Plans to start India music awards

By Prachi Pinglay
BBC News, Mumbai

Bollywood music accounts for 72% of music sales in India

A group of four music lovers have come together in India to start an award ceremony similar to the Grammys.

The Indian Music Awards will have several categories and recognise all genres, one of the promoters Pranay Anthwal said.

India has a vast range of music like Sufi, Carnatic, folk music from the hills and Rabindra Sangeet.

The most popular, however, is Bollywood film music which accounts for 72% of music sales in the country.

"Everyone is doing their bit in each genre but we felt there needed to be a platform for non-film music," Mr Anthwal said.

Together with Jatish Varma, Sameer Dixit and the UK-based Shokat Babul, Mr Anthwal formed Hub Entertainment to start awards dedicated to music.

Award nominations and partners of the project are likely to be unveiled early next year. Organisers that the new ceremony will contain aspects similar to Western musical award ceremonies.

"We all work in related industries and have interacted professionally. We started thinking about this in August," Mr Anthwal told the BBC.

"Despite India being so rich in music there are no music awards, except for the MTV music awards which have been discontinued. Music is only a part of any film award - say a category among many others."

The team has done a lot of research, including studying the Grammy awards.

"We have met several organisations who have been working in a particular genre for years together and with their help we will set up the categories and nominations."

Hub Entertainment plans to tie up with rock groups nationally and internationally for the event, which is scheduled to be held at the end of February.