'Jai Ho' to enthral at Asian Games closing ceremony

The closing ceremony of 16th Asian Games being held at Guangzhou, China, will have a pinch of Bollywood flavour as the audiences will get a chance to dance to the tunes of AR Rahman's Jai Ho.

Ravi K Tripathi, a young singer from Lucknow, has been specially invited by the Guangzhou Asian Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies Operation Centre to perform on the closing day on November 27.

Ravi is the sole Indian artist to be performing at one of the biggest sports extravaganzas in Asia.

"I am really excited as performing before such a huge audience is a great honour for me. It's a lifetime achievement.

I will be performing Jai Ho and a Chinese song composed by Henry. For this I have learnt Chinese diction specially," Ravi said.

However, this will not be the singer's first performance in China. He has already represented India, performing in the presence of Hollywood star Jackie Chan, in the 16th Asian Games countdown show held in Guangzhou last year.

A science graduate from Lucknow University, Ravi started taking singing classes at a very early age.

"I started learning to sing at the age of four and after sometime joined Bhatkhande (now a deemed University). Then I moved to Mumbai and started learning from Suresh Wadekar and spent 10 whole years with him," the singer said.

Making singing his full time career was a tough decision for Ravi as he was preparing for medical entrance examination.

"It was really a tough decision relocating far away to Mumbai, but then I realised that music was my real passion," he said.

Ravi started his career with the second season of Indian Idol and went on to lend his voice to Akshay Kumar in Bollywood film Chandni Chowk to China.

"I have sung in a number of tele serials including Ramayan, Shirdi Saibaba, Samandar and Aapa and even hosted as show Close Up Performer on DD national," he said.

"But getting a chance to perform in front of 50,000 plus crowd at the Asian Games countdown show with Jackie Chan as the chief guest was one big opportunity for me," he added.

His performance at Guangzhou opened gates of China for Ravi.

"Immediately after the show I got an offer from the Chinese government to perform in 15 shows in major cities of the country," Ravi said.

And since then there had been no looking back for the singer and till date Ravi had done nearly 50 shows in China.

"We have no major cultural ties with China, but you will be surprised to know that Raj Kapoor is a household name there and his Awara hoon is a popular song," he said.