MUMBAI: Its 'Shakalaka baby' time on Star Vijay this Sunday 18 May at 5 pm. Star's 'south' regional channel will be airing music maestro A R Rahman's first ever concert in his home town Chennai -Unity of Light.
Besides the performance by AR Rahman, the concert held earlier on 21 February 2003, also showcased the performances of popular playback singers SP. Balasubramaniam, S. Janaki, Hariharan, Chitra, Shankar Mahadevan, Sukhwinder Singh, Srinivas Sadhana Sargam, Mahalakshmi, Anupama, Vassundra Das and Karthik, says a Star Vijay release.
With the unplugged receiving overwhelming response, the channel will be airing that show in a two part series- first on 18 May and second on the subsequent Sunday 25 May.
The concert that was organised on 120 ft x 60 ft stage specially designed by Canadian designers and accompanied by 60,000 watts was attended by more than 35,000 fans. During the musical evening, several songs from Rahman's past projects like Roja, Bombay, Dil Se were performed but the highlight of the show was song to which Rahman lent his vocals, adds the release.
According to the release, Rahman performed for this concert to fulfill a friend’s last wish to raise funds for the Mahesh Memorial Trust. The money generated was donated for noble cause of pediatric cancer care in the state.
While it is the first time that Rahman's show is being aired, the channel had begun airing special events like Netru Indru Naalai - a song-n-dance extravaganza in January 2003. The event held on 14 December 2002 had leading actors like Kamal Hassan, Simran and Rambha performed for the four hour event that drew a 25,000 strong audience.