MUMBAI: Pepsi MTV Indies, the natural habitat of the indie soul, is all set to celebrate its first birthday as the world’s largest platform for everything indie. And joining Pepsi MTV Indies to throw a first of its kind indie experience 'SPIRO - An MTV Indies Takeover' is Live Viacom18. The indie takeover is set to kick-start with its first edition in Mumbai on 1 April, 2015 and will continue on till 4 April, 2015.

In less than two years, LIVE Viacom18 has created close to 13 large format properties in the music and entertainment space engaging close to millions of fans across its 207 on-ground events. The division that believes in amplifying brand experiences by leveraging the several strengths of the network has engaged more than 20 million individuals on the digital platform and a further 75 million on television. SPIRO - An MTV Indies Takeover promises to be an indie experience like never before where fans will now get to celebrate the world of subcultures through music, comedy and cinema.

For the first four days of April 2015, SPIRO will take over the city of Mumbai with multiple events across music, comedy and film. Beginning at extreme ends of the city, SPIRO will weave its way towards the centre, showcasing the best of contemporary indie culture along the way. It will culminate in a day-long cultural takeover of Mehboob Studios, Bandra, featuring film screenings, stand-up acts and a jaw-dropping line-up of musicians – including the headlining act, Grammy-nominated electronica producer Pretty Lights. Now that’s a birthday party worth gate-crashing.

"The first year has been so heartening that we are ready to take our next big leap with the announcement of our landmark live experience. Our goal is to connect all our platforms seamlessly and this is an opportunity for us to do just that. The world of sub-cultures is exploding and we are excited to be right at the heart of it, firing up this revolution. Set Up. Discover,” said Aditya Swamy, EVP and Business Head, MTV and Indies.

Being the world’s largest indie platform, Pepsi MTV Indies has always nurtured disruptive, unique, independent talent. Pepsi MTV Indies seeks to bring alive experiences with the aim of bridging the gap between artists and the audience. With its association with INS for the creation of SPIRO, Pepsi MTV Indies aims at seeding and building indie culture that the youth can truly claim as their own.

Commenting on the launch of this new property, Integrated Network Solutions SVP and business head Jaideep Singh says, “Live Viacom18 has over the last 2 years build iconic music properties in genres of EDM, Rock, Bollywood, comedy, alternate Music and always aimed to hit the right note amongst the youth. With the launch of SPIRO, we have moved into the indie music space which is coming of age with huge interest amongst youth and it aims to connect our audience from across diverse music and cultural genres. Announcement of pretty lights is an indicator of the kind of line up that we will have on Spiro which will amaze our young music fans.  This is our first big step in the Indie music space and we are sure that consumers would love the line-up and the experience on ground around the music. "

SPIRO - An MTV Indies Takeover, will feature various indie musical acts along with a cultural experience that spans everything from movies to comedy, including a headlining act by Pretty Lights. Since his debut in 2006, Pretty Lights has been holding the indie torch high, with a prolific stream of releases – available as free downloads on his website. He’s gone on to perform at the biggest music festivals in the world, including Coachella, Bonnaroo, Electric Daisy Carnival, Ultra Music Festival, Outsidelands and Electric Zoo. In 2011, he set up his own label, Pretty Lights Music, now home to the brightest names in electronica like Michal Menert, Gramatic and Break Science. His 2013 album, A Color Map of the Sun received a nomination in the Best Dance/Electronica Album category at the 2014 Grammys. Pretty Lights music crosses many genres, forming a combination of glitchy hip-hop beats, electronic, nu Jazz, and vintage funk and soul.

Pepsi MTV Indies that launched a year ago, today reaches about 25 million homes and 10 million weekly viewers across the country through its TV channel, and has also launched a specially designed app and website that facilitates music discovery. It is associated with a radio channel – Radio One FM – for an exclusively weekly indie music show, with Blue Frog for a monthly Indie showcase - RIBBIT as well as several other live concert and festival partnerships to take the indie spirit far and wide. The world’s biggest indie platform is all set to take over Mumbai as #IndiesTurnsOne this year!