitaries, celebrities, media and family and friends of the Thackerays, on January 18. Ummeed marks the debut of lyricist Aditya Thackeray, son of Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray and grandson of Balasaheb.
Aditya also recited some of the verse to the august gathering. The host for the evening was Sonali Kulkarni. As Bachchan came up to release the album, he stated that he would skip the formal “thanks” to the Thackerays as he was “family”. Balasaheb, in fragile health but with spirits unaffected, thanked Amitabh Bachchan and in a humour-filled speech in a mix of Marathi, Hindi and English wanted to remind the Big B that “Mee pan B aahe!”(I too have a name beginning with B). He advised his 17-year-old grandson to follow the ‘middle-path’ by neither being too commercial nor too idealistic.
Present on the occasion were Aditya’s parents Uddhav and Rashmi Thackeray and his brother Tejas (who has sung on the album), its music director Mayuresh Pai and singers Suresh Wadkar, Jolly Mukherjee, Kunal Ganjawala, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kailash Kher, Swapnil Bandodkar, Vaishali Samant, Chandrashekhar Gadgil, Ashwin Srinivisan, Milind Gunaji (who has featured in the video) and the video’s cinematographer Israr Qureshi.
The guests included Gopinath Munde, Manohar Joshi, Usha Mangeshkar, Anu Malik, Satish Shah, Tina Ambani and many others.

Humsafar
Sony-BMG hosted the music release of Humsafar, singer KK’s second album, on the lawns of a suburban Mumbai hotel on January 22. The popular singer set the mood soaring with a terrific live performance of most of the tracks from his new album (which marks his debut as a composer), two favourites from his previous album Pal and (on sighting his friend, music director Pritam) his chartbuster Tu hi meri shab hai from Gangster.
In what was a clear index of the affable and hugely-talented singer’s popularity and goodwill, the launch was one of the best attended functions in recent times. Mukesh and Mahesh Bhatt, music directors Anu Malik, Louis Banks, Shankar and Ehsaan, Leslie Lewis, Pritam, Salim-Sulaiman, Shamir Tandon, Sandeep Chowta and Ram Sampath, lyricist Sameer and Mehboob (who has penned all the songs) and singer-colleagues Hariharan, Kailash Kher, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shweta Pandit, Sona Mohapatra, Vasundhara Das and others were present.

News Courtesy: Screenindia.com
http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php?content_id=18786