Voice of Punjab

Voice of Punjab talent Hunt is a high decibel exercise and invites entries from nook & corners of Punjab and Haryana with centralized auditions in 9 major cities of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Faridkot, Bathinda, Sangrur, Patiala, Karnal and Chandigarh. The winners one Boy & one Girl get a chance to record a Music Album. Rajiee M Shinde (COO - PTC Network) talks to GR8! About Voice Of Punjab, season 3 in this exclusive interview. She also shares her views on the new column of GR8! On Regional TV.

Voice of Punjab is back with a bang. Comment.

It’s been an eventful journey of 3 years. Punjab no doubt has a rich talent pool of Punjabi Singers who take pride in singing in their mother tongue. Back in 2010, when we had launched Voice of Punjab, we were very sure of this talent potential and immense scope for programming software that could be generated if this talent was given a platform at the Regional level. Three years and we stand amazed at the kind of talent that has emerged out of this exercise. In terms of viewership, Voice of Punjab Season 2 was the highest rated Punjabi Reality Show that Punjabi television has seen so far. With Season 3, we wish to grow to even greater levels of viewer appeal.

What is the USP of Voice of Punjab?

They say in Punjab every second born is a singer. Blessed with amazing voice, many talented Punjabi singers aspire to reach the pinnacle of vocal recognition. Through Voice of Punjab, every year PTC Punjabi provides a unique platform to aspirants to compete and show their mettle to the entire world. The best of Punjabi Music Industry judges these contestants and hones their aptitude towards mainstream career making in singing. While there have been other attempts at Singing Talent Hunt Shows by other Punjabi channels, the USP of Voice of Punjab is its ability to recognize and groom the correct talent. Our winners have been recognized by the Punjabi Music Industry and Albums have been released for them. They today have full-fledged Singing careers ahead of them.

Reality shows are popular and high on TRP's on Hindi GEC channels, is it the same case with Regional channels?

In today’s date and time, Regional Punjabi Genre has become synonymous with Reality Shows culminating in Grand Finale Events, Award Shows, Punjabi Music and Punjabi Films. When conceptualizing a reality Show for the Regional Punjabi Market, the idea is to remain within the cultural purview of Punjabi sensibilities and yet create a world class product. The idea is also to bind with the audiences on ground and build a strong Brand presence with the viewer, again and again, year after year. PTC Punjabi is the flag bearer and initiator of such high quality TV software as far as Punjabi Channels are concerned. Grand Finales of these shows are conducted with the best of judges, Bollywood and Punjabi celebrities and telecast LIVE on our channels. With great pride I can state that despite being a Regional channel, we have had performances during our events by renowned celebrities like Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Chitrangada Singh, Anushka Sharma, Ritesh Deshmukh, Genelia, Ali Zafar, Aditi Rao, Sameera Reddy, Yana Gupta, Tusshar Kapoor, Isha Koppikar, Hard Kaur, and many more. Our events have been graced by celebrities like Anupam Kher, Raza Murad, Prem Chopra, Anita Raj, Kiran Kher, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Archana Puran Singh, Gulshan Grover, Sonu Sood, and many others. Needless to mention the biggest of Punjabi Artists like Gurdas Mann, Jazzy B, Diljit, Gippy Grewal, Mika, Sartaj, Harbhajan Mann, Satinder Sartaj, Miss Pooja and others have graced our events in the past.

What are the kind of reality shows that you want to see on your channel?

We already have a Singing Talent Hunt Show, a Laughter/Stand Up talent Hunt Show( Laughter Da Master) and a Beauty & Talent Hunt (Miss PTC Punjabi) Show on our channel PTC Punjabi since many years now. Besides this, we also felicitate the work done by Punjabi Film & Music Industry by the way of PTC Punjabi Film Awards & PTC Punjabi Music Awards conducted every year. We are groping with other ideas regarding Reality Shows and the theme will be revealed soon. We will very soon be telecasting Blockbuster English Films dubbed in Punjabi, on our channels.

GR8! TV Magazine for the first time ever has initiated with a separate column for Regional Channels and Regional shows. Comment.

It is indeed a noteworthy effort by the Gr8! Magazine to initiate such a column. In my opinion, the time has actually arrived for Regional Television. Regional channels are brimming with Activity and audiences love the high quality content being delivered to them in their own mother tongue. The success of Southern channels is in any case a point. In Hindi Speaking Markets, Marathi, Bengali and Bhojpuri clearly stand out. For Punjabi it is still a long journey before we become a preferred language of viewing in our core market, but we are on our way.

- Dharmishtha Dagia