Art & Entertainment

Cinderella Story

India's first all-girl band is in place, at last. Now the grooming for success.

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Cinderella Story
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It would have been a trifle humiliating if Afghanistan had got its first girl band before us. That could have happened because their school drop-out rate is high enough. But Channel V has saved us from such serious embarrassment. Out of over 6,000 girls who wanted to "give it all up" to become rich, famous and thin, they chose five at a ratio of one is to 1,200, more severe than IIT's.

On the way up to the 20th floor to meet the girls, things admittedly are a bit tense in the lift—what do you ask a girl band that you cannot ask a boy band? There is some research done on the qualitative dichotomy between the two species. Boy bands walk towards the camera in long black coats, maintaining distance X which is a constant between any two boys at any given point in a music video. Then they split. Girl bands move faster on desert terrains or regular streets, with the distance between the relevant individuals being always rendered a variable. Then they split.

That's a good line of questioning, it seems, when the lift door opens. Where is the band? Someone points to five girls sitting together, looking into the lens of a photographer who says, instead of cheese, "sing". And they sing. One of them is marginally annoyed, possibly because all day photographers and camera crew have asked them to sing to get "some attitude". But where is the first Indian girl band? Girls who are spelt with a Z at the end. The saucy, confused, sultry, sinful, cracked, cocaine-addicted girls who say, "we're on a trip, man". No such beings here. Those five look like people who can read and write. And they beam with an unconditional non-celebrity smile which they later confess to be "fake". They offer to give out, "the way we really laugh when cameras are not around". But that's nipped in the bud. They sit together in an almost straight line for yet another interview and look blank. Normally they wouldn't have spoken to some stray man with a black shoulder bag, whose friend points his Nikon at them and says, "sing". But maybe their contract asks them to be nice to the press. At this point in time they simply don't know the press. Their knowledge of how-to-keep-the-press-away is "calling the security guard". Their contract has some good parts too. A channel source had whispered earlier: "They are being paid about a lakh a month, for the next two years." The five girls continue the blank look, waiting for the first question, though by now they know all the answers. Almost.

"How do you feel about paying taxes?"

Pratichee Mohapatra, 24, from Mumbai is the only one who has earned a living before. She was a designer with Pantaloon. Says 18-year-old Anushka Manchanda, the tallest among the girls: "Wow, now I will actually be paying taxes". For a girl who till a few minutes ago was hanging outside a window and serenading a shy TV crew member, "saamne wali kidhki mein ek suar ka baccha rahta hai", Yashwant Sinha may not loom large. No rebate anymore under section 88, women.

But somehow 'section 88' doesn't fit into the colour and happiness in the room. So next question.

Do you get along with each other? They look fleetingly at some adults for help but soon start talking, all at the same time.

"Oh yes we do". "We all have different voices but when we sing, we sound like one". "None of us is dominating". "We are all headstrong people, so none of us can dominate the other".

A "positive attitude" was among the things the jury was looking for, apart from looks, dancing skills, and, of course, ability to sing when they were wading through the many girls. Music director Sandeep Chowta, singer Shubha Mudgal and designer Manish Malhotra were among those who short-listed 24 from the 6,000. Shobha De spoke to the finalists to understand what kind of girls they were.Shiamak Davar checked if they could dance. Seymour Steines, the man who, a channel official points out, "found Madonna" though it's not clear where, too was involved in the process. The jury members went to most homes of the finalists to give them the news of their success or failure, all in front of the camera. The lenses have followed the five girls into the commodious 20th floor Mumbai penthouse, a magnanimous accommodation which someone hints "may get smaller after a few weeks".

The girls have been taped so extensively that they feel something is wrong if the wires aren't around. "It's like the Truman Show," says the 19-year-old from Delhi, Neha Bhasin, who used to be a second year Sociology student. The band, which Channel V says has not been named yet, has already recorded four songs for an album that will eventually have eight Hindi songs. To be released in mid-May, the album will decide whether girl bands will flood our tubes or not. The songs have been composed by eight different music directors, with Javed Akhtar writing all the lyrics. "I was very sceptical when I was first approached," he says. "To me Hindi pop was basically something that was done by bad bathroom singers. But when I saw these girls, I was pleasantly surprised at their talent and attitude. I think they will succeed. I hope they succeed." Akhtar's lyrics hope to help Hindi pop "get real". Women today, he says, have changed from the times when they lived to play roles. "The songs will address the new morality of the Indian woman, the new attitude, the new ambition."

By the end of this month, the girls will perform at what are called "media concerts" in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune. Before that they are "getting ready". Among the first indicators are random notes stuck on their refrigerator. "Breakfast: 1 juice+tomatoes+1 carrot". Anjali Mukherjee is helping some of them slim down. Someone else is taking them to Regent Hotel to work out. Shiamak Davar and his disciples are making them dance. Mahua Kamat, all of 19, is sitting in a corner with two slices of apple, murmuring, "I will be dead at the end of it." A trendy lady is looking unhappily at 22-year-old Seema Ramchandani who is in grey trousers: "You have to change your trousers dear. They don't go with your footwear. It doesn't look pop-starrish. You know what I mean." Seema doesn't, but nods. For the record, Seema doesn't change her grey trousers.

The girls are still being groomed, to be the first Indian girl band. And their parents are all proud of them.

What about your men? How have your men, who, the guess is, are simple boys, reacted?

"We don't answer such questions," Anushka says and the rest giggle. This is not a garden variety girl band. This is a bunch of girls-next-door one would find some excuse to borrow pepper from. At an average age of 20.6, they are very young unless they want to become Jedi masters, which they certainly don't hope to. There is something about this happy crowd that makes one pray softly that they make it, that they stay together, that next time they give good copy.

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