thiruvasakam in symphony

[Oldposts]

Topic started by Sridhar Seetharaman (sridhar_ms@yahoo.com) (@ 67.83.146.59) on Mon Apr 7 15:33:24 EDT 2003.


http://www.thiruvasakaminsymphony.com/v_eng.htm#8a

[Oldposts]

Old responses (http://tfmpage.com/forum/22211.345.15.33.24.html)

[Oldposts]

tee,

what are you trying to say with your pea-brain?!

[Oldposts]

For ppl with microscopic grey matter content, things that are as humungus as pea remain insurmountable!!!
pun intended! offense unintended!!

Thanks,
Jaiganesh.
http://silencerocks.blogspot.com

[Oldposts]

Dear SSSSAV,

Just look at the acrimonious language directed at the TIO Project Team in the recent postings. I do not think that you people deserve this. But why has matters come to such a state.

I think the impatient hard core IR Fans have become angered not by the long wait but more by the lack of news on the status or progress of the TIO release. Some of these fans, lacking the discipline to keep their emotions in check just let fly to give vent to their frustrations.

Some updates might have averted such postings. Even if you are not able to give definite dates, at least some information on what is happening on the matter of TIO release might have helped. It is understandable if you are not able to give regular updates, some information now and then rather than being silent and watching the heated debate from the sidelines would be better. Lack of information would lead people to speculate and come up with unreasonable scenarios and unfounded conclusions.

Dear IR Fans,
All of us have waited a long time for this momentous event. the release of TIO. Some of us or may be most of us may have become impatient and frustrated by the long wait. The silence of the TIO Project Team may have added on to our frustration. The silence should not be construed as some misdeed on their part. The wild and unsubstantiated accusations against them is uncalled for and very unfair. These people have taken on a thankless job, for which they are not paid. All for the love of IR, his music and Tamil. Please do not use their shortcomings as an excuse to run them down. This will only serve to demoralise the team and might even prevent them from giving off their best for the success of the TIO release. This should not be allowed to happen now We must not falter for we are at the finishing line.

They have their constraints, they have to balance work and family life and still find time to volunteer for the TIO Project Then there is the additional task of coordinating with the team in India before any information can be posted.
So IR Fans, let us not fire from the hip but be mature enough to be patient, understanding and appreciative of the TIO Project Team.

Please refrain from using base language to air your feelings on THIRUVASAKAM IN SYMPHONY, it is HOLY. Thank you.

[Oldposts]

Hi All!
I agree with every word of G's post!
TiSO is a lifetime work by IIR in his own words("Idharkaagathaan naan pirandhen!"). It is not a typical cinema album. In fact even some cinema track albums take over a year to complete. Comparing that the time taken by TiSO team and IR is worth every micrsecond in GOLD. Let us not bring down the decorum of this forum by airing irresponsible and acerbic critiques. Let us pray to the force divine that the stone melting lyrics are tuned to perfection by IR.

Thanks,
Jaiganesh

[Oldposts]

JaiGanesh and G you couldn't have put it better.
I would rather wait for a refined product than a shoddy work done in haste. Definitely the post roduction work after NOV 10TH final recording needs adequate time

[Oldposts]

G????

"for which they are not paid"

So says you and which fool is to believe. At the look of it there are many in this forum who might fall for it......

[Oldposts]

G,
Very well said. Thank you.

Most of us know the regular/genuine dfers here. And then, there are few atrocious postings from guests (sample KK's above) trying to have some fun that should be, at best, ignored!

Rather than wanting to hear regular updates that things are in progress, I would prefer all silence now to hear the final announcement about the release of this spectacular musical creation, which for sure will happen very soon (probably, in the beginning of the New Year!).

I think people who are not doing the work at this point, WE, should behave as what we can at best be - good spectators:-) Let us just behave like one and wish the TiS team the very best. All IMHO.

[Oldposts]

isaiosai,
"Rather than wanting to hear regular updates that things are in progress, I would prefer all silence now to hear the final announcement about the release of this spectacular musical creation, which for sure will happen very soon "

yes sir, like waiting for the 'symphony'...

[Oldposts]

Hmm!
Few points to ponder..
1. Symphony was done as a pure IR project. There was no Tamil maiyyam behind IR's symphony.
2. John Scott, the conductor of Symphony #1 has said that IR did not want to release Symphony because of criticisms of some mindless critic who could not understand new ideas of IR.
3. On the other hand TiSO is a project which IR does, but not for himself , but for Tamil Maiyyam. If critics in the west do not like it, I guess Tamil Maiyyam won't bother and still go ahead with its release in Asia(in worst case scenario in South Asia atleast).

Theses are my thoughts alone. I would be glad if SSSAV and team would clarify and assure that in 1. no case TiSO can be equated to a Symphony
2. Its release is not dependant upon some certificate from any critic from the west who has no understanding of Indian Musical Moorings.

I think that alone can stop people who are chewing this issue by posting highly demoralising (atleast for me!) posts.

Thanks,
Jaiganesh
http://silencerocks.blogspot.com

[Oldposts]

Oops, I got a bit emotional and my spelling and formatting in the previous post has gone haywire. I request people to bear with the errors , but consider the content.
Thanks,
Jaiganesh
http://silencerocks.blogspot.com

[Oldposts]

Jaiganesh has hit the bull's eye!!
TiO[TiS] is OUR project!
As we had said in an earlier posting, no force on earth can stop it from reaching the mass who have funded it!
The logistics are taking more than its due!
The final product is in IIr's hands and he is very particular that this should reach the people for whom it is intended asap and to be precise, by Jan 14th!!
Please bear with us and we are doing everything we can humanly possible to get this done.
Will soon meet with you all here with the happy announcement very shortly.
Till then, please be patient!
We know that this is not going to satisfy you but this is all we can say now.
'kaalam oru naal[J14] maaRum
nam kavalaikaL yaavum thherum!!'
YIA!!

[Oldposts]

Thanks for the update SSSSAV.

Please don't be discouraged by the vociferous few.

[Oldposts]

There is also a message from fr. Jegath which has since been updated at http://www.tis-usa.com. Pl. check that out!
YIA!!

[Oldposts]

Friends and fellow Raaja devotees, I would like you to visit http://geocities.com/petta_pistha/ and listen to the 4 Jhonny BGMS I have posted and comment on them. Thanks

[Oldposts]

SSSAV ,
I cannot but appreciate teh efforts of TIS team !!!!

[Oldposts]

Hi All!
Thanks to TiSO team for allaying my fears on the project. On the other hand, the marketing challenge that Father is mentioning is indeed a monumental one. I suggest that we should take this matter to influential political leaders who are publicly posturing to support Thamizh arts and culture!! I guess, if this project can be brought before their eye, definitely something might happen. With their connections and support base, they can push this project to fruition, provided they really care for Thamizh and its globalization. If someone from this thread knows email IDs of political parties in TN, please provide, we can mail them and inform them about this. It is an ideal opportunity to come together as Thamizh music fans!!

Thanks,
Jaiganesh
http://silencerocks.blogspot.com

[Oldposts]

Jaiganesh, you are the best in this forum!

Can't but help join and shower praise on you for your dedication and unbounded enthusiasm for the project. I thought almost all IR fans are in their mid 30s to late 50s in this forum, but you are in your mid 20s and it means IR has such a growing effect on the young minds. This is proof for TiO or TbI to just DO IT! what i mean is, forget politicians and other entities. Everything is a balanced approach. Too much dependence on outside forces weakens the objectives. TbI will find its way into the public eventually, and fans like you and me who are in the enlightened league of music fans will be the driving force.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year to one and all. See you all by Pongal!!!

[Oldposts]

SSSSAV - why only SONY, UNIVERSAL and HMV - why not TIME-WARNER ? has that option been tried out ?

besides, has the TiS team tried out Mr.Kavichandran Alexander (KA) of Waterlily Acoustics, San Diego ? someone like KA will have contacts and will surely help

since time is now a constraint, please try every option possible

I am thinking with my feet firmly on the ground

[Oldposts]

Now it is only more clear why such a delay in the release. These fellows are only talking big money, and money is the only concern. Nothing noble or selfless as Jageth and the gang have potraited to be to this forum.

[Oldposts]

They for one thing do not have the confidence that it will be commercially viable, that is why they are looking for a big scapegoat to take the risk upfront and themselves to make all their profits upfront. What is so different about these people compared to any other producers, who simply come into any project like vultures for the only sake of making money. Please don't come here and talk like saints, who have devoted your life to this project without any expectations!!!!!

[Oldposts]

When a dog barks at you, I do not think rational explanation will do anything to lessen its barking. The wiser approach will be to ignore it.

[Oldposts]

KK,

They are not talking about profits. They just want to offset the loans they had on them. That too, for a person like Father Jegannath, $100000 is too much of a money, I believe.

They have rendered their attention and services for free for almost an year(or may be more). Is that not a selfless investment by itself.

Regarding commercial confidence, for a noble project like that, we never know. For a spiritual project like this, there is only 50% chance to be commercial blockbuster.(Who thought Passion of Christ will make so much money in this era?).

I think for all this, they deserve some respect and what they did in my opinion is saintly.

[Oldposts]

guys--

one thing that amazes me, is just because IR has been associated with this project - it has assumed some great moral, altruistic cause.

Agreed, it is great that an obscure classic is being brought to the public's notice and IR having a reputation of being absolutely creative, that does not give any higher moral character to the people who have `chosen' to manage this project.

A lot of money has been donated by well meaning people (I havent- for the simple reason that the way this project has been advertised and managed), when genuine questions are asked, sometimes they are given some kind of sermon or how someone had gotten ill, lost the mortgage on a house, A well audited and documented response will make some sense.

Creating a website and setting up the sales of TIS should intially be enough, by word of mouth and if the product is mind blowing - then sales will pick up.

I get the feeling that when everything is ready (post production), the real story will emerge.

IR - Please prove me wrong.

[Oldposts]

raja m -
You had doubts with their methods and hence not contributed. Fine.

Why then this vimarsanam? And why this advice that it's enough to sell thru website - what right you've got to tell them?

uzhaikkavumillai, panam kodukkavumillai - pinna enna pechu vendi kedakku? If anything, you can criticize them only when you PAY AND BUY the product...till then umakkuppesa arugathai illai...

[Oldposts]

mr. oodubakthi..

I have all the right to be incensed. No one has any moral right to do all the advertisement in a website for film music (as against this holistic task). All and sundry are giving their inputs, probably you are so `incensed' because now you have doubts.. Pechu is free brother - I will continue to blabber whenever I want - I am sure I bring some good results to the post.

You cannot tell me about arugadhai - shove it..

[Oldposts]

"No one has any moral right to do all the advertisement in a website for film music (as against this holistic task)" is not for you to decide. It's for the admin to have it or not. If they found it inappropriate, they would've deleted long back.

Hmmmmm...

`matran manaivi azhagillai' endru chappukkottikittu pesara type alukalidam morality / logic pesuvadhu en madaththanam...bye!

[Oldposts]

incensed:

If I had mentioned that I too have contributed then probably you would have told me, ..please be patient..you will be rewarded.. TIA...etc..etc..

my suggestion was this need not be so complicated, now that the symphony has been produced at a top notch professional setup-IR or his managers need to get some professional to do the marketing..

FYI I am a fan of IR and have enjoyed his output for years, I dont know or care who you are, am not interested in googling who incensed is with his/her ip address - come out and type in your real name.
My point is just because maybe `you' have contributed to the project (with or without the understanding) that you will receive a copy of the recording -that does not give you any bloody right to criticize me, you dont have any idea about me, how much I spend on music etc.

As Mike Myers says `ZIP it'.

[Oldposts]

incensed:

Maatran Manaivi azhaga illai asimgama - I dont discuss such stupid topics - please watch the swan in case you have cable ( I have cable dont watch the program). This is a forum where TFM is discussed, thiruvasagam is neither film nor commercial - If you have been visiting this forum for some time - may be you have an idea of where I am coming from, so please come down from the self appointed pulpit you are sitting on.

Only time will tell what IR fans get out of this deal.. I hope to `buy' the CD - whenever it is released.

[Oldposts]

"This is a forum where TFM is discussed, thiruvasagam is neither film nor commercial "

Raja,

You're absolutely right. This thread has no place in this forum. I'm surprised it took you over one year to figure that out.

Anyway, better late than never. Please abandon this thread and never post in it again. May be you can also send a note to admin and ask them to close it down.

Thanks for the enlightenment

[Oldposts]

We invite 'Raja M and DHG' to visit the first page of this forum and look at the top right corner and tell us if that is TFM?
Why don't these stalwarts leave it to the admin, [who is a capble man on these issues,] to decide what is worthy and what is not, instead of trying to be the 'Mr. Know-it-all'!!
IIR belongs to TFM and his fans are from TFM and the admin sees this as appropriate to keep IIR's fans updated on this monumental project by a TFM stalwart[IIR]. Why don't you all just keep quiet ?!
Of course, you have already said, "Pechu is free brother - I will continue to BLABBER whenever I want -" !! Go ahead; and be our guest!!
YIA!!

[Oldposts]

SSSSAV, I think you missed the sarcasm in DHG's post...He is with your cause and not otherwise, IMHO...

YIA'nna ennanga? Is it 'yellam iraivan arul'?:-)

[Oldposts]

SSSSAV:

Please be more truthful,everyone knows that only this forum has provided you a donation pudhayal. It is the goodwill of music fans of IR of tfmpage that has given you a boost. Spare us the bs. Since you have been collecting a lot of money, you have a responsibility to answer- you cannot decide who can question you. This is public forum - try to understand - try you can .. Since blabbering is the required format in this thread -I mentioned the SOP for posting in this thread.



Dushyanth: I dont believe in enlightening you or your kind - if you cannot understand what is being said here, well go ahead with your `blissful' state.

I am not a know-all, just one who is genuinely interested in stopping dr.SSSSAV from pulpit preaching (thankfully Fr.Jegath has not stepped to this plate) from taking a higher moral stand - there is no mention how much public donation is being spent on a `morally higher' project.

[Oldposts]

mnt :-)

[Oldposts]

As someone who contributed US $500. I am writing this:

The organizers of this project did not promise that a product would be done at a particular time or anything when they made the request for donations.

I made the contribution on my own free will based on my admiration of IR and have been particulary impressed at the updates provided by the TIO team.

I am in Marketing myself and I understand the time it takes from completion of product to launch and the time taken in this instance is not anything more than normal.

The best approach to the people who have taken this shameful approach of defaming anything by IR purely driven by thier obsession to discredit IR or envy is to plainly ignore them. Rationale explanation to thir postings will have no value as the objective of thier postings seem to be spite.

[Oldposts]

// Please be more truthful,everyone knows that only this forum has provided you a donation pudhayal. //

on what basis do you say this ??

[Oldposts]

tee,

On the basis that your kottaai is too large for your pants.....

[Oldposts]

G and Jaiganesh - the peacemakers - Help!

[Oldposts]

hmm!!
Ennaannu solluven enge poi solluven!!
Pleez! As I have said earlier, let us be patient. Dear K.K.(U posted as tee tee ) and dear tee! agreed that we have difference of opinion amongst us, but that should not be miscontrued as a license to unbridled attack either in favour or against this project and its executors. This work is by saint Manikkavasagar and the words in thiruvasagam are ethereal and transcendental in nature. giving benefit of doubt to Mr. Raja M 's arguments, we will still have to decide to wait for the release hopefully. When the whole village (tamil maiyyam and team and enthusiasts) is pulling the charriot , if there is a small stone hindering, it is very natural for people to get irritated. That should not mean that people should start swearing at each other. I ask for friends like Raja m , KK and others, to be patient. If this project succeeds(In my opinion it will!), then you will be forced to eat a humble pie for having cast aspersions on a sincere bunch of people. How do I know that these people (Tamil Maiyyam) are sincere? Well, if someone like IR is putting his entire career and reputation on line and doing something , then the intentions of these people must be honourable. Let us hope that "the omniscient one" whose praise Saint Manicca vaasagar sang so eloquently will guide us and the tamil maiyyam to success. Also I would like people to remember that success of this project is a better visiting card that thamizh people can give to the rest of the world. Keeping all this in mind, let us wish IR and thamizh maiyyam team all the best. For those who support this project, it is better to ignore indecent remarks and baseless allegations than to answer them wasting your precious time.

Thanks,
Jaiganesh
http://silencerocks.blogspot.com

[Oldposts]

"Since you have been collecting a lot of money, you have a responsibility to answer- you cannot decide who can question you."

The Government of Canada collects money from it's citizens. But ONLY Canadians are allowed to question the government on how it is spent - not the Americans, Indians, or anyone else. ie: Only those who contribute can question how it is spent.

So Raja, by your own admission, you are not a Canadian:-)

SSSSAV, Same side goal?? :-)

[Oldposts]

Jaiganesh:

I am with you - hope everything works out well for all. I hope to hear the music and enjoy IR's talent. Peace..

MNT/DHG - I am not a canadian - even though I love Canada. So I didnt score a same side goal. :-)

Om shanti shanti shanti

[Oldposts]

Dear IR Fans,

We have waited long for TIO. Now the date by which TIO is going to be released has been given. However impatient or frustrated we may be are we not mature and graceful enough to hold the peace and give the TIO Project Team another three weeks after having waited more than a year if I am not wrong. I am sure we can do that.

Let us not be vulgar, spiteful, boastful and “cast aspersions on a sincere bunch of people” as Jaiganesh aptly put it, in our postings. Its not going to help in any way. The result will be all things negative. It will just hurt, sap our energy and resources. Must we hurt others to make known our impatience and frustration.

Thoughts find expression in words and words give rise to thoughts, Vulgar thoughts and words will feed on each other and will keep escalating to become all consuming unless we discipline ourselves to avoid it. Embracing vulgarity is a reflection of bad taste and character. Finally, when everything is over it will leave a bitter aftertaste.

As I said earlier base language denigrates the sanctity of the subject at hand, THIRUVASAKAM.

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.

Thank you
<a name="last"></a>

[mohan02]

Look at the pathetic state of this forum now. Silence for such prolonged period of time only frustrates fans like us. They don't seem to care about our concerns and eagerness towards the release of TIO. What does this show??????

[natha1729]

Hello, my friends at the new Tfmpage. Happy New Year to one and all. I want to start this year with Prayers for the souls of all victims of the recent Tsunami tragedy.

I am also praying for all people to realize that we all need to be ACCEPTING AND EMBRACING of all people in all their differences and problems. If this approach is adopted universally, we can find peace and happiness of all mankind. Selfishness, Rejection, Anger and Self-destructive behavior must be treated, and it can happen only each of us care for the other with lesser fortunes and deep personal problems that can be cured by understanding friends together. So, long live friendships and let us all work on this together whenever and wherever.

My feeling for this Jan 2005 is Tiruvacagam by Ilaiyaraaja will bring the much needed reason for people to find a sense of joy and togetherness amidst the unexpected by may be long overude wake-up call God in the recent Tsunami incident. I like the date Jan 17, and also it is good to know PadmaShri Kamalahaasan is being conferred doctorate.

Embracingly,



Nithin

[natha1729]

By "Embracingly", I was also influenced by my need to embrace every other composer, especially HCIRFs must welcome any music from A R Rahman and other artistes. I am most willing to "Embrace" Mr. Rahman' music, and not condemn it whenever I am not satisified with the output.

Good luck ARR and all aspiring music composers in the new year.

Welcomingly yours ;-)

[kannansanderson]

The TIs Team

Any luck with your hunt for a label willing to give a downpayment to meet up all your loans?

Where are you guys in your release road map?

Kannan Sanderson

[zz]

Why No reply for Kannan ?

[TISK]

When Rome was burning, Nero, its King, was playing the fiddle, according to the legends.
We can underestand your anxiety in getting to hear the sweet music of IIR in TiO but you should also be aware of the crude fact of Tsunami hitting the entire coast of Tamilnadu and Fr. jegath, who was in Nagerkoil, escaped miraculously as he had just left the town and went inland to be with his family in the same district. And, you all know that Kanyakumari was one of the districts affected severely by this Tsunai.
He told me that he rushed immediately to the shores and himself personally extracted 57 bodies among the dead and engaged in relief operations. He has since returned to Chennai and has promised me that an important decision over the release will be made in the next couple of days after consulting with IIR.
One must understand that the HCRF's will definitely buy the album at any time but the general public may not be doing so in this time of great disaster. That does not mean that the release is going to be postponed but we are considering the various ways to satisfy everything. Please be patient and Fr. Jegath will make an announcement shortly. We hope that you understand.
In the meantime, see how you can help our brothers and sisters suffering in our state. Thanks.
YIA !!

anbudan,
SSSSAV

[mohan02]

Great, finally just as I was guessing our guys have found a great excuse to give for the delay. Thanks to Tsunami. This will probably be the only audio release delayed due to Tsunami. What has all this got to do with it I wonder. Movies are released and doing great business all over. Everything else is getting on as usual. Our fellows here on the other hand are using that as an excuse...pathetic really. If anything this is the best time to release the audio as it might bring relief and joy to many affected hearts and souls all over the world...Common fellows enough of your crap truly......!!!!

[TISK]

So long as you have this mindset of equating this with any other movie albums, there is no point of talking sense into you.
You exactly fit in with what we had mentioned in the first line of our posting.
Enough said!
YIA!!

[kannansanderson]

SK

Will you stop this crap of "holier than you" bombastic statements about this alubm.....as if it is Lord Shiva directly in communion with the masses?

If anybody who asks you questions is a Nero, then what should we call Mr. Ilaiyaraaja? Who is at present busy executing his next project with his favourite (not necessarily the world's) orchestra? I understand he is there now to record two songs for Kamal's Mumbai Express.

Will some one at least tell Mr. Ilaiyaraaja that all the film projects he has done with this orchestra so far have become huge bombs?

KS

[krish244]

Have you guys noticed (came on MTV/Channel V, SS Music) the remix version of "Inji Iduppazhaga" song by singer Smitha (Pop singer??). No idea about the other songs in this album, but two things surprised me:

1) Song picturisation
2) "SONY BMG" has released the album!!

Krishnan

[saisat]

Krishnan,

Knowing abt Sony they would contend that it is a remix version of "payaliya chunmun" from Virasat by Anu Malik.


Sai

[irfansong]

Dear Friends,

I don't understand one logic. Let it be a South Indian Album or Indian Album, the composer is the great IR. He is celebrated throught the world. Why Sony is not willing to sponsor? That too, the album is not any ordinary cinema or local album. It is an International Symphonic composition. That should have its own value. Right?

I'm very frustrated. I understand that you cannot enjoy the music when a tragedy had happened. However, you may dedicate the Album to those who lost their lives in the Tsunami.

If u guys feel the same, please share it with everyone in the Forum..

:cry: :roll:

[krish244]

Saisat,

The entire song is in tamil, not in Hindi. Lyrics are same (as much as I have heard). Neverthless, I would say people who do not know the fact that its IR's tune will say that Anu maliks tune has been remixed and tamil lyrics has been inserted :-)

Anyway, the point I was concerned is that its SONY BMG label! Either some amount of influence has made SONY BMG to release in their label or they must have thought that its a "REMIX", so it would certainly make some moderate business!! Also, I dont know if other songs in this album are remix aswell and if they are in tamil!

As everyone here, I am eagerly waiting for the release of TBI.

Thanks

Krishnan

[jaiganes]

Hi all!
Was casually browsing and came across the good news regarding TiO. Please visit the http://www.tis-usa.com/ for the latest. The profits of TiO sales to go to Tsunami relief funds. Looking forward to the formal announcement after pongal!! Hope that this pongal will ring in sweet sound of IR and TiO.
:( :arrow: :D

[Vkrish]

Thiruvasakam
A great historic work by Saint Manickavasagar in musical fusion.
Synthesising ideas from both Indian & Western classical traditions.
Coordinated by Tamil Maiyam a registered non-profit tax-exempt organization.
Committed to bring out high quality productions in Tamil art, culture and literature. Composed by (our) very talented Maestro IR.
Involving more than 200 musicians from different parts of the world.
Conducted by Laszlo Kovacs of Miskolc Symphony Orchestra, a professional Hungarian full orchestra.
English translation done by Mr. Stephen Schwartz, Oscar award winning lyricist.
Great sound engineering works by Richard King, the 2004 Grammy winner.
Multi lingual Chorus mixings at bombay & chennai.
Negotiation process on with international companies like Sony, HMV and Universal.
Planned for a grand release in presense of Dr.Abdul kalam.
Dedication of all the PROFITS for Tsunami victims …

Ok…Sounds really Great. We are all aware of this.
The final product is ready for a grand marketing.
Thanks to the TIS team for taking all efforts to make it memorable.

But, still I have TWO Basic questions haunting right from the beginning.

1. Are majority of the music lovers in TN and other parts of India, Malaysia, Singapore etc, aware of such a project going on?
2. Is there sufficient advertisements in the Media for the TiO Project, by way of short TV clipping or Programs such as ‘The making of Tbo’, or any interviews with the personities involved etc in the Media?

The bitter truth is NO. The project is getting delayed for release. This Short time can be well utilized for generating an awareness among the public.

Can anybody help?

[rajdes]

"Dedication of all the PROFITS for Tsunami victims …"
Now, thats worrying. I thought the profits were for setting up music colleges(or something on that lines) in Tamilnadu and Sri Lanka?

[TISK]

Thank you, Jaiganes !
YIA!!

[TISK]

"TISK" aka "SSSSAV" !!
YIA!!

[app_engine]

rajdes,
Why it should be worrying? Don't you feel wiping out the tears of someone / helping someone to make a living is more important than setting up institutions of art (essentially for pleasure purposes)...when the project started, there were no Tsunami victims...Now there are...and one should welcome this change!

[RC]

Kumudam cinema issue dated the 15-1-2005 has published an interview with Fr. Jagath talking about Tiruvaasagam Project.

[mohan02]

In Singapore Sony-BGM has released a local 'Idol' winner Taufik's album with ample marketing and launch activities. For such a small country and target fans like in Singapore the organizers can get Sony to be involved.

But here our fellows are talking "Big Level Crap" really for not being able to find a label for release.

I was just talking to a 'Kalamandir' artist in Singaore, and to my surprise, none of the classical vocalists there heve even heard of TIO. How much more sad can it get. This shows how pathetic our fellows marketing efforts have been all these past months. Samefully poor!!!!!

But they will come and talk like saints who have sacrificed their life for this project. Definitely somethings are not right here. I donno maybe money is playing its vice game here?????

All these weeks even after the completion of the project, they have been sitting on it with no effort at all to bring the awareness to the next level. I think these guys are in it for the money, and they have already made their quick bucks. That is why the follow up is so poor. If anything the process should have been speeded up and the release should have happened by now at least......

But instead we get such a tedious extremely pissing delay and silence and even those hardcore followers would have lost interest in it by now.....

I think more of should voice our concern and expose those involved in the project for doing nothing to help its cause and waiting to make a failure out of such brilliant effort by our maestro IR!

[RR]

mohan02: While your concerns may be valid, watch your words. Remeber this is a public forum. (I've edited your post. )
It's just a warning this time, but not necessarily the next time. Pls read our policies & regulations:
http://forumhub.lunarpages.com/docs/HubPolicies.htm

[natha1729]

http://www.newyorkraja.com/

(please check out the photo in the site where Dakshinmoothy, MSV, IR, Naushad etc.. are together... for MSV' book release, according to me the Drona & Bhishma combined of music is Dakshinamoorthy)

(My favorite and most valued praise is by V Dakshinamoorthy, a composer who brings the deepest timeless feel or antiquity and eterninty, and the smell of the annaibhoomi more than any other composer (eg: Murali Gaanathin Sallolini (Mal); Nanda Nee En Nila, etc..)


V .DACHINAMURTH (MD)

“Which MD has composed for 800 over movies within our own lifetime? Who else is capable of doing that? It is possible by Ilayaraja alone who stands out as an unfailing fountain. It is indeed a Herculean task to have orchestrated for Thiagaraya Keerthanai and made an album of it called NOTHING BUT WIND. Nobody elase could have made this attempt….Who is qualified to gauge the musical depth and capacity of Ilayaraja? Perhaps the musical angels had prayed to God in their previous birth, for they are the ones who are currently serving Ilayaraja. Otherwise how is it possible to write the notation within a fleeting moment? The Musical angels have welded into him, and are assisting Ilayaraja as he wants the music to be.”

[Vazhipokkan]

Please read the interview in Kumudam Cinema Online on why there is a delay in releasing TIS.

http://www.kumudam.com/lightsonline/150105/pg9.php

[TISK]

Not everyone can access Kumudam without a password. Can you tell usd the gyst of it!!

[Vazhipokkan]

You can register to Kumudam for free and read the interview of Fr. Jegath Gaspar Raj. There are some good photos of IR and Father too

http://www.kumudam.com/login/register.php

[Vazhipokkan]

The interview says that the total expenditure for TIS is about 1 Crore and 20 Lakhs. Out of which 80 lakhs came from his own pocket and remaining 40 lakhs was loaned by Banks with higher interest. The interesting thing about this interview, there were no mention about how the money was collected. There is no weblink to TIS webpage.

[vijayr]

I havent read the article, but if there is no mention about the enormous contribution by the fans then its a shame..it would seem as if the entire TIS-USA team had been taken for a ride. I hope someone could translate the whole interview here.

[Raaja Rasikan]

Dear all,

It has been a while since i have placed my thoughts on this forum, mostly i just read and keep my thoughts to myself. But i really do not know what made me to place my few thoughts on this forum, now.

A great salute to Fr.Gasper and SSSAV and his team. Well finally you have done it, atleast according to you. Now by the postings posted by many and ofcourse your goodself, i come to know that the release of the TBI is getting delayed due to many reasons, the prime being the inability to rope in Big Labels so that we can be assured of the money invested ( so as to clear the debts).

But i have few questions for the core of the team(Rev.Fr and SSSAV)...did you people tried any of the ideas proposed by many genuine fans of IR during the making of TBI and i happened to read many worthful ideas....i do remember many of those and i do myself placed my few cents of ideas like releasing of the BGM of HeyRam and Lajja, which incidently had the Symphony orchestra doing the score. And many in this forum came with many brilliant ideas, but that has been washed away in the drain.

Now i could hear that they have huge financial burden. Many a times IR has himself told that the Musical score is the property of the particluar MD. Why not you people didnot pursue in that direction.

"Aalukku ainthu Dollar could have been easily aalukku paththu dollar"

I personally feel that many workable ideas were not considered. And how could you realize the money without mean. You have a commodity and you can easily sell it. By having a virtual commodity how will you be able to sustain it. I really do not understand, i may even sound harsh, since there is no real problem in publishing/selling his creations which is "selected, edited and remastered" it could have been sold like hot cakes. There would have no necessity to look for money from different sources.

And the problem still continues.....thappu panrathu thappu illa athai thiruppi panrathu than thappu.....AIMHO.

I really do not know when it will be released.....but still then i will be liteneing to the immortal creations of my MASTER...just like 'dog listening the gramaphone....HMV LOGO'

Luv,
Raaja Rasikan

[RR]

(in kumudam fonts. http://216.65.197.170/Kumudam.ttf )

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ê‰FŠ¹: ªð.è«íw,
ðìƒèœ: Cˆó‹ ñˆFò£v

Mobile: 9444072217
E-mail: jegath66@yahoo.co.uk
(not in [tscii])

[krish244]

Thanks very much RR! Nice to read it in tamil fonts. Has come out very well.

Krishnan

[kannansanderson]

Info from TIS-USA site
US$ INR
Orchestra-Hungary 58,000 2,726,000
English Lyrics Stephan Schwartz 15,000 705,000
Richard King Sony Mixing 27,000 1,269,000
Ilaiyaraaja-Travel Stay Hospitality 10,000 470,000
Chorus recording India 50,000 2,350,000
Admin Overheads 4,000 188,000
Total 164,000 7,708,000

Loans India 100,000 4,700,000
Loans USA 50,000 2,350,000

Total 150,000 7,050,000

The Tamil Maiyam web site gives a donation list totaling to Rs.10.5 lacs.

The TIS-USA site lists the names of the donors but not the amount. Hence we don’t know the total donation inflow from the USA. Some time back Fr.Jegath mentioned a loan of USD 100,00 for him self and USD 40,000 for Mr. Sankar Kumar.

When I thought even Rs.77 lacs is a mind-boggling sum for a 60-minute album, Fr. Jegath talks of a total expense of Rs.1.2 crores. I just don’t understand many things here. Some of the expense figures are obnoxious, to say the least.

On what basis some one could have spent so much on a single album ?

And his talk of audio piracy, MP3, FM broadcast etc. have not come out just now. They are there for quite some time. And they are the reasons even major labels have stopped spending so much in creating new albums. Even when they do, they take into consideration these aspects before estimating a realistic sales figures and expected revenue. Based on which they plan and fix their project cost. Not the other way round.

A simple back of the hand calculation would tell you the kind of numbers TIO has to sell before even recuperating your investment.

And in this condition, the proud decision to donate all the profits this and that only looks like a crude joke.

Total Cost USD 255,319 Rs. 12,000,000

Pre release/Post Release Publicity USD 30,000 Rs. 1,410,000

Sales Estimation to break even:

Assuming a base price of USD 10 or INR 470 per CD as the final sales price
Inflow after Distri Commission/Freight expenses will be USD 4 per piece or INR 188 per piece.

Assuming the total production cost of Rs.1.2 crores plus the pre-release/post release publicity cost of Rs.14 lacs the total is Rs.1.34 lacs.

At this return rate of Rs.188 per piece, you have to sell about 71,330 pieces of CDs to break even. It would be very easy to get carried away with imaginary number of fans and the nos they may buy. But the reality may not be that easy.

[NagaS]

Any rough idea how many copies a "Hit" (movie album) CD will sell In TN ?

Are they planning to release cassettes or not ?

NagaS

[kannansanderson]

Because of piracy, now a days, achieving a figure of 30,000 to 50,000 cassettes is a very big figure for a hit Tamil film. Hardly one or two film albums in a year reach that level. Very rarely they reach the 75,000 to 100,000 mark. CD market still in its infancy as far as Tamil audio market goes.

[jaiganes]

From the interview and kannan's comments, it seems that the most difficult part is only ahead. It makes all the more sense for this album to be marketed by SONY or universal at an international level. Even then the sales will pick up in a great way only after a Grammy or a similar award in WCM section nomination. Added to all that is the need to transcend cultural barrier in introducing Thiruvacagam and IR to the world community. On the brighter side, what better opportunity than this to break the barrier! To take a cultural spark that is global in intent in a format that is apt for that purpose is by no means a simple undertaking. Being a simple fan of music, I can only hope that this materialises sooner than later. If the divinity to which this project is dedicated wills nothing is impossible!!!

[natha1729]

http://www.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=61933&cat=India

Does the above news mean that release and new objectives of TBI go back to the original intent?

[MumbaiRamki]

Guys ,,

I think they have done aright thing by delaying teh proj in the wake of Tsunami ...

Look what's happening to Pongal releases ...Ayya inspite of excellent reviews and good wor dof teh Mouth is not running ...

Infcat none of teh Pongal Movies have been successfull..

[TISK]

It is heartening to see some sanity prevailing here .....at last!!
Thank you MR!
Spoke to Fr. last night.
IIR will be making an announcement[press meet] on Feb 2nd.
Watch for details.
Thanks.
YIA!!

[TISK]

Please see Fr.'s announcement at www.tis-usa.com.
Thanks.
YIA!!

[Vkrish]

TODAY IS 2ND FEBRUARY. ANY PRESSMEET ANOUNCING THE RELEASE??? EAGERLY AWAITING TO KNOW THE DEVELOPMENTS.
Further, I request someone to draft and send me a forward mail covering the details of the project, attached with some photographs, so that I can atleast circulate to my friends, many of whom are still unaware of this great project.

[Raaja Rasikan]

From: TISK on Sun Jan 23 9:22:47 2005.

It is heartening to see some sanity prevailing here .....at last!!
Thank you MR!
Spoke to Fr. last night.
IIR will be making an announcement[press meet] on Feb 2nd.
Watch for details.
Thanks.
YIA!!


From: TISK on Mon Jan 24 23:10:50 2005.
Please see Fr.'s announcement at www.tis-usa.com.
Thanks.
YIA!!

Fr.'s announcement at www.tis-usa.com
[January 24, 2005]
Dear Friends,

I am pleased to announce that Maestro Ilaiyaraaja and Tamil Maiyam have together decided to dedicate the THIRUVASAKAM album to the victims of Tsunami and donate all the profits to the educational rehabilitation of children orphaned or affected otherwise by Tsunami. We have commissioned Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd. to bring out an unique plan of rehabilitation that will not only include scholarship but career guidance and livelihood/placement security. The implementing NGOs will be identified after further consultations and study.

I can perfectly understand the frustration of some of our friends about the delay in releasing the album. You will never probably know the emotions we were undergoing as persons who were closely part of the Tsunami tragedy. I myself lifted 52 dead bodies along with others in a village called Colechel. I had gone to visit a friend of mine from a village close to this costal hamlet in Kanyakumari district. In the context of Tsunami we genuinely thought as inappropriate and unethical to talk even about release of our album. To those who even went to the point of using abusive language for the delay I beg you to be charitable.

Thank you.
fr.jegath


SO FEB 2 HAS FINALLY GONE....GENTLEMEN CAN YOU PLEASE COMEUP AGAIN WITH A NEW DATE AND RELEASE.

AND IAM SURE I WILL BE LABELLED INSANE, ARROGANT...BUT CAN YOU PLEASE COME OUT WITH A LEGITIMATE REASON FOR THE DELAY....ONCE IT WAS MONEY....MANY A THINGS WERE SAID "DEBT, PLEDGE, DOLLARS"...THEN CAME TSUNAMI.....

WELL I DO REMEMBER THE DATE WHICH WAS FIRST ORIGINALLY SAID WAS AROUND DIWALI, THEN IT WAS NOVEMBER, THEN IT WAS NEW YEAR....THEN TSUNAMI CAME...SO NO PONGAL RELEASE...AND FINALLY IT WAS FEB 2....

ONLY GOD KNOWS.....

ALL I COULD SAY IS "IT IS THE MOST UNPROFESSIONAL WAY OF HANDLING A PROFESSIONAL WORK"

IF ANYONE WHO IS REALLY CLOSE TO RAAJA SIR, KARTHIK RAAJA, YUVAN....PLEASE TAKE THIS MESSGAE TO THEM...

AND I BEG YOU PEOPLE...DO NOT COME WITH ANOTHER DATE....EITHER RELEASE IT ELSE KEEP QUITE LET IT DIE A NATURAL DEATH....

In utter frustration....
A true Raaja Fan

[MumbaiRamki]

Raaja rasigan
Those who are close to raaja sir ...vera yaarum illa father Jegath um SSSAV um thaan !!!!

See ,more than you and me - do remember that Father jegath has risked $1,00,000 for this and Sankar Kumar has risked $40,000 for this -Infact Sankar Kumar and FJ should be the persons who will be more frustrated for the delay !!!Not just from the money perspective ,these guys ( SSSAV ,others ,FJ) have been through with Raaja right from its infancy !!!


EVen iam bit frustrated - but let us wait patiently - it is we who have to be patient !!!!

BTW ,i fully support them for not rleasing it until Jan 26 th - Nobody would buy it when such a huge disaster has struck TN !!! I think this is the right time to start heating things up !!!

The reason is - we are used to all such quick made stuff - everything quick and coupled with the fact our expectations are there every time a date is raised - Please releaise this is not ajith's film ( JI ) or any other film which is being released !!! The planning has to be done perfectly ..


SO WAIT PATIENTLY !!! AND HELP US TO DO SO !!!

[mohan02]

Hello please stop telling us to be patient. And stop building on the crab about so and so risking money. They have come in just like any typical fellow to do a business venture. They have collected so much from all of us also in the name of donations...don't you forget that.....we have yet to verify the details of actual sum collected for this project. I can't see anyone in this deserving special status......for thei involvement..

What is extremely clear is that they have wasted precious time and have done nothing to market the product. The only active and creative thing they have been doing is come up with all sorts of silly excuses for their incompetence and lack of sense in making this project a success. Instead they keep on saying they need to plan and plan and plan.....tillllll now we all know what kind of work have been put in to promote the finished product. We are not fools to sit back and accept all these bull shit theories and excuses for the lack of effort.......stop telling us to be patient when you have been patiently sitting on a project like this and waiting for it all to rot away like IR's first Symphony!!!!!

[jaiganes]

Dear Sankar Kumar and team!

I was eager to hear good news either from TIS USA or Tamil Mayyam or this thread. I was disappointed not to hear any updates. I hope you people will come up with a specific date for the release as I am excited to buy the CD as and when it comes up for grabs. The longer the delay, lesser will be the interest and therefore lesser the sales. Looking forward to speedy release of Thiruvaasagam in Oratorio by IR.

[Raaja Rasikan]

Well friends,

Iam again here, just to remind the things i have put in this forum. Well i placed my comments before you people. Well by now you yourself know the involvement and professionlism as far as this Project goes. So no more comments.

To quote from Fr.Jegath last message posted on 'TIS - website'
In the context of Tsunami we genuinely thought as inappropriate and unethical to talk even about release of our album. To those who even went to the point of using abusive language for the delay I beg you to be charitable.


Well, i would like to say my comments, well I do agree that Tsunami created such a havoc and made life miserable for many, whats my ideas are you people could have arranged a Press meet and should have made IIR address the people. You said the profit from this would go to Tsunami victims. If you have done the same during the last week of Dec or Ist week of Jan. The sales would have been like anything, since it would have got such a nice opening with many of the dailies, weeklies helping their bits in supporting 'TIO' and 'Tsunami victims'. Hope iam talking sense.

But it didnot happen.

Well, i would like to say my personal experience. Basically iam from Trichy. Many of you would have heard IR's Geetanjali, a devotional album on Mookabiga, Vinayagar and Murugan. I think it was 1999. I went to 'Uchi Pillayar' Koil, i went to Thayumanavar Sannathi, after worshipping Lord Siva and Thayaar i was returning. I hope many have been there, to say exactly, you take the right to Uchi pillayar and right to Thayumanavar Sannathi. You go straight and you climb few steps and you take the left to go to Thayumanavar Sannathi.

I was just climbing down that 'few steps' when i listened to the song 'Thaniyaga Naan Enna Ketten' for the first time in life. It was played through a Public address sytem through 'Ahuja wall mounting vertical speakers - i still remember that'. I was really stunned to hear this kind of soul stirring song inside the temple. Some kind of lightning went down my spine. But what i could grasp was....just simple...a devotional album by Illayaraja......will you people believe, without knowing the name of the Album...i went shop to shop in Super Bazaar for almost a week and finally lady lucked smiled on me...and still i have that cassette.


SO WHAT I WISH TO SAY IS THAT....PALAPALATHUKKU....VILAMBARAM THEVAI ILLAI.....HOPE THE CONCERNED PEOPLE UNDERSTANDS THIS.

I dare to say, i myself can sell you quite a number of albums...plz price it at Rs.200/- per CD. I shall easily sell a minimum of 100 CD's among my friends.....So calculate the entire Raaja fans....

Ithukku mela ennatha solrathu.....enna sonalum....vilalukku iraitha neer than....

[natha1729]

A creative artiste has also must grow into a good businessman. Many a geniuses have lost inspiration and felt cheated in the long-term because some selfish company exploited the artistes simple state of mind. In those days in India, especially film stars, Music Directors got a pittance for the limitless, priceless and timeless accomplishments. Today, who is reaping the benefits? the pathetic likes of Saregama, HMV and other caricatures of marketing entities.

You take any MD in India, they are basically living in abject conditions (I don't want to give examples, I have personally seen it.)

Today' generation of audience and producers are paying tons of money for loads of s_it turned out by mediocre artistes, simply because the market is wide and marginal returns are guaranteed even for mediocrity. Not like the old days, where only geniuses had a chance to be appreciated and barriers of entry was very high.

The future of music is in India, and especially Indian film music will find appreciation forever, once the world awakens to the general depth that is missing thus far in Western creativity. Yes, they have reached heights, but a skyscraper without a foundation cannot weather the winds that long.

If an artiste can also have business acumen, he can help preserve the creative legacies for all peoples of the world far into the future without having commercial giants waste away the gifts of creativity.

I strongly feel if the creator is not ready yet to release it, then the audience know less about the creator and the maestro knows about the audience. (Tsunami brought people' focus on basic human values and minds were not tuned to joy or pleasure at that time. However, many an artistes have foolishly exploited (of course, at the behest of greedy executives of marketing companies) the feelings to sell concerts in aid of Tsunami not just abroad but also in north India!!! What do you say about this heartless behavior?! Do you think the likes of Raaja would capitalize on this?!

Let us all be patient. Timing and preparation is very important for such historical works, one must not throw it away because others are restless. We can wait, some may miss out, but we have a time and day to look forward to....

However, it is all a balance between not postponing a good even too much and timing the event giving all involved due consideration.

Let us pray for success for Raaja and Tamil Maiyyam in their efforts!

[kavin]

well said natha

[Shankar]

Digression...

raaja rasikan,
trichy-super bazaar-malai kOttai....are you aware of supersonic recording center ??

-yet another raaja rasaikan

[fan_ir]

I got a mail!!!



I am here to share with you, some important points of the discussion I
had with Rev Fr Jegath Gasper Raj yesterday, after I got an urgent
call from him. Narasimman was with me when I met him. Father wanted
the following details to be conveyed to all of us:

1) The audio company for Thiruvasakam would be decided within two or
three days from yesterday and the release would be very soon
throughout India, by a single company.

2) They would purchase the rights under Royalty basis and they may not
be expected to spend any amount on advertisements or promotions.
Hence, though the project will be released, we will not have enough
profits to take care of the heavy loans that Rev Fr Jegath has
personally incurred. So, the success of the project lies in our hands.

3) We have already collected a lot of ideas from our club members
regarding marketing of the product and Father asked me to convey his
personal thanks to everyone who gave the ideas. Now, we are in the
next phase. We need volunteers for doing field work.

4) Field work includes volunteership for staying in temporary stalls
which may be put up in several temples or public places on festival
days for selling the CD's/cassettes. It does not mean that only people
who can do this should be volunteers. If you feel you have any plan of
marketing and you could offer yourself towards the implementation of
the same, you are welcome to key in your ideas.

5) If you can collect considerable number of pre-orders from your
office or in places where you work, Father is even ready to come to
your place personally for the sale of CD's.

6) A data bank about the festivals to come in major temples, Tamil
organisations, saivaite trusts, etc has to be charted out. We can
decide among the volunteers as to who will look after the stalls at
that place, depending on who is free at that time. This will be of
much help in making Thiruvasakam profitable, which is necessary for
covering the loans and more so for the Tsunami relief, as decided by
Maestro and Tamil Maiyam.

7) A press meet can be expected very soon in the next week for
announcing the release. Maestro and people from Tamil Maiyam will be
addressing the press. Father is planning to call for a meeting of
Maestro's fans who are interested in this project. It is again our
privilege that he has asked us to co-ordinate the fans, as we are
already doing it. Hence, we will be getting more work force soon. What
remains from our side is that we have to plan our work correctly so
that we can select apt persons from the extra hands to use them
effectively for this project's success.

On a note of conclusion, I request all of us who are willing to
volunteer to kindly send in their names to our club, as soon as
possible. Volunteers can be from any place in the world. Let us charge
with our full strength to repay Maestro for what all He has done to us!

[MumbaiRamki]

Raja Rasigan

I dare to say, i myself can sell you quite a number of albums...plz price it at Rs.200/- per CD. I shall easily sell a minimum of 100 CD's among my friends.....So calculate the entire Raaja fans...


_ If you can really do that ,nothing like that !!!!!!!! Plz continue this service !!!

[Raaja Rasikan]

From: Shankar on Fri Feb 4 15:31:31 2005

Digression...

raaja rasikan,
trichy-super bazaar-malai kOttai....are you aware of supersonic recording center ??

-yet another raaja rasaikan

yes very much Shankar..but i preferred "Melody Musicals" they had a large variety and better quality of Raaja Songs, now i only rely on net....

Mumbai Ramki, i really dunno whether you are ridiculing me or serious....but all i can say is that if the guys can price the CD a fair price, it wont be tough for me to push a minimum number of quantities i said....

I stand by my words...

[MumbaiRamki]

Raja Rasigan
Sathiyama ridicule pannala .....!!!!!! That is genuine very much !!!

[mohan02]

** Offensive post deleted **

[Music4Ever]

Good work moderator(s). Let sanity prevail.

[Sanjeevi]

OK

[Vkrish]

I got a mail.. things r taking momentum after a long pause.

"Dear Friends,

I met Rev Fr Jegath Gasper Raj at 6 pm along with Narasimman, Ramji, Rajesh Kanna & Vel Ramanan on February 8, 2005, following his call that I received in the morning. As decided previously, it was the first of the frequent meetings that Father wanted to have with us.
The salient points announced and discussed in the meeting were:

1) Maestro meets the press on February 10, 2005 to announce that the project has been completed and is ready for release.
2) In the same Press Meet, Father will call for a meeting of Maestro's fans at some common place to discuss about the project, its release, implementation of marketing ideas, allotting responsibilities to the volunteers and any related point as the situation may demand with the permission of Time.
3) The probable date for the meeting will be February 20, 2005 and the time may be 4 pm. The venue has to be decided and the whole programme is yet to be confirmed. But, everything will be ready at the time of the Press Meet.
4) Our club will be posting an advertisement welcoming all the fans who would attend the meeting, in at least two daily newspapers. The advertisement will be having Maestro's photograph, our club's web address and the details about the date, venue & timings of the meeting for the fans. Probably, Tamil Maiyam's logo and name may be
used along with the content. Apart from this, the design and content required for the caption are to be planned soon. Ideas for or even completed designs are welcome from all of us.
5) After the meeting with the fans is over, we will plan our further course of action. We are planning for hoardings in important areas of major cities, starting from Chennai initially. Since paper advertisements and hoardings involve a good deal of money, all members among us who are willing to take part in the financial budget for these measures may kindly contact me personally at
drjvvr@yahoo.com with a cc marked to Ramji at amjis2@yahoo.com. Since this is a separate form of donation to the project (in kind) compared to the donation that we have been and still are collecting (as money) on one side, I request all of those who volunteer, to
kindly mention whether they want their donation to reach Tamil Maiyam as money or if they would allow us to keep the money till we reach a significant amount, so that it could be used collectively for a high budget way of advertising like placing hoardings. All details of the accounts will be made available online as and when money reaches and leaves us, as soon as possible.
6) We handed over the list of volunteers registered so far, to Father. He was interested to note that volunteers were from Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Kanpur and Singapore. But we were personally wondering why we never received any mail from Bangalore or Kerala, where the need of volunteers is much more important. Anyhow, Father
felt people would join in soon and the project would become a Model Project for anybody who would try anything of this sort in future.
7) Father was very happy to see the links of the groups interested in World Music, especially the ones collected by Vijaygen and Vel Ramanan. He encouraged all of us to collect more and more of them, as they appeared to be potentially strong areas for both the spread of the project's message and its profitable sales too. So, I guess we can concentrate more on collecting these contact information and passing it on to Father for him to contact them professionally on behalf of Tamil Maiyam, the Producer.
8) Father reviewed Ramji's work on the website of Tamil Maiyam and requested him to complete the same before the Press Meet because it will have to be ready by then. Ramji is seriously working on it, along with the original designer of the site, who was introduced to him by Father himself.
9) Vel Ramanan took up the responsibility of customizing the content of the emails that would be sent to any specific world music organization and sending it to Father, who in turn, would send it from his id to the organization. This arrangement is needed because if the same email is sent to all organizations, those of them which have little relevance to the theme of our project would just leave the mail in the trash can. There is another danger of Tamil Maiyam's server from which the mail will be sent, being black-marked as a spamming server.
10) Finally, when we came out it was 7:30 pm and Father had to rush for a meeting. In fact, he had spent a lot more of his time with us than that was originally planned. After that, we had discussion among ourselves and felt that it would be better if our club members could search for core groups that would be interested in Thiruvasakam like Tamil Organizations (in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata
and many other cities in India and abroad also), Cultural Bodies, Literary Societies, Bhakthi Trusts, etc and get the list of contact addresses so that our project would reach their hands too. I hope many of us will turn up with fantastic links.
I think I have covered up all the details that I remember to the best of my memory. If any of the others feel that you have to add something, you are welcome to do so.

Hoping to see the fruits of our sweat soon. "

[vssathish]

Hi Folks

TIS is going to be released on April 14th.

There was a press meet today in chennai and please visit
http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NewsID={723152D8-E1A2-4059-9E39-ECB9FF39B0C5}&CategoryName=CHN

for details

[TISK]

yellAm iRaivan aruL !!

[vijayr]

TISK, can you update us on what the TIS-USA team's plans are as far as marketing efforts are concerned?

[vijayr]

Thats some good news finally. But two things would be worrisome as far as marketing is concerned.

1. April 14 release? clashing with all the biggies that are released on this date? Competing possibly, with IR's own Mumbai express? Not sure if its a great idea. When the curiosity is at its peak right now, it should be released, unless otherwise IR is planning something else from now till April 14.

2. quote from the article
----------------
Ilayaraja has sung six songs in this album. "You have to listen to my voice; that is your fate", he said amidst laughter.

well many might decide to chose a different fate after seeing that he is the sole singer. Anyways, nothing can be done now regarding this

[multinamatheyan]

The article says that releases are planned in several Indian cities, however all the cities listed are in TN.

Is no attempt being taken to get it out of the realm of Tamil Nadu and Tamils?

[TISK]

I am waiting for some more clarifications from Fr. and once I have them, I will update it promptly. There is going to be world-wide release events, for sure. To 'vijayr' and the likes, I would once again plead with you not to consider TiO on par with any movie releases. This one is a different class in itself. Thanks.
YIA!!

[vijayr]

TISK, I was not comparing TIS musically with those other film albums. I was just talking from a sales/business point of view. Right now, April 14 seems to be too far away

[kavin]

[MumbaiRamki]

TISK ,
Iam planning to write an article( in one of teh tamizh magazine yahoogroups ) on TIS and Fr .jegath .DO you have any ready made article for that ?

I can write it from my heart ,but iam afraid that i may mis few important points in being real .

[magix]

http://www.hindu.com/2005/02/11/stories/2005021113152200.htm :)

[balaji]

Vijayr

You wrote:

"Ilayaraja has sung six songs in this album. "You have to listen to my voice; that is your fate", he said amidst laughter.

well many might decide to chose a different fate after seeing that he is the sole singer. Anyways, nothing can be done now regarding this"

I share the same frustration. Though I do not agree with the some of the comments you make of IR, I share your views on IR's albumns some 80s, and many recent ones.

WHen creating such a great project, shouldn't IR have gone for the best singers possible. If money is the issue, wouldn't the so called Tamil lovers sang for free? This beats me. I cannot some how digest that IR has chosen to six 6 songs in the album..

However being an ardent fan of IR, I will buy this album and as IR has said "I will have to listen to his voice; that is my fate"

Let us wish the album comes out with no issues

Bala

[jaiganes]

From the hindu article :


Father Jegath Gaspar of Tamil Maiyam said that as Catholic priests, they have taken up this project to highlight Thiruvasagam which says that god is one — "I salute the one that is called Siva in the south, but known as God throughout the world."


This is the underlying spirit of the project! I have no doubt that Ilayaraaja and team would have brought this spirit out in the most appropriate manner.

Till I hear I would not give much merit to the sentiments of vijayr and balaji. The only singer who could have sung moving lyrics of Thiruvacagam with the same feeling of Maanikka vaacagar is no more in the physical realm with us. That is Smt. M.S. Whichever singer is going to sing is only going to do the second best effort only. So it is better if IR who has the emotional attachment to the verses and project sings instead of making someone understand the 'bhaava' and then sing. Yet I will reserve my comments on the vocals after hearing it. I would not pass any prejudiced comments on it.

[raja_fan]

BR and Thangar Bachaan were present there to wish IR !
So can we expect them to join hands with IR again ...??

[Vazhipokkan]

If you want to see the photos and videos of this historic press meet

http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/gallery/Events/7094.html

[vijayr]

Vazhipokkan, thanks for the link

[MumbaiRamki]

Vazhipokkan ,
Kodi thanks !!!

[RC]

An article in tamilcinema.com
http://www.tamilcinema.com/CINENEWS/Hotnews/2005/february/110205a.asp

[Sanjeevi]

Yesterday I saw the IR's press meet in Tamizhan TV

[Shankar.P]

Hi friends, few more links on TIS....

Ilayaraja and Sivapuranam
http://www.chennaionline.com/music/Events/2005/02ilayaraja.asp

Ilayaraja's Thiruvasakam is ready
http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7BC8ABF6D6-EB05-428E-B7A5-4439663DF2EA%7D

[Sanjeevi]

Yesterday I saw IR's press meet on TIS at Tamizhan TV.
It was wonderful watching. :)

[irfansong]

Guys, which Audio company is going to release the Historic project ' Thiruvasagam by Illayaraja '? Is it going to come in English also? Will both the English and Tamiil versions be released together on the same day? No much information about the English version of the project. Any news about it? Will Father Jegath answer for this query?

With expectations

Arun
Rajarasigan.[/b]

[irfansong]

Dear IR Fans,

Do you think that IR'svoice won't be suitable for the Album in anyway?

Never say that! Have u heard ' janani Janani ', IRin Geethanjali, Ramanar Malai etc? U'll never say it again. Chanceless dedicated spiritualistic voice it is. I love his voice ever.

Please hear them and let me know if it is a Fate or boon for us to hear his voice.

With love
Arun

[TISK]

The 'to-be released TbI Cd' has a 20 mt English/Tamil song, sung by Benny Diggs/IIR in which is the highlight of this CD. It has some amazing piece of instruments,tune, music, voice overs, chorus, and that inimitable voice of IIR melting in the verses of Thiruvaasakam with Benny coming in as counter point. Stephen Scwartz has written the English lines. It's a masterpiece! I don't want to say more!!! :-)
YIA!!

[baroque]

Dear TISK, romba aasaiyaa yerukke, ippave kekkanumnnu, april 14th romba dhooramaayerukku! Will wait! love, vinu.

[MumbaiRamki]

Baroque ,
I hope u jhave listene dto the Illayraaja interview in indiaglitz.com ,under events !!

[baroque]

Thanks MR for reminding me about that interview! I tried that day, it didn't work, some clip number 13 or 14 something, people were talking in yahoo group. Will listen, love, Vinu

[crvenky]

Dear Raja fans,

Please check the latest message from Fr. Jegath (pasted from Maestro's Yahoo club) in the main page of this forum. Please come forward and spread the news amongst your friends.

http://tfmpage.com/tis-feb26.html

[kbee]

Its hard to believe, I have asked TIS to quote me for 100 CDs to sell in our store/site and there is no response. Are they busy or simply neglecting as usual. This is why IR doesnt get the right attention.

I will wait for another couple of days and if there are no response, I will totally ignore this product. This is insane.

[baroque]

Dear Sir! Thanks for your interest. My name is Vinatha. vinu_jay@yahoo.com I am a member of Yahoo Ilayaraaja Fan's club., Please contact the following people regarding the CDs

Rev. Jegath Gaspar Raj : iraja2005@yahoo.co.in,
24672217, 24995078

Dr J Vijay Venkatraman : vijay@ktvr.com

Dr Sankar Kumar (USA) : ommuruga41@yahoo.com

Websites : www.tamilmm.com, www.tis-usa.com
I will forward your message to Mr.Vijay. We need all of your support to make this product successful. Ilayaraaja
defineteaa world class albumaa panniyeruppar. We will enjoy his work very soon. Love you Ilayaraaja! Vinu.

[kbee]

Vinitha

Thanks for the info. I tried to send email to ommuruga41@yahoo.com and also tring to contact to www.tis-usa.com. I will try again. I am sure IR would have done a good job and it is my personal interest to see this album gets the right attention. If I can get a definite answer, I will start my advertising on my site and other sites where we pay to display our ad.

With out having a concrete plan its hard for me to proceed further.

Thanks again

[kiru]

Vinitha

Thanks for the info. I tried to send email to ommuruga41@yahoo.com and also tring to contact to www.tis-usa.com. I will try again. I am sure IR would have done a good job and it is my personal interest to see this album gets the right attention. If I can get a definite answer, I will start my advertising on my site and other sites where we pay to display our ad.

With out having a concrete plan its hard for me to proceed further.

Thanks again

Kbee, Thanks for your understanding. TIS is made possible by volunteer efforts. This project has taken lots of sacrifices both financial and physical from the volunteers. These people have a career and a family to take care of as well. There is no corporate machinery behind this. If you work around these issues and still sell this album through your site, it is highly appreciated. Many readers of this forum would buy from your site.
Also, would you be interested in selling IR's Guru Ramana Geetham ? we can ask the album distributor in Malaysia to talk to you.

[thops]

A priest with penchant for Tiruvasagam

http://www.hindu.com/lf/2005/03/13/stories/2005031309950200.htm

[TISK]

Mr. Kbee,
I just now saw your post. Sorry, I must have somehow missed it. Pl. write to me at ommuruga41@yahoo.com without fail and I will respond asap. Thanks.
YIA!!

[Cinefan]

http://thatstamil.indiainfo.com/specials/cinema/news/iliyaraja.html

Meeting on 20th March at Loyola college.

[raja_fan]

I am sorry if I sound pessimistic..
But I don't believe that these kind of meetings will help in coming to any decision... How can a large group of people ( even if likeminded ) assemble at one place one day and take decisions..? It can only help in informing some already taken decisions..

[Cinefan]

It can only help in informing some already taken decisions..

I think that's why the meeting has been called,to explain how this project was conceived&executed.

[TISK]

Friends,
This meeting was felt needed after the astounding success by the Tis-usa team in this project. If a handful of people with a good intention "to support good music to reach everyone" can make a mammooth project like the TiS[TbI] happen, then what more and better things may be conceived and achieved if more like-minded people get together and make a resolve to encourage similar projects, "not necessarily exclusively by IIR" but anyone who wants to pursue on these lines?
Please support this and wait at least till the meeting is over to pass your usual comments. I am only addressing those pessimists and thank all those others who think positive!
YIA!!

[kbee]

TISK

I send you an email today. Please respond at teh earliest of your convenience.

BTW, I read the interview by Father in Vikatan and I am touched by the dedication you all had to servre Tamil and Illayaraja. I will do whatever I can to to help achieve success in this project.

Thanks

[TISK]

Dear kbee,
Did you get my reply?

[kbee]

Yes, thanks for the immediate response. My goal is to contribute to this effort in whatever way we can. If you all can confirm that it will be released on certain date to our hand, we will start our Ad.

BTW, our Sony distributor in USA said that the CD will be available on April 18th. Does it mean Sony is releasing the CD? If so, I certainly dont have any issues, since Sony distributor is right next to my house.

Thanks

[TISK]

Complete details on the release will be posted here in just a few days. please bear with us. Final touchings are being given to the release function and Fr. will be making an announcement by early next week, for sure!
I will get in ouch with you ,kbee! Pl. send me your tel# to my personal mail id. Thanks.
YIA!!

[kbee]

Any update on the Fan Club meeting? i googled / yahooed but didnt find anything

[TISK]

Here it is! With kind permission from Dr. Vijay of IIR fan club. A bit too long! Please enjoy!
Dear Friends,

First of all, let me apologize for being a day late in posting the
minutes of the First Meeting of `Friends for Good Music', which was
held at JD Hall in Loyola College, Chennai between 4 pm and 7 pm on
Sunday, March 20, 2005. The meeting was organized by Tamil Maiyam
(www.tamilmm.com) and Maestro Ilaiyaraaja Fans Club
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilaiyaraaja). It was a refreshing
evening that we spent there, immersed in discussion on good music
and the need of it to be supported.

Though interested participants started coming right from 3 pm at
which time we were only getting the banners erected and planning the
events as JD Hall was not opened then, the real spirit of the
meeting lit up by 4:30 pm when the audience were prepared for the
start of the event and all arrangements had been made. Thanks to
forwarded emails, FM radios, coverage in web & press media, contacts
of Rev Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj, the Founder of Tamil Maiyam, who has
integrated the whole project of `Thiruvasakam by Ilaiyaraaja' and of
course, the members of our Maestro Ilaiyaraaja Fans Club, the
meeting recorded the presence of 72 attendees, including the
organizers.

The meeting started off with Rev Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj narrating the
story behind `Thiruvasakam by Ilaiyaraaja' – the idea, its motive,
birth, evolution and its growth to completion now. He mentioned that
good music in India has a tough time today due to the imprisonment
of music under the locks of cinema, audio piracy and lack of
initiative from the side of the audience to support good music. He
was happy that the sabhas are taking care of the well-being of our
classical Carnatic Music, which would not have stood today amidst
the fast world and globalization. He added further that we live in a
country where even a great music composer like Ilaiyaraaja had to
wait for two years to get a classical crossover project based on our
ancient devotional literature, `Thiruvasakam' recorded and released,
only because of lack of funds and due to the fear of the audio
companies about the commercial viability of the project, because of
the enormous growth of audio piracy and swaying away of the audience
from good music.

He mentioned that though they had somehow managed to complete the
recording of `Thiruvasakam by Ilaiyaraaja' by means of public
donations and loans, they did not want to have only the commercial
success of the album in mind. Thiruvasakam, he said, was a test that
would take one so easily near God and was one of the best devotional
literatures he had ever read. Therefore, the motive of the project
was to remind the youth of the availability of such literary
treasures in our country and Ilaiyaraaja was quite strong in that
idea. He expressed that he was worried to think why our literary and
spiritual treasures were not known to foreign countries, though we
are well-informed about the literature from various nations of the
world. The reason for that was lack of our attempt to present them
to the western world in a form that they could understand, he felt.
Rev Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj felt confident that `Thiruvasakam by
Ilaiyaraaja' would definitely fill the gap and make way for future
projects like `Thirukkural', `Thiruppaavai' and even non-devotional
literature which would not be featured in cine music. He was for a
starting a group that would encourage good mainstream music,
completely free from the clutches of cinema, that would bring in an
era where composers of good music need not have any difficulty in
crafting and marketing their creation. For that, he
wanted `Thiruvasakam by Ilaiyaraaja' to be a success model as to
make a hopeful beginning. He made it clear that if a person of
Ilaiyaraaja's caliber is utilized for composing nothing more than
cine music, then it would be a great loss that we incur for the
coming generations of our country.

Rev Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj thanked Mr K Pandia Rajan, Ma Foi
Management Consultants Ltd and Mr Gerald who were present at the
meeting, for having financially supported `Thiruvasakam by
Ilaiyaraaja' project during its critical final stages, without which
they would have really been stuck. He also thanked Maestro
Ilaiyaraaja Fans Club, founded and moderated by Dr J Vijay
Venkatraman, for its dedicated involvement in the project ever since
its inception. He thanked Ramji, Narasimman, Kothandaraman and all
the members of the club for helping him to organize the meeting at
Loyola College. He was very much grateful to everybody who was
supportive in the project and requested them to come forward to form
the core group for `Friends for Good Music', as `Maestro Ilaiyaraaja
Fans Club' is to `Thiruvasakam by Ilaiyaraaja'.

Mr K Pandiarajan was full of enthusiasm and mentioned that good
music must have its day. He confidently declared that Rev Fr Jegath
Gaspar Raj's vision of a network of 50000 friends for good music
throughout the world within 5 years was an understatement and with
the power of the Internet and the mass media, such numbers could be
attained much easily. He motivated the group saying that everything
began from a small start and Rev Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj remarked that
Pandia Rajan himself was an example for astounding growth in a short
span of time.

Mr Anandaraj, an IT Professional, spoke about the marketing pattern
that was to be followed for `Thiruvasakam by Ilaiyaraaja', because
he feared that any compromise in it would make the project
unreachable to the masses. He volunteered that he could work for the
project's publicity in whatever way he could, as he had many friends
in the media.

Mr J Surendran and his wife Mrs A Sheela Mary, who are music
teachers and run a music school of their own, offered to get access
to all music schools in Chennai and to see to that each school buys
an original audio CD of `Thiruvasakam by Ilaiyaraaja'. They also
announced that they would teach Maestro's compositions to their
students who come to learn music, as children's minds had to be
tamed to good music from the beginning itself so that they would
develop a good musical taste when they grow into adulthood.

Mr N Vignesh, a Mechanical Engineer, put forward a proposal of a
musical showdown by the alumni of TEKMUSIC (the music club of PSG
College of Technology) to which he belonged, as a ticketed programme
on a weekend in Chennai, consisting varieties of songs compose by
Maestro Ilaiyaraaja alone and the profits of which would go towards
the publicity and promotion of `Thiruvasakam by Ilaiyaraaja.' He
further suggested that we could use paid downloadable formats of the
product in addition to thinking of sales of audio CD's and cassettes
alone. His friend, Mr S Aravind, talked about novel concepts of
marketing, supplementing Vignesh' ideas.

Mr S Athitha Nadarajan, an IT Professional, felt that `Thiruvasakam'
or `Tamil' would come to forefront by themselves and hence it was
more important to advertise `Thiruvasakam by Ilaiyaraaja' as a great
musical composition rather than a devotional compilation or a
literary marvel. He suggested that we could advertise for the album
through a short promo during the interval timings in cinema houses
where popular films are shown.

Mr Nirmal Kumar Damodaran started his talk with an anecdote from his
experience of working in a call centre. They had been allowed to
listen to whatever CD's they wanted to listen while working and his
colleagues had always been playing only English pop songs. One fine
day, he got an opportunity to play Ilaiyaraaja's `How To Name It?'
and only a few of his colleagues found it interesting. The others
could not just understand the music. He pleaded with them and asked
for one more day, by the end of which everybody started appreciating
it and two youngsters born and brought up in Tamil Nadu asked him
who the composer of `How To Name It?' was. Nirmal felt very bad that
they had thought that Ilaiyaraaja was just a film music composer and
nothing above it. He stressed upon the fact that it was our duty to
explain to the world that we have a great composer among us
and `Thiruvasakam by Ilaiyaraaja' should be successful for that, as
the first step. He assured his complete support for the
implementation of the same.

Mr A T Udayakumar, who runs a music troupe, assured to publicize the
project in his shows. Most of us might remember that Mr S
Kothandaraman from Vellore has already started doing it. Mr K S
Sasikumar, Newsreader in Jaya TV, was very happy that his friend
Gerald had brought him there and assured that he would take part
in `Friends for Good Music'. J T Muruganandham remembered his days
at college during the late seventies, which were enriched by
Ilaiyaraaja's early songs and he declared that he would get at least
ten audio CD's of `Thiruvasakam by Ilaiyaraaja' to distribute to his
friends and would buy even more after the sales. Mr Muthukumaran
suggested that we should achieve the target of making all our
members buy one CD each, at least and then, we could plan for an
online sales counter which would collect money from the buyers and
then send the original CD's by courier to their addresses.

Dr J Nandha, an ENT surgeon, made a reference to writer Sujatha's
column, `Katradhum Petradhum' in Ananda Vikatan, in which he had
mentioned that he would invite Ilaiyaraaja to take up the work of
the alwars too after the latter completes Thiruvasakam. Dr Nandha
mentioned that would be possible only if `Thiruvasakam by
Ilaiyaraaja' became a hit and for that he requested all the fans of
Ilaiyaraaja to take forward this album as their own. Mr Karthikeya
Sundaram, a Senior IT Professional, mentioned that even flower
markets needed advertisement today. He strongly felt
that `Thiruvasakam' was above all religions and not sticking to
Hinduism alone because apart from the ending word, `Sivane', the
meaning would hold good for Jesus Christ or Allah or any other deity
for that fact. In an age where chaos is the rule, a classical piece
of literature reflecting religious harmony by spreading the
word "God is One" would be the order of the day, he added and
promised support to the project through all possible means.

Mr A Clement, a Chartered Accountant, put forth his queries as to
whether the distribution of audio cassettes & CD's of `Thiruvasakam
by Ilaiyaraaja' could be carried out through churches. He also
assured that he could get some sponsors for the album and he was
already talking this through to Colgate. During his reply to Mr
Clement, Rev Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj encouraged him to get presenting
sponsorship from multinational companies like the one Clement
mentioned, as that would virtually bring the financial load on Tamil
Maiyam to a minimum. Currently, the secular organization is paying
money in lakhs every month, as interest for the loans that it has
incurred for producing the album. He assured that most of the
churches and catholic organizations were in support of him in this
project and he mentioned that his bishop had really appreciated him
for doing this project, as inter-religious dialogue was one of the
duties of a catholic priest for maintaining religious harmony.
Therefore, there is no necessity for anybody to feel that way, he
added.

Then, I (Dr J Vijay Venkatraman) requested the microphone for a few
minutes to briefly reply to the queries of Muthukumaran and Vignesh,
apart from suggesting a few ideas. I replied that most of the
members of Maestro Ilaiyaraaja Fans Club would buy at least one CD
each, as they have promised to do so. The remainder is not sure
whether the CD's will be available in their country, as our club has
no geographical limits. But, I said I believed the CD's would reach
all countries throughout the world. Regarding online sales, I
pointed out that Project GEM (http://project-gem.tripod.com) had
already been successful in selling CD's of Ilaiyaraaja's
compositions through the Internet to members of our club. There were
also websites like www.maebag.com where one could order many
original Malayalam CD's online and get them delivered at home.
Hence, I mentioned that we could set up a similar counter in Tamil
Maiyam for the same and use Tamil Maiyam's website itself for
collection of orders.

I further suggested that `Friends for Good Music' could be formed as
a separate Yahoo Group by Rev Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj himself and some
other dignitary like Mr K Pandia Rajan. Volunteers willing to work
as moderators under Father's directions could do the execution part
of the work, while Rev Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj sets the concepts, I
added. Regarding the launch function, we could plan it as a grand
ticketed one and the buyer would get entry for the function, the
original audio CD, the DVD of `The Making of Thiruvasakam By
Ilaiyaraaja' and a couple of books written by Ilaiyaraaja, I
suggested and it was well-received. I suggested to Vignesh that we
might allow only paid listening to the tracks online and would not
allow them to be downloaded as any end user may be able to copy it
in a CD. But Rev Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj felt that online listening in
bits and pieces would not hold good for the professional level that
the product was conceived and executed at. Finally, we sorted out
some other issues and came to the following conclusions:

1.To support good music, all of us will buy only original CD's and
cassettes for listening to music. We will not buy any pirated format
or download music through the Internet. We will not forward to
anybody, any non-original means of listening to music online and not
use them even if they reach us too.

2.All of us will start spreading the message above to all our
contacts. We will buy and make sure that all our contacts
get `Thiruvasakam By Ilaiyaraaja' in its original form.

3.We will form a core group for `Friends For Good Music' and will
meet often to promote good music.

4.From now on, the meeting of all the members of `Friends For Good
Music' will be held once in two months at Santhome Communications
Centre, 150, Luz Church Road, Mylapore, Chennai – 600 004,
preferably on a Sunday. It will be a two-hour meet and while the
first hour would be full of discussion, the second would be full of
musical performances.

5.The group will communicate through a Yahoo Group that will be a
different one from Ilaiyaraaja Yahoo Group. It will be under the
control of Rev Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj and some of our volunteers will
be its moderators, working under the principles and plans of Rev Fr
Jegath Gasper Raj and whoever else he suggests.
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ffgm - the group has been created,
but it has not been announced formally till now. Members are welcome
to join by sending a blank mail to ffgm-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
In the meantime, I will ask Rev Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj to join, so
that I can make him the group owner and step down to the level of a
member, as moderation of Maestro Ilaiyaraaja Fans Club itself is
enough work for me. I hope all of you will understand me.)

6.In addition to the existing list of volunteers from Maestro
Ilaiyaraaja Fans Club for field work in the marketing
of `Thiruvasakam By Ilaiyaraaja', some of the attendees of the
meeting were ready to join the same. They will join Maestro
Ilaiyaraaja Fans Club (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilaiyaraaja) by
sending a blank mail to ilaiyaraaja-subscribe@yahoogroups.com as
soon as possible and send a mail to the club stating that they want
to join as a volunteer, following which they will be added in our
database of volunteers and will be requested to work as a team with
us then and there, depending on the need and the location of the
member. People residing abroad can also volunteer.

Finally, it was time for the end as the hall was rented only till 7
pm. In the meanwhile, we had `Oorusanam Thoongiruchu' song recited
by Mrs P Nandhini, an IT Professional, for a break. Her mellifluous
singing brought everyone to their best spirit and people started
accompanying her song by humming, following Rev Fr Jegath Gaspar
Raj! Mrs S Aloysius, mother of Mr A Clement, was another singer of
the day. She surprised all of us by a Carnatic Recital in Simmendhra
Madhyamam raaga on Jesus Christ! It was nice to see that music could
easily take over religion and needless to say, she did it perfectly!

There was another singer in the gathering. He sang many songs which
the audience had never heard, but are waiting with lots of patience
in full musical appetite (as rightly pointed out by Mr Karthikeya
Sundaram)! Can you guess? Yes – it was Rev Fr Jegath Gasper Raj and
the songs he sang were the ones composed and rendered by Maestro
Ilaiyaraaja for `Thiruvasakam By Ilaiyaraaja'! For every song, the
crowd came up with thunderous claps and we only needed more and more
of it! But not taking any credit, Father said, "Wait to get the full
product, with 90 violins and lots of other instruments to support
the voice track because that is where Ilaiyaraaja's uniqueness comes
in play – when the vocal part can reach the masses, the
accompaniment alone can be played without the lyrics, as a separate
symphony for the western world to enjoy!"

Thus, the three hours passed in a jiffy leaving us the least bit
tired but more optimistic and hopeful about the future of good music!

Let us all strive for originality and meaning in music to reign!

Yours Always Musically,
Dr J Vijay Venkatraman.

Founder & Moderator, Maestro Ilaiyaraaja Fans Club at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilaiyaraaja





'Maestro Ilaiyaraaja' - Let All The Elements Say His Name!

[Cinefan]

Thanks for the details Dr.

[kbee]

Went through your postings in details. I am little upset that only 72 people turned up for this meeting, but anyways its just the beginning.

This product has to be distributed across the globe. I am again not sure who is releasing the CDs, but if its under Saregama/HMV banner or under Sony banner, you have a better reach, but if its by any one else, your chances are very less. Another option is to market this product thru Ayngaran group of companies

If its not Saregama/HMV please send me a PM. I will give you the details of some CD distributors, and I will atleast ask one of them to market this product to their best.

In addition, we will also start our ad in our site and our friendly site.

Thanks

[jaiganes]

Dear TISK,
Happy to be a part of friends of good music. Is there an idea of hosting similar meetings in Bangalore too? I work in Bangalore and it will be difficult for me to regularly attend the meetings in chennai. I bet that there will be equally good number of Thamizh music in Bangalore too. Anyways, Congrats to a successful launch of new initiative to spread good music and culture.

[NormalMan]

Any updates on the TIS release schedule? March is coming to an end. Will I get my cd's on April'14th?

[tmrrmt]

April 14th is just a week away - is TIS releasing at all ??

[Shankar]

So far no announcements from the TIS team, is it getting released on 14'th April ?

[arunprakashhh]

I THINK IT WILL DEFINITELY BE RELEASED ON 14 APRIL

[TISK]

Dear all,
Here is a message from Dr. Vijay Venkatraman who is helping Fr.Jegath in India as appeared in his IIR group. Hope this gives you the needed answers.
Let me also add that IIR sent the masters back to Sony for some more minor corrctions before giving it for copying which, of course, cost us an additional 2K [!!] which has been taken care of and the masters are in the hands of the Maestro and Fr.Jegath by last Monday and that also contributed to the slightly revised schedule! Anyway, by God's grace, all this team could do have been done and now it is upto the Big Powers to get it out asap to the entire satisfaction of the Fans and alikes. The hurdles we faced and the problems we overcame is a saga which I would definitely share with you all one day! Thank you for your patience but let me assure you all that it will be worth your wait-- both the Cd and my story!! :-) YIA!!
And now, here is the mail from Dr.Vijay V::

""Dear Friends,

Here is the most recent and confirmed news on the release
of 'Thiruvasakam By Ilaiyaraaja' from Rev Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj:

The original CD of 'Thiruvasakam By Ilaiyaraaja' will be handed over
to the Prime Minister and the President of India on April 14, 2005.

The original CD's and cassettes will be available in all audio
outlets across the country from May 7, 2005.

I hope this news clears doubts of many people. Let us strive to make
this album a grand success!

Yours Always Musically,
Vijay.""

[app_engine]

TISK,
Will there be a `karoke' version (means sound track only but no vocals?)...

[kbee]

TISK

Thanks a lot for carrying this wonderful message.

Sorry to bug you for more details, but I do need to know who is releasing the CD. If it is Sony or HMV/Saregama or TSeries or any other normal indian brand, I dont have any issue,I will get them from the distributors. If it is by some new company, I need some help getting the CD. I will buy atleast 100 CD to begin with and I am sure as the CD gets popular, we can place reorders (just placed an order for 25 How to name it and 25 Nothing But Wind)

Thanks
kbee

[multinamatheyan]

TISK,

Good to know the CD will be released as scheduled - at least ceremonially.

Do you have any news when we poor saps in Canada will be able to get copies?

Also, how about the pre orders? Is that under TIS-USA's jurisdiction or is that being handled from India as well?

Thanks.

[TISK]

Dear 'aap_engine', 'Kbee', 'MNt' & all,
As I had mentioned earlier, I am passing on all the current info. as and when it is available to me which I will continue to do so.
KBEE, I do have you in my mind and will definitely get back to you once the finer details are made known [to me!]. Fr. has gone to Switzerland for a very short visit and once he is back, I will know more and you too!!
'A-E', I have also talked to Fr. about such a CD but that needs to be finalized by IIR only!
'MNt', I think Canada will be covered by us[a]!
YIA!!

[tmrrmt]

TISK - Thanks a million for the wonderful news! be assured that your prayers are joined by those from others like me

[alias]

Thiruvasagam is finally releasing .....yahooo.... And this is a secret news and ppl. do not leak out of the forum... It is going to be marketed by Kamal Hassan and the insider told me that office and bungalow of Kamal hassan is filled with Mumbai xpress and Thiruvasagam cassette and Cds.

Please Note: Kamal Hassan just informed that Raj kamal audios have sold a lakh copies of Mumbai Xpress.

[multinamatheyan]

alias,

It's been over 5 years since I last spoke to you I think.

Nice to know you're still the same - immature :-)

....later

[kbee]

i think alias is ARR just couldnt get any idea on how to score BGM so he is trying to find out if he can get anything by going thru IR forum

[irfansong]

Once I got a message from Fr. Jegath saying that there is a 20 minutes English piece in the Album.

I hope it will rock IR fans vigorously. As he is now free from a life time achievement and project, he will concentrate more on Tamil movies. We can expect more number of movies and more number of melodies from our IR..

:)

[baroque]

April 14th is just a day away! Wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year! I am very excited about TIS! Congratulations to Rev.Jegath, Dr. Shankar Kumar and all volunteers who worked very hard in this great project with passion and dedication! Best Wishes!
My prayers and love to my Ilayaraaja for the success of TIS! Love, vinu.

[kbee]

TISK

TFM is getting worst, so I decided to get out of here. I placed an order for TIS and also added in my webstite for pre-order.

Will send you PM/email you later to ket in touch with you (not just for TIS but in general). So for you - see you later, for others Goodbye

[alias]

kbee, dont go man... I was just kidding about Thiruvasagam. I am really excited about the album. Atleast if I dont buy I will download it :-) but kbee, we are all here for fun so please dont quit.

Let me cool you down. IR is the greatest music director ever born in India. Are you happy? Now come back man.

[alias]

And multi, come man.... you are calling me immature. If I say IR is good then you will call me good mature. Oh what a world. This world is unkind to people who speak truth and I am one of them (in Sivaji style leaning on the wall) :-)

[multinamatheyan]

Alias,

I missed you. Good to see you back in full bloom :-)

....later

[NormalMan]

Its 14th already and I don't even see any announcement of whatsoever sort. I know this is a fan driven effort and through donations from the well wishers. But every well wisher has the right to know what happened to the cause he supported and donated for. Tell us what is really happening. If it’s another postponement, we will understand.

[jeera]

From the TIS-USA site:


[April 09, 2005] - The first copies of the 'Thiruvasakam By Ilaiyaraaja' CD will be presented to the Prime Minister and the President of India on April 14, 2005. The original CD's and cassettes will be available in all audio outlets in India from May 7, 2005.

[TISK]

Just now spoke with Fr.Jegath![finally]
IIR has gone to Calcutta in connection with a CD release on Gandhi by Birla Foundation with the PM as the Chief guest. He will be handing over a copy of TbI to the PM on this occasion.
Next week both Fr and IIr will be visiting delhi to meet with the President to hand over a copy of the TbI CD.
A deal with Sarigama is to be signed in the nest two or three days and it will be exactly 20 days from the signing for the CD's to hit the market.
US and overseas deal details will be finalised during this time and the details will be announced shortly.
So, in all probabilities, the CD will be available by the 2nd or 3rd week of May for all of us.
More details will be updated as and when i hear more on this.
An exclusive special edition package for USA will be available from the US team with an attractive T-shirt, booklet and additional logos by the end of May.
Details and cost will be announced in a couple days.
Thank you for your patience and requsting you to make this a memorable event!
YIA!!

[irir123]

Great ! Great News indeed !!

how about marketing the CD ? is Sari Gama good enough ? they should not end up clubbing this album with the ANUP JALOTA/ANURADHA PAUDWAL kind of devotional album category !

[kbee]

A deal with Sarigama is to be signed in the nest two or three days and it will be exactly 20 days from the signing for the CD's to hit the market.


Thats a good news. I dont have to go around searching for the distributor. BTW Its SaReGaMa.

Thanks
kbee

[kbee]

is Sari Gama good enough ? they should not end up clubbing this album with the ANUP JALOTA/ANURADHA PAUDWAL kind of devotional album category !

Not enought to populraize this product as a true international product. Saregama has a huge network in UK, USA and across the globe and as VERY GOOD contact who keep these type of products, so they can easily sell between 30000 to 40000 products across the globe, but really taking it to the western world is not in their hand. It has to be done by some ad and with help from people like us.

[irir123]

Dear TISK : can you send me a test mail to this id ?

irir123@rediffmail.com

Thanks

[12bums]

Guys check this link out. Further confirmation.

http://dvdunlimitedonline.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=2402

[alias]

Yes thats kbee site. Kbee, why is this Cd that expensive. does it have multiple CDs?

[vijayr]

kbee/other ad-makers, please consider changing the title to "Thiruvasagam Oratorio" or "Thiruvasagam in Oratorio" in all the related websites to be technically correct. IR himself has said that TIS is not the correct title. It wont go down well especially if you are trying to sell it in the West. Just a suggestion

[kbee]

vijayr

changed the CD title

alias

the price we put on the site is subject to change. The price is based on what TIS and other sources gave us, but if it is released by Saregama, it should be lot less. If it is saregama, we can beat any body's price. Period.

[alias]

kbee, do you have Thayalkaran which was produced by kalaipuli Dhanu and has Partiban and Aishwarya(lakshmi's daughter). it is around 80-90 movie. And also Aavaram poo (directed by bbharatan and it has music by IR). I need their DVDs.

[alias]

And kbee, when is the The RIsing releasing? Do u have any idea? Same thing with Anniyan, GF and Aah Ahah?

Thanks kbee.

[kbee]

alias will send you a PM, dont want to post in this thread, which is purely for TIS

[alias]

Thanks Kbee.

[kbee]

Probably someone posted this link, but this is the first time I read this.. The last line really made me cry

http://www.hindu.com/2004/11/26/stories/2004112603032000.htm

[alias]

After reading this article, my curtosity has grown. Kbee, ask the company to release it as soon as they can. Do they know a confirmed date?

[TISK]

PL. READ THIS ONE ALSO! THIS IS FROM THE WEEK MAGAZINE.

http://www.the-week.com/25apr24/cinema_article2.htm

YIA!!

[tmrrmt]

TISK - one sincere suggestion - OUTLOOKINDIA is a terrific magazine with high profile readership all over the world - why don't you please release a press statement (say, a one page article) on TIS through OUTLOOKINDIA ?

www.outlookindia.org

[TISK]

I will do so. I am sending your mail to Fr. right now. Thanks.
YIA!!

[alias]

Sorry for my ignorance... what is TIS and how is TISK involved?

[app_engine]

TIS - Thiruvasakam In Symphony (Now name changed to Thiruvasakam by Ilayaraja as the album is in oratario format and not symphony)

TISK - group of organizers, represented by Dr Sankar Kumar, I think...

[TISK]

Thank you, app_engine! Long time , no see!
:-)
YIA!!

[btw, YIA = yellaam iRaivan aruL!!]

[app_engine]

You're welcome, TISK:-)

[tmrrmt]

TISK - I have other suggestions as well :

we shud try for a feature, at least a small clipping in the Arts Section of TIME magazine - that will do wonders

though I am not a big fan of Times OF India, I think TOI should carry a special Sunday Feature on TIS and also on IR's legend(!) - TOI is the most sought after paper throughout India and it will do wonders for the album's marketing - special mention on the English and the proposed Hindi version of the album could be made in that article

The Poetry Society of UK and the Arts Council of UK (the latter already know of IR's genius - 3 years ago I had contacted them and requested if they could do a project with IR, say, setting to tune/music William Wordsworth's, or Emerson's or Keats' poetry in symphonic format! - they said they were quite aware of IR's reputation and would be honored to work with him!) also be contacted and given publicity about TIS -

I remember the Arts Council of UK putting up Sempulappeyaninaar's poem "YAADHUM YAADHUM YAAYAAGIYARO, VENDHAYYA NUDHAYYA ...... IRANDARATHHAAN KALANDHANAVAEY" on the walls of underground tube stations in the UK! perhaps they can put up verses from Tiruvasakam (and the English translation beneath the same) followed by a caption "the immortal poetry now in Western classical musical format - Courtesy Maestro.Ilaiyaraaja!!

will give you Arts Council's links shortly

[irfansong]

Dear Friends,

I think Time magazine should have the clippings. Times of India had already written a lot of articles on IR.

Once they'd written a big article on IR and his awards & reputation. People like Sarath Kumar, KS Ravikumar, Karthik Raja, Harris Jayaraj etc had commented on him.

Then, when Pithamagan came, there was a wonderfull article in Bangalore Times on IR's music only.

When Virumaandi came in Telugu also, IR was in the news. Regarding Tiruvasagam I think the Hindu is following up.

With love
Irfan

[app_engine]

I'm not sure whether this link was already posted in this thread or discussed...since it's related to Raja & Symphony, it makes interesting reading...

There used to be heated discussions in the DF as to whether Raja composed the Symphony #1 for RPO...(as it was never released to the public). Here one Karthik claims there was one & he was the exec producer...
http://in.rediff.com/movies/2004/apr/24rahman.htm

[kbee]

I talk to Saregama yesterday. They are releasing the CD. I am planning to do a big promot with Saregama (not sure in what shape and other details). The committment is to sell 1000 CDs by us. Hopefully we can do that. Also the price of TIS would be lot less than listed in TIS or dvdunlimitedonline. It is expected to go to single digit. Will keep you all posted as soon as I hear anything from any source.

[vijayr]

kbee, thats good news, thanks for the update. This should encourage ppl to buy more copies. Also apart from CDs, cassette sales is also pretty important. I guess a big chunk of the sales would be due to the cassette-buying audience, who regularly buy devotional cassettes. In India CDs are still not affordable by everyone.

[MumbaiRamki]

kbee ,
I whole heartedly appreciate ur intrest and enthusiam ..
Which area are u promoting ?

[baroque]

I agree with MR! Thanks Kbee for your efforts :D

[kbee]

MumbaiRamki, we are based in USA. So the ad that we give will be targetting USA-Canada and to some extend UK, but its online, so anyone should be able to see.

I dont know what the plans are from Saregama. It may vary from simply giving our site link thru' various SAregama promotions (will benefit us). Since this product should be available across entire streets and corners, there wont be any exclusivity on this product, meaning there wont be any ad that says "TIS presented by Saregama and (my store name)". I am still waiting for the details. I will talk to them in two more days (Tuesday) and will give more details.

Worst case, I will spend $1000 from my pocket and promote TIS CD.

[kbee]

I had a quick chat with Saregama rep in USA. He will have the exact details in 2 days about the product itself (including price). He also mentioned that Tamil Maiyyam is also planning on big promotion. I hope they lauch this product in India very well.

He mentioned that they will NOT try to promote this to non-indian audiances, because they have bad experiences with american retailers, including Best Buy. Their checks bounce and they owe lot of money to Saregama, so they dont want to hurt their pocket again.

If anyone have any suggestion to take this product (or atleast pass on thew news) to non-indian and even non-tamil people,that would be great.

While saying this, I must admit that IR owes a lot to Telugu people than Tamil people. While Tamil people simply go on to the next train (ARR or YSR or HJ or VJ), Telugu ppl are still thankful to IR and the respect they have for IR is something amazing.

and BTW, we never sell audio cassettes, but TIS will be an exception, since people who dont have CD player in their car (quite possible if your car is before 99) can buy tape to play in the car. Thanks for the suggestion.

[MumbaiRamki]

Kbee
The major thing will be the Indian Stores in US - No Indian miss to go to Indian Shop .

U don't require a Tape to play .You can buy the 'car Kit Adapter' and directly play from CD !

[kbee]

Small update. Saregama India is planning on BIG promo for this product. BIG promo usually means between 20000 to 30000 USD for Ad. They are going to have a BIG CD launch in 2 weeks. Since they didnt get the dates confirmed from VIPs they didnt tell anything. Will know more in 2 days (and update you all in 2 days)

[tmrrmt]

kbee - cna you send a test mail to irir123@rediffmail.com ? I can give you some suggestions

thanks

[kbee]

sent you one couple of seconds before

[baroque]

Thanks kbee for the encouraging, positive updates-- vinu.

[tmrrmt]

Kbee- sent u a reply - check it - thanks

[kbee]

Thanks kbee for the encouraging, positive updates-- vinu.
Anytime (and anything) for IR. I missed the opportunity to donate to TIS, but its time for me to pay.

[kbee]

One more news. Saregama wanted to price this product like any other product (means a single CD would cost around $7 for this category),where as tamilmaiyam doesnt want to compromise on the price. It seems some one in USA told them that people in USA will buy for $15 - $20. Who ever gave the information to TamilMaiyam does not know the facts here. The minute Thiruvasagam CD is released, I am sure mohankumars and other "well wishers" will post the MP3, so even a dedicated IR fan will download MP3 than buying a product for $20. So if they price the product any more than $7, this is going to be a disaster for tamilmaiyam.

In addition, if the product is priced at 15, it would be around Rs 500 in India, which is not affordable for a common (non IT) man.

In my opinion, this product should be rated same as "Vishnu Sahasranamam" or "Venketeshwara Suprabhatham" by MSS, just because it is an ever green - ever selling product and I am sure many of us here wanted TIS to be such a product.

I dont know how many of you here are in USA, but if you are in USA,please express your opinion on the price, so hopefully TISK or someone associated with tamilmaiyam will carry the news to relevant people.

[Ilavenil]

It seems some one in USA told them that people in USA will buy for $15 - $20. I am sure mohankumars and other "well wishers" will post the MP3, so even a dedicated IR fan will download MP3 than buying a product for $20. So if they price the product any more than $7, this is going to be a disaster for tamilmaiyam.

This is 300% true.

[baroque]

Kbee, So far we are comfortable buying carnatic/Hindustani/devotional single CDS $9.99, double CDs-- $12-$15, Mostly film music albums prefer $5.99 and under. They are regular prices I am mentioning. I have got couple of times very good discounts for may be I am buying 10 CDs or more than $ 100 worth of purchase etc.. from our local Indian music shops.
I think $7.99 is a reasonable price. Definitely with tax $10 is reachable to all.
Some web sites yerukku rt, i am not sure, long time back a friend of mine told me The mahal.com you get cheaper prices etc.. i have never bought, so i don't know.

[vijayr]

kbee, I agree with others that 10 is a reasonable price. Tamilmayyam must be dreaming. And thay havent spent anything on marketing/promotion so far either.

Also as an aside, I havent heard Fr.Gasper mention even ONCE in press about the contribution of TIS-USA team or other fans in US or India towards the completion of this project. He keeps talking about his own loans. I hope he mentions it atleast in the future.

[vijayr]

kbee do you think the length of each track would prove to be a deterrent in converting to mp3s? If each track is 10-20 mins long then mp3s wont be that easily downloadable especially from sites like coolgoose, unless otherwise the quality is poor.

[baroque]

Hai, i have a silly question... itunes do they charge each track 99cent or depends on the duration of a track the price varies? romba naal doubt idhu?

[thops]

// Also as an aside, I havent heard Fr.Gasper mention even ONCE in press about the contribution of TIS-USA team or other fans in US or India towards the completion of this project. //

vijay...tisusa's participation was mentioned in the press meet...

[thops]

i think $15 was based on the cost of classical albums from Sony...for example ARRs "warriors of heaven and earth" is currently listed at $13 (on sale at a lower price)...

[thops]

and nothing can be a deterrent in converting and distributing tracks as mp3s...

i think the US price should be determined by the price in India...i am sure formulas exist for the markup...

[prabhudas]

Kbee,
It is really very nice of you to take active part and promote this project at this time.
I wonder how u missed the meetings held in NorthEast area last year.
I think the price should be minimum 10$ and maximum 15 $, most of the online CD/DVD buyers opinion is that the shipping and Handling charges are huge in many sites, which should be taken into consideration also.
Reasonable discounts towards bulk purchases of more than 5 may help people buy more.

Are u involved in the making of the special commemorative
( I might have spelt that word wrong) T shirts ?

Prabhudas

Are there anyways to contact Mohankumar and other "wellwishers" and request them not to do their usual social service in their sites?
I know, Coolgoose admin will respect our wishes in removing the mp3 ( personal experience) links if we request them.

[vijayr]

thops, if the duration of each track is long it wont be as easily uploadable/downloadable as film tracks.I didnt say that conversion to mp3 wasnt possible.

If TIS-USA was indeed mentioned I stand corrected. But from what I have read and heard so far no mention of the fans contribution was made by Fr.Gasper. Even when he appeared on TV he was talking about incurring heavy loans but didnt mention the fans contribution.

[kbee]

Kbee,
I wonder how u missed the meetings held in NorthEast area last year.
Thats like missing a life time opportunity. I recently only joined TFMpage, while searching for some reference related to IR music. Since then TFM became my home(page).

Related to "Are u involved in the making of the special commemorative
( I might have spelt that word wrong) T shirts ?
"

I am not, but if you know someone is, please let me know. I can definitely contribute to this effort. If no one initiated, I can work on this. Please let me know. I do know people who own companies in Tiruppur, so should not be a problem printing. The problem is only in importing from India, but I can check on that.

tmrrmt, I got your mail. I will reply seperately to your mail.

All

There is a belief that the more a product is priced, the better the product will be. Thats also one of the reason why certain products are priced higher. When we had NBW and HTNI for $7, no one bought the CD from us, because they thought its a duplicate CD. The minute we increased to $10, we sold out and I have orders for atleast 25 CD, but I couldnt fullfil them. So $10 seems to be reasonable, with volume discount for people who buy 5, 10, 25 copies.

[kbee]

Sent a mail to quote for both round neck tshirt (normally you get them for $3 in streets of NY) and polo type TShirt (you get them between 5 - 10).

[prabhudas]

Kbee,
I think TISK had mentioned earlier in this thread about the
"T shirt", please check with TISK, but it will be a good idea especially for all HCIRFs to have ( order) one if that is eventually available
Prabhudas

[kbee]

Just off the phone with Saregama. Ppl in India still wanted to price the CD at 15, but saregama USA sent some facts on the CD market here. They asked me to "stay put" regarding tarrif and other details.. Will updte you as soon as I hear from anyone.

I need some help. What are the websites where we can give Ad for TIS.

[tmrrmt]

"What are the websites where we can give Ad for TIS ?"

give me some time, I will get back with details of websites

[irfansong]

When will Thalaivar's name come in the webpage given below?

http://www.grammy.com/awards/grammy/47noms.aspx

[kbee]

Hopefully very soon. He truly deserves it and much more.

[sseshadri75]

I have been eagerly waiting to get TIS before I leave to the US.I hear that it will be released on May 7 in India and after May 2nd week in the US.Any updates?

[tmrrmt]

kbee - no replies from you yet to my mail ?!

[kbee]

sorry, i didnt check my mail. I will reply to you today

SSeshadri75, it is not going to be released atleast till end of the month, since the CD is not yet replicated,pending some dispute over the price. Saregama gave a bad news that if the retail price is not with in $10 mark, they might pull off the whole deal... lets hope something good happens very soon.

[TISK]

When an ordinary Brittney Spears or Michael Jackson album goes for 14.99 to 17.99$ at every release to think of this monumental one time great product to be under 10 is unthinkable and not amounts to giving proper respect to the artist, effort, accumulation of talents, FR's sincerity and the loan obligations.
It is in the hands of the Tamils all over the world to come forward and show their support in the following ways:
1. Whatever may be the price to purchase at least one CD for each family.
2. Resolve not to upload or download to an MP3 format.
3. To send request letters to all those sites who generally put it on MP 3 of anything, to not to do it for this one.
4. Promoting it to their friends and families thru personal e-mails and group mails.
5. If anyone is aware of any organizations like the Nagaraththaar Sangam, Saiva sangam , etc. to approach them or forward their contact addresses to be sponsors for this project.
6. If any one knows of any grants available for such products, to let us know asap. We will contacct them and follow it up.

Friends, one should hear this CD, especially that 20.36 mt piece on Sivapuraanam from Thiru vasagam to really know what I am talking about.
I am willing to play it for serious inquirers who can assure me of such sponsors.
Please get in touch with me immediately at 919-413-3913 or send an e-mail to ommuruga41@YAHOO.COM.
THANKS.
YIA!!

[kbee]

TISK

I understand from the obligations point of view, but Saregama is talking from their markettability point of view. No matter what the price is, I am committed to promote TIS cd for our maestro.

BTW is the CD released? or it is the master copy that you have. My understanding from Saregama is that it is not replicated.

Thanks
kbee

[baroque]

Dr.Shankar, Whatever may be the price we will purchase TIS for us and our family. Please don't get upset about $10 market rate view points. IR is GOD! HE is everything to us. We want TIS to be a success! Best Wishes, Vinu.(i feel very bad now i posted inthe $10 cd prices discussions )

[kr]

TISK:

I am a big fan of IR and will definitely buy the CD for whatever the price is.

However, if what I am reading in your statement about how this product deserves $17 because a Britney Spears album sells at that price reflect6s the current thinking by you guys on marketing of this product, pls. think through this.

You could have got a real good price for this product if you had released the producty right after all the publicity happened with the progress of this project and completion of the project. The environment was good because the publicity created huge expectations for the product. However, you are losing a lot of the momentum created by the publicity as the time lags on.

With regard to the Britney Spears etc., thwe pricing is dictated by supply and demand. Because of the popularity of Britney, the album producers may feel confident about the demand and price it that way. I would still have no problems you charging that amount for the TBI CD but I think the logic of parallels to Britney CDs may not be appropriate reasoning.

As I saw in another post, if now the release of the product is going to be delayed until end of May is true (from a previous announcement of mid-may), I think these are the type of things which will detract from your ability to charge a premium. The delay would refelct again an erosion in credibililty as the dates get moving.

In addition, I would avoid again referring to debts incurred by Fr. jegath in marketing of TBI. It goes agains the premium image you are trying to build for the product. I am not saying that the effort and the debts undertaken by Fr. Jeagth is not laudable or need not dealth with, but if you try to tie it to the marketing, pricing and positioning of the product, you defeat your purpose of building a premium image of the product.

These are my thoughts more to be helpful to the project. (I have contributed US $500 to the project and am extremely hopeful for the grand success of the project)

[app_engine]

Pricing is always a complex issue...

1. Bottomline: It has to reflect break-even for the project cost with expected MINIMUM volume. Any further quantities can be subsidised if the demand is not extremely high (which is expected for any classical album, as it won't go with masses and may not sell in millions)

2. Premium pricing will typically ensure lower volumes...as it would be deemed as not `janaranjagam' but `for upper classes', which is true in this case...that way, if the threshold for break-even is not very high, this is the right strategy to keep up the image of the work.

3. OTOH, if the so-called trumpeting of `popularising-the-concept', `enlightening-the-people' etc are the true intentions (I think so, otherwise so many wouldn't have given voluntary donations) then premium pricing is WRONG...as it defeats the purpose of reaching the masses with an important message. It gives a wrong `mEttukkudi-property' image which defeats the original mission proposed...

4. Either way, pricing it `reasonably' low...i.e. without losing to get to the break-even point while ensuring mass distribution will be the correct thing...because, many more will be encouraged to buy and piracy will be minimum...

All IMHO...

[kbee]

kr

I believe TISK took the liberty of discussing the debts in this forum since it is not for promoting the CD, than sharing info among TFM friends, so from that perspective it is okay.

KR is right about one thing. "Kaattrulla bothe Thootrikkolla vendum" The momentum is there still and will still be there, but day by day it is going to loose, so the sooner we release the CD the better.

On pricing, if the retail price is set fro $15, then depends on the wholesaler/retailer and their margin, some of us can still sell it for much less than $15. For e.g. I am planning to donate $1 for every CD, so if my price is $10, then I will sell it for $9. Here my intention is not to degrade the product/pricing,but to contribute from my part as donation. Like minded retailers can and will do the same. We have done similar things for some of tsunami efforts, so it is not unusual for retailers to sell below cost. Its indirect way of promoting/support the product.

Above all, after taking to Dr Shankar, I feld that the success of this project is key, not only to the effort all the people put so forth, but also for the upcoming projects. Lets all help in whatever way we can to make this a HUGE success. For e.g. if your immediately family is in india, if they dont buy the CD, you can present the CD to them. This can be a very good gift for many occasions (marriage, anniversary, brithday).

[kbee]

Latest update, CD will be released by end of June. Retailer rate would be around $15

[MumbaiRamki]

kbee ,

Thanks for the info !
SOme of us shoudl try to persuade the like minded friends like Mohankumars ,oosai ,raaga etc not to release the album over the web for free ....Iam trying to collect a list and put up a request ...

[jaiganes]

TISK,
Why not release the product in Asia and then look at the prospects worldwide? If the volumes of sales are very good then you can demand any price you want. IMHO the success of the album will convince saregama or whoever to push the price label up. I am not a marketing expert, so it is my personal opinion.

[tmrrmt]

TISK - on my part, I have been sending emails to organisers of several music festivals all over the world, for putting up flyers of TiS at their venues - hopefully, that will help in some kind of marketing for some niche audiences abroad

as for sponsorship, I already mentioned quite a number of times about the ARTS COUNCIL, UK -

email - Anna.Higgs@artscouncil.org.uk

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/index.php

another possible source is the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation
www.menuhin-foundation.com/

Has the TiS team tried to contact any of the above at all ? if not, please do it -

How about arts/music foundations in Europe ?

Let me just give you one cautious note (I hate to call it a 'warning') - already many hard-core IR fans that I know of, are snubbingly going around wondering "is TiS going the way of the symphony ?"

So, do something proactive and pls stop talking about Britney Spears and MJ, both of whom have a huge market globally and hence are in demand - think of what we can do practically

[tmrrmt]

kbee - can you please check your mail and revert back to me ASAP ?

Thanks
Madhan

[kbee]

Mr Madan

I replied to yrou email. I will keep 10 copies of HTNI, NBW, I24 hrs and MX (hindi version only available). Apart from these, if you wanted to add any other CDs, please let me know. I will get it from whereever it is.

[tmrrmt]

Kbee - replied to your mail - pls. check

[irfansong]

HI Guys,

I kept browsing through the magazines, netsites, newspapers etc. No info about the releasing of our thalaivar's dream work. Any info about that?

I'm waiting .... !

All our friends r waiting...

love
Irfan :shock:

[mohan02]

They have been deleting my postings, as only cowards will do. They have absolutely no interest in making this project a success....we can all wait and wait, no one involved will do anything to market this product. I suppose they have all got they want already.....go ahead delete this post tooo.....

[sseshadri75]

Mr Madan

I replied to yrou email. I will keep 10 copies of HTNI, NBW, I24 hrs and MX (hindi version only available). Apart from these, if you wanted to add any other CDs, please let me know. I will get it from whereever it is.

Kbee sir,
is I24 hrs a symphony like HTNIT or NBW?I have not been able to find it in Bangalore.

[irfansong]

HI Guys,

Week 2 has gone with great expectations for the TIS release. Will week 3 atleast fetch some fortune for IR fans?

[njv]

irfansong, i went to kbee sir store last week and asked him about TIS. he said he doesnt want to discuss anything about a product that is not yet released, since it might impact the ongoing talks between TIS team and the people who is going to release the CD. He also mentioned that nothing concrete happened yet and the CD will not be out 3rd week of June. So we have to wait I guess.

[Ravi_odiyur]

Going thru' all the posts only makes me want to grab the TIS CB at the earliest! But wonder when that would happen.

I read an April '05 issue of "The Week "which stated that IR plans to officially release the album to the president, Abdul Kalam and the album may be available to the public in May. Its already May and I wonder when its going to available in the market.

[kannansanderson]

With the kind of information coming out here, like the final sale price agreement is the cause of delay ( whether it should $10 or $15), I just thought of recalling the attention of all to my previous posts here......

In the end, they keep talking about their debt (not to forget that they have not yet published the contribution details from the collections made in US in USD)....

And giving out reasons like final sales price, that this is a much valued product than the pop albums in the market bla bla.....

Proving once again these people just do not know what they are talking about.

It is sad that Ilaiyaraaja's second major western classical work is loosing its sheen because of these characters surrounding him.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

· From: Kannan Sanderson on: Thu Dec 2 05:11:40 EST 2004
SSSSAV

It is ok that finally it has been decided to call this a music in Oratory format. But the fact that when vocal -solo and group voices- are involved then it can never be a symphony format.

But the most important thing now is "When are you guys going to release?" having created so much hype during the last few months.

Anything concrete happening on that front because suddenly there seems to be a total silence here in this forum as well as the Tis web site.

As to Fr Jegath's comments that big companies like Sony/Universal are not interested in South Indian music, I would like to add some thing.

No music company will touch a product unless they have a clarity on the target audience and target market. That too a product for which already you guys have pumped in so much money.

Lack of knowledge and planning is evident here in the way in which things happened. Of course, the attitude seem to be "after all it is other peoples money" and the supreme over confidence that once complete then this product will sell like a hot cake. And we will not only return the n number of blokes from whom loans have been taken but make enough money to do this and that etc.

To give you an example, I don't understand why you should go Mumbai for voice mixing when it is Tamil vocals you are mixing. Because it is common knowledge that it would have cost 10 times more than what it costs in Chennai.

Secondly, people finally buy the product for the final quality and not just for recording quality or the recording engineer. Just because a Grammy award winning recording engineer did a product, you can not hope to win a Grammy. But eventually these kind of things add up to your project cost. That is where a lack of clarity in your objective and planning come to the fore.

And you guys talk about a CD at $20 some thing which is way above what the market can absorb. Even top selling album of the pop, rock variety does not cost more than $10 to 15.

Basically where to fit in this product, that must be big question for any label that consider taking up this product.

It is not a plain orchestral work. Because in that case, at least on paper, the whole world becomes your potential market.

It has vocals in Tamil. So you have to restrict yourself to Tamil and Tamil speaking market.

But then there also there is an added dampener. It is not just Tamil but also in English.

So eventually it looks like in all your hype, hero worship and over enthusiasm you seem to have created a product which no one wants to touch. Even if some one takes it up, it is not going to be with a fat down payment as you guys might be imagining.

You may have to spend for the initial marketing blitz. Eventually the record company will pay only so much for every piece sold after deducting for their marketing, distribution and margin. So for a $10 end price, you may get about 4 or 5 to give you an example.

In the end, you have clearly over spent far above the possible returns. Of course, the total collections and expenses details are yet to be published. But even a guesstimate must be mind boggling, I am sure. Because there were hints in some of the mails and announcements that this initial project cost will touch Rs.1.0 crore. That is really a huge sum for a 60 minute album, if you know music business!

All the best in your efforts.

Kannan Sanderson
· From: Kannan Sanderson on: Tue Dec 14 07:22:38 EST 2004

"If, in the meantime, you guys want to make a smear campaign, please feel free and go ahead with your abuses, which are not new to us. THIS TIME, TiO IS A REALITY AND NO FORCE ON THE EARTH CAN STOP IT FROM REACHING THE MASS IN A BIG WAY"

Hello SSSSA,

Better stop all this bravado and come to the point.

You go all the way to New York and spend considerable amount of time and resources and declare that the product is ready.

Then the Maestro gets into correction mode and you go thru the cycle all over again.

Already you had admitted that the Maestro made a last minute demand in New York to change the recoding to Surround Sound and that added up some unexpected shock to the already over blown budget. Now comes the rework.

This is what I call lack of clear planning, objectives and total lack of regard for other people's money! You are not doing this as a project in a professional way. Just going along as it takes to the whims and fancies of the Maestro.

Does this show any sense of ownership or responsibility on your part? Absolutely not.

And you talk about people making a smear campaign. If some one asks you a question, in your parlance, it is a smear campaign, is it?

Hello Boss, have you forgotten that you are doing a public project with public money. And you have the responsibility to answer?

The last update in your site was on 3rd Dec. Where is the Rev. Father? Why no news man? Naturally people are concerned. Because they have paid for this project.

By getting upset whenever some one asks you questions, you are just trying to run away from the issue.

KS


kannansanderson


Posts: 4 Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 3:17 am

Info from TIS-USA site
US$ INR
Orchestra-Hungary 58,000 2,726,000
English Lyrics Stephan Schwartz 15,000 705,000
Richard King Sony Mixing 27,000 1,269,000
Ilaiyaraaja-Travel Stay Hospitality 10,000 470,000
Chorus recording India 50,000 2,350,000
Admin Overheads 4,000 188,000
Total 164,000 7,708,000

Loans India 100,000 4,700,000
Loans USA 50,000 2,350,000

Total 150,000 7,050,000

The Tamil Maiyam web site gives a donation list totaling to Rs.10.5 lacs.

The TIS-USA site lists the names of the donors but not the amount. Hence we don’t know the total donation inflow from the USA. Some time back Fr.Jegath mentioned a loan of USD 100,00 for him self and USD 40,000 for Mr. Sankar Kumar.

When I thought even Rs.77 lacs is a mind-boggling sum for a 60-minute album, Fr. Jegath talks of a total expense of Rs.1.2 crores. I just don’t understand many things here. Some of the expense figures are obnoxious, to say the least.

On what basis some one could have spent so much on a single album ?

And his talk of audio piracy, MP3, FM broadcast etc. have not come out just now. They are there for quite some time. And they are the reasons even major labels have stopped spending so much in creating new albums. Even when they do, they take into consideration these aspects before estimating a realistic sales figures and expected revenue. Based on which they plan and fix their project cost. Not the other way round.

A simple back of the hand calculation would tell you the kind of numbers TIO has to sell before even recuperating your investment.

And in this condition, the proud decision to donate all the profits this and that only looks like a crude joke.

Total Cost USD 255,319 Rs. 12,000,000

Pre release/Post Release Publicity USD 30,000 Rs. 1,410,000

Sales Estimation to break even:

Assuming a base price of USD 10 or INR 470 per CD as the final sales price
Inflow after Distri Commission/Freight expenses will be USD 4 per piece or INR 188 per piece.

Assuming the total production cost of Rs.1.2 crores plus the pre-release/post release publicity cost of Rs.14 lacs the total is Rs.134 lacs.

At this return rate of Rs.188 per piece, you have to sell about 71,330 pieces of CDs to break even. It would be very easy to get carried away with imaginary number of fans and the nos they may buy. But the reality may not be that easy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[njv]

kannansanderson, when crappy Anniyan is produced for 30 crore, why not TIS for 1.2 crore. Dont under estimate the effort TIS team put together and how monumental this task is. The delays are expected when you have a product that is so expensive and no big undertakers. I agree there may have been some mistakes, but like you said, TIS team doesnt intend to make a commercial profit to create this album, but wanted to give one of the best possible album for tamil community. Thats the reason why they have to go with Richard King or Hungarian orchestra.

I dont know if you know the CD pricing here in USA. Tamil movie CDs cost between $8 - $15 depends on where you buy and pricing TIS for $10 or $15 is nothing compared to the crappy albums. Even if you compare TIS to MSS Subrabhatham / Kandar Shashti Kavasam, the CD price is between 10 - 15.

Also, based on your calculation, 72000 pieces of CD is not a big number, because we have huge Srilankan Tamil people who are "shiva" devotees and will surely buy them. The main market for this product is going to be Europe, Canada, Middle east and India and NOT USA. I would be surprised if the product sells even 1000 pieces with in USA.

Also, people donated the money, with the same heart and feeling when they donate money to any temple. They do not want to know how the temple spend that money, neither they expect a detailed ledger from God to know where your $10 was spent.

Its a very tough time for TIS, Fr. Jegath and all other who are involved in this project. if you cant support them, atleast please keep quite and dont discourage.

[baroque]

Thanks njv! I understand the frustration of some of our friends. But people, please stop posting harsh messages. It is not helpful.

[vijayr]

Got this message from IR yahoo club's moderator:
-----------------------------------------
Dear Friends,

Here is the good news that we have been expecting for the past 2 years
and more:

'Thiruvasakam By Ilaiyaraaja' will be launched on June 26, 2005 at
Chennai in a grand function that will be attended and presided over by
many dignitaries. The deal had been signed with 'HMV'only yesterday.
So, it is time that we get ready for the action plan, according to Rev
Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj.

The price will be announced just before release only, to avoid
confusion. Let us get set for the next signal.

Yours Always Musically,
Vijay.

[vijayr]

A little late, but better late than never..

[TISK]

[tscii:039eb02143]Dear all,
here is the mail received today from Fr. Jegath[copied to me] which explains the good news authentically. Let's gear up for its success from now on and work with one heart! Thanks. YIA!!

"Dear Mr. xxxxxxx,

I am pleased to inform you that the release of Thiruvasakam in Symphony is now firmly and irrevocably fixed for June 26, 2005. There will not be any going back.

Though the delay gave us pain, anguish and financial nightmares. I have absolutely no sense of regret or sad feelings because the music is phenomenal, enchantingly creative and it will live for more than a thousand years.

I am pasting here a letter written by Mr. Stephen Schwartz, America’s most celebrated opera play writer. He has written the English lyrics for our album. He sent this letter after listening to the complete Thiruvasakam in Symphony. Here is that letter:

“Last night, at sony studios in New York City, I had the pleasure of hearing the almost – finished mix of Ilaiyaraaja’s amazing work. It is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before, a stunning blend of Indian and of western music and instruments. I asked Mr. Raaja if this was something different for him too, and he said he had never done anything like this piece before. I don’t know if anyone has. So I believe those of you looking forward to this are in for a great treat. The section to which I contributed English words is about twenty minutes long and dovetails back and forth between Mr. Raaja singing in Tamil and an American singer singing in English, plus there is a large and beautifully prouced chorus. Mr. Raaja’s orchestrations are superb, and the recording engineer, Richard King, has done a spectacular job sonically. I felt so very proud to be a small part of this project. The entire project for me has been an enjoyable and fascinating experience from beginning to end, and I feel extremely lucky to have been asked by Mr. Raaja to participate. I can promise you with confidence you are in for a major treat when you hear Thiruvasakam in Symphony”.



- Mr. Stephen Schwartz

I am sure you like this appreciation.

Yours fraternally,

Fr. Jegath Gaspar Raj.



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