Vijay TV's musical series on Yuvan Shankar Raja

Star’s Tamil offering Vijay TV will be airing a 4-week, 16 episode musical series on Yuvan Shankar Raja (Yuvan) as a run-up to a live concert in Chennai.  Each half-hour episode will be broadcast Monday to Thursday at 10.30 pm. Vijay TV will create and produce the series, a source from the channel told RnM. The concert is likely to be staged between the last week of December and the middle of January, and Vijay TV plans to start airing the Yuvan series four weeks before the concert date.

The musical series will revolve around Yuvan, popular music composer and son of the illustrious Illayaraja. It will cover his journey through the eyes of his friends, family and colleagues from the industry. The episodes will also feature the career ascent of Yuvan, as well as insights into his family which has its roots in the town of Pannaipuram. The theme of the ‘Yuvan Live  In Concert’ is ‘Celebrating music that’s young and fresh’.  Yuvan will also compose an album which would cater to the audiences across Tamil Nadu.  The album is likely to be released on the day of the concert.

The event promises to feature a galaxy of music and singing stars like Hariharan, Shreya Ghoshal, Shankar Mahadevan, Vijay Yesudas, Karthik and Haricharan, with Yuvan in the lead. A special segment named  ‘Band of Brothers’ would be staged in which, for the first time,  the entire family comprising Yuvan and his siblings Karthik Raja, Venkat Prabhu, Premji Amaren and Bhavatharini would perform. The highlight of the concert will be a segment, Unforgettable, for which Yuvan and the maestro – his father Illaiyaraja -- will perform together.  International dance acts are also a part of the concert. The channel plans to bring on board as many personalities as it can,  and has yet to announce the date.

A road show to promote Yuvan’s album has been planned. Yuvan would travel to Madurai and Coimbatore to promote the same apart from promoting it in Chennai. As is well known, Yuvan is an Indian Tamil film music and soundtrack composer, singer and occasional lyricist. He has scored music predominantly for Tamil and Telugu films. He has won two Filmfare Awards; the Best Music Director Award in 2004 for his score in the drama 7G Rainbow Colony at age 25 (the youngest winner of the award) and the Special Jury Award in 2009 for his Telugu musical Oy!  Besides, he received two nominations for Filmfare Awards, one Tamil Nadu State Film Award in 2006 and the Cyprus International Film Festival Award in 2006 for Raam, becoming the first and only Indian composer to win it.