Born and brought up in a musical household, Durga Jasraj, daughter of music stalwart Pandit Jasraj is an epitome of 'Never giving up on your dreams'. From co- hosting Antakshari on Zee TV with Annu Kapoor to producing �Idea Jalsa – Music for Soul', the singer-turned-anchor has left no stone unturned to promote and encourage classical music not only in India but all across the globe.

�Idea Jalsa – Music for the Soul' initiated by the Indian Music Academy (IMA) – a CSR initiative of Art and Artistes' recently completed five years of melodious journey providing the industry with over 700 artistes and a large repertoire of classical and contemporary Indian music. The journey of Idea Jalsa began in 2006 as a ground concert tour across 40 cities and in its third year, Jalsa went on-air as a Television program of 78 episodes on Doordarshan. It was also aired on regional channels of DD for the last two seasons and since February 2011 Jalsa has been running on Zee TV.

On achieving a milestone, Jasraj, Art And Artistes'-director and IMA co-founder, who has conceived and produced â€?Idea Jalsa' , shares with Radioandmusic.com's Poonam Ahuja her musical odyssey of five successful years, the importance and existence of traditional music in bollywood films, business expansion plans, and her strive to spread the awareness about the rich heritage of Indian music.

Excerpts:

How has the journey been so far in propagating classical music in India & across the globe?

It has been a great and multi-faceted journey. Though it was difficult at the start, but gradually everything began to appear in a proper light. It is a fact that music, especially good music has no borders and while Indian music tradition is very deep-rooted, people in India and abroad show keen interest in classical music whether it is Hindustani, Carnatic, Sufi, Ghazals etc.

Today, music is fundamental in the lives of Indians as it is a major source of cultural expression, spiritual inspiration and entertainment. I'm extremely fortunate to be the daughter of legendary Pandit Jasraj and the grand-daughter of Indian cinema pioneer V Shantaram whose genes have contributed in my artistic and aesthetic sensibilities.

Although media does not write too much about classical music it has penetrated deeply in our culture for generations. Most of the Indians all over the world take much pride in it. My quest for promotion and and deserving musicians is a huge never-ending responsibility.

Idea Jalsa recently completed five years.

Idea Jalsa has established itself as a credible music platform, and going forward, we have plans to make a digital media foray with the rich bank of this timeless content. Apart from new media, we will continue to design entertaining but musically sound performances for National Television, while penetrating deeper into the interiors of our vast country to unearth skilled and deserving young musical talent. The International market also beckons this quality production of pure Indian Music, and we are keenly determining the way forward to telecast this content internationally. On achieving this milestone of five years and 100 million TV viewers, I would like to sincerely thank all our partners, musicians and our loyal audiences.

How has the response been on Zee TV as compared to its early telecast on Doordarshan?

Absolutely overwhelming! Doordarshan was our stepping stone and it gave us a platform to promote Classical and different genres of music which reached every household. Coming to Zee has broadened the horizons. All maestros of every generation of all genres of Indian music are coming together to perform on a single platform with great spirit and this is what Idea Jalsa- Music for the soul is all about, something that really touches the soul. The overwhelming response from audiences across the country has made it one of the most successful series of all different genres of Indian Music ever. Something of this magnitude as regards to Indian music and that too on TV has never happened before in history.

Tell us about your recent ventures at Art & Artistes' (I) Pvt Ltd? Are movies on the cards?

Our main focus has been on expanding and diversifying our business footprints with carefully selected experienced talent and experts. We have grown both organically and inorganically to venture into visual effects & animation, eSports and media infrastructure.

Right Click Studios, our boutique VFX and animation studio set up in March 2011 has done interesting work like the RA-One music launch, TATA Motors ad work, along with visual effects production for some feature films, ad films and live events.

'Play Factory' is the eSports Venue Network which has witnessed significant traction since March 2011, when the first 3D centre in India opened in Mumbai. This is a hitherto virgin territory, and we see a strong potential in developing such high-end professional eSports Venues, in par with international standards.

Besides our business expansions, we have focused on going to market across various mediums with Idea Jalsa to maximise the reach of our vast content bank. In-Flight Entertainment programming and In-Room Entertainment programming, apart from Mobile Value Added Services are in progress.

There are advanced plans for a Feature Film, which will be made public at an opportune time.

How is the Indian Music Academy (IMA) encouraging classical musicians and giving them a platform to showcase their talent at a time when the industry is flooded with corporate dynamics and greed for commercial success?

The Indian Music Academy (IMA) was founded by Pandit Jasraj ji with a primary aim to reach out to the younger generation and make it aware of the rich heritage of Indian music. We are trying to popularize all genres of music, including film music. Although the concept was created in the year 2000, it actually took me six years to get it going.

The idea is to provide a platform to all young deserving musicians across different forms of Indian music, from all over India. The fact that Idea Jalsa - Music for the Soul was an initiative of the think tank at IMA, and has progressed from a live concert series to multiple platforms, is a testimonial to our thought process.  IMA provides a monthly stipend to carefully selected young talent, since the last one year, and organizes periodic review sessions with its Board of Patrons. This not only gives the young talent some basic monetary support to pursue music as a career, but also results in their getting periodic mentoring from the living legends and maestros of Indian Music first hand. This is not done with any intention of competition, winning, or a reality TV show with a prize.

Don't you think contemporary music has overshadowed classical music even though the latter has made remarkable contributions to the Indian music industry?

No, not at all, what we don't realize is that traditional music still comprises in the popular contemporary music. Qawwali, Classical, Bhajan or Sufi are part of many films' music. For e.g. songs such as 'Emotional Atyachar' from film Dev D is in pure raag Bageshri or 'Sapnon se Bhare Naina' from film Luck By Chance is in raag Bhairavi! Indian music creates a bond amongt the people and it'll always be an integral part of our lives. Music will continue to express itself in different forms, trends come and go, but the pure forms will always stay.

Where do you see the future of Indian music across genres like Hindustani, Ghazal, Carnatic, Bhajan, Sufi and folk in the next five years?

I really believe that Indian music is progressing towards a bright future. Indian music has the power to transform all who hear it to another world, in a manner of speaking. Now-a-days people have begun to recognize the value of good music and as quoted by my father Pandit Jasraj that the current generation is very enthusiastic, responsible and intelligent, even more than the old folks, so our music is in safe hands. There have been people in the present and last generation with oodles of drive but for one to rank among the legends one needs recourse to tremendous hard work, strong focus, talent and blessings. Music never fades or dies away.

How has the IMA awards helped musicians in gaining more visibility and recognition?

Having instituted the IMA Awards for dedicated contribution to music over a lifetime in 2006 and 2007, we entered into a joint venture with Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd. and Star Plus to produce India's first comprehensive Music Award for Annual Excellence and the awards were a huge success.

The first ever step of soliciting entries from the musicians and performing artistes themselves, made a world of a difference by involving the Music community directly - we received the highest number of entries ever for any music award.

The awards were judged only on the basis of quality - not Radio air play popularity, OR SMS voting, OR sales, OR random online voting... truly a recognition of Annual Excellence in Music across every genre of India's musical landscape – covering Classical, Folk, Ghazal, Sufi-Qawwali, Jazz and Blues, Electronica, Rock, DJ Remix, Film music, and others.

These awards are truly the right blend of music celebration in India.  I can only say at this stage that "Knowing what I can do to make a difference, I start doing, taking baby steps. And when you start walking, a thousand people join you."  This is what paves the path to success and it's a never dying hunger to do something for music which is so close to my heart.

All India Radio broadcasts �Jalsa' on radio, are there any plans to partner with Big FM this season, as you have already done Big Star IMA Awards with them?

No concrete plans yet, but yes we have had discussions about the same.

How was 2011 for music in Bollywood?

It was an extension to what had happened the previous year and a lead to what would have happen the next year. We got some super hit item songs that would be the best ever, especially from Dabangg and Punjabi pop-music from Band Baja Baraat. The duo Sajid-Wajid and Pritam gave hit songs and 2011 on the whole was fairly good for music.

Throw light on the crude and profane lyrics which have become a new trend in Bollywood?

This is a serious matter for the lyricists to reflect upon... its something which has nothing to do with music excellence.

Don't you think music labels should initiate and promote more of non-film music?

Most certainly, I think this is the weakest area for music labels that they have not been able to create stars, but Daler Mehndi and much before that jagjit Singh have given phenomenal contribution to non-film music. The most fascinating thing about them was that they have been predominant in their areas of Pop music and Ghazal. It is very unfortunate that the music labels have not been able to make stars from non-film music. This is an area where everybody needs to work around.

The Media is also responsible for this to an extent. The TV music channels somehow don't promote music that does not have a singer in it. For e.g. Niladri Kumar's music video had fantastic fusion of Kumar's sitar and guitar with animated characters but the TV channels didn't promote it  as it did not have  a voice. Good music should be the criteria for music channels, and this is something that I would really stand for and voice my opinion very strongly.

What are the plans for IMA-2 and when is it expected to be held?

Same time next year in March, right now we are open for entries and are finalizing them. We have a joint venture with Reliance and Star Plus for the awards and fortunately we share a very good relationship with them.

Which are your other upcoming ventures?

We are doing a huge project for the folk music in India and have escorted 90,000 tracks from across the country, covering 19 states so far. Three- Fourth of the project is done and this will be available on VAS platforms and all digital platforms. This is completely a new project featuring exclusively pure folk music with folk artiste and Idea is partnering in this venture.

There is another project that we are planning to extend with Jalsa as we have more than 50 terabytes of content which is by far phenomenal and we are planning to put it across digitally. We are also looking forward on creating our own portal which would play all non-stop Jalsa tracks. We are now at the process of designing it and the details would be shared once we are ready with the website.

We have just done a tie up with Indian Hotels that is Taj Group of Hotels for premium rooms for summers and Jalsa would be offered to them as we has created 13 episodes for them which would be on their hotel chain by this month-end.

We are always exploiting newer ways and platforms of reaching out so that we can reach maximum viewers not only in India but also abroad to make sure that music reaches out.