'The Dewarists' to make a musical return

If you’ve been kvetching about the lack of good music on TV, cheer up! The Cannes Lions award-winning, music travelogue show, The Dewarists — a Dewar's initiative, is back with the second season, and yet again, with an impressive new set of global musicians including Bollywood composer duo Salim-Sulaiman, Pakistani singer Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan, singer-songwriter Fink, Grammy award-winning sitar player Anoushka Shankar, percussionist Trilok Gurtu, and electro-rock-funk duo Shaa’ir + Func.

Starting on Star World October 28, the show will be hosted by singer-actor Monica Dogra, once again. “I think we’re going to more challenging locations. Also, we’re being a bit more courageous with the collaborations. I feel that many of the episodes this year are truly unchartered terrain, in terms of the coupling of artists… the results that lie therein are spectacular,” elaborates Monica. Says Manish Seth, Bacardi India, that the show started “as a movement recognising and celebrating individuals who have changed the rules of the game.” The show was  the first Indian show to be simulcast on YouTube.

The second season will also feature folk musicians La Pongal (Chennai), rock band Thermal and a Quarter (Bangalore), flautist Ashwin Srinivasan (Mumbai), Dualist Inquriy (New Delhi), electronica act Asian Dub Foundation (London), rapper and poet Akala (London), hip-hop DJ/producer Brooklyn Shanti (New York), bass heavy electronic artist Nucleya (New Delhi), singer-songwriter Mou Sultana (Kolkata/Dublin), folktronica duo Hari & Sukhmani (Chandigarh/New Delhi), experimental jazz duo Adil and Vasundhara (New Delhi), lyricist, actor and director Piyush Mishra (Mumbai) and folk musician Akhu (Imphal).

“To put Salim-Sulaiman in with Fink is a really bizarre combination, but that was the challenge,” says Fink about the collaboration. “It wasn’t all easy, and it wasn’t all fun, some of it was really challenging, but the great thing is that we all love music.” Salim, however, was quite stunned to have done the collaboration song in “just a few hours”. “

It’s a fabulous idea for a TV show to have two/three musicians collaborate, and to film that experience. We had to create a song on such short timelines, and it went through such insane changes… it was unbelievably amazing,” says Salim.