MUMBAI: For almost a decade, the Marathi movie and music industry have embraced the evolving preferences and tastes of the consumer whose range of consumption covers Marathi folk and western rap at the same time. In a similar continued effort, one of the youngest existing music directors of the country - Soham Pathak - in collaboration with Vivid Motion Pictures and director Vasudeo Rane (of ‘Timepass’ franchise) will soon provide the listeners and viewers its own fusion show.

Titled ‘Soul Curry Studio’, the concept – quite similar to famed initiative Coke Studio – will feature 114 musicians plus 40 singers in a season comprising 22 episodes. “The compositions and ideas are in place, we will soon start the shooting process,” informed Pathak, who recently won ‘Mata Sanman’ for his contribution to ‘Bioscope’. The first episode of the ambitious project ‘Soul Curry’ will be uploaded during Diwali, and the creators hope to rope in a TV channel to reach out to wider audience.

The nature of the first season would vary from fusion between Marathi traditional sounds and other diverse styles from various parts of Maharashtra. The experiments will extend to fusion between Marathi music and other popular relevant sounds of today and previous eras. “Soul Curry features a few Bollywood musicians, independent artists, noted singers from Marathi industry, and I have ensured right people are involved with respective music. So you can expect adivasi singers from remote areas of Maharashtra singing about their culture, experienced artist educating about ‘abhang’ (devotional poetry in Marathi), DJs for modern take on fusion, Coke Studio’s session musicians, a flutist, a sitarist, Kashmiri folk singers, you name the genre and I have fused their sounds with Marathi music,” informed Pathak.

The project calls itself ‘World’s First Marathi Music Show’, and Pathak’s efforts so far have justified that statement. Thane-based ‘Benchmark Studio’ provided the musicians the space for recording and jam sessions, however, the shoot will take place in Film Studio, Goregaon. The shooting for the first episode begins on the first week of October, and Pathak informed that every episode will showcase five episodes throughout the season. Director Vasudeo Rane will be involved for the first two seasons, and although the work for the second season has already begun, Pathak added that the success of the first season would help us further to work on the concept for the next season.

In order to create awareness, Soul Curry – apart from the promotion on social media platforms – will travel to colleges and venues and host a competition. “Four singers will be chosen from these competitions and these singers will get an opportunity to sing in ‘Soul Curry’ project.” The three-year long effort that began as an idea for producer Vinay, led to the search for an ideal music director that ended with Soham Pathak. “We started working together for ‘Soul Curry’ in September last year, and now, a year later, we are almost done.”

Speaking to Radioandmusic.com a few months ago, Pathak elaborated on his mission when it comes to Marathi music stating, “I respect everything that Marathi composers have done so far, and I owe them a lot. My methods and approach, however, would differ and I want to redefine it without hurting its original identity. I want to make it trendy.” Clearly, Pathak’s approach involves ‘inviting world to Marathi music’ rather the traditional way of ‘exporting Marathi sound to the world’, and from global perspective, the method has worked in the favour of certain examples, be it K-pop or Rajasthani folk.