MUMBAI: Often you would find radio jockeys gaining quite the fanbase by just their voices and not faces. But here is RJ Meera and RJ Suren, who have a new self-titled Radio Mirchi evening programme, 'The Meera & Suren Show'.
'The Meera & Suren Show', previously titled 'Sunset Samosa' has put the RJ duo right on the celebrity status.
The duo says that since the show has been re-vamped people have started recognising them."It is very rare that people recognise me by my voice, but because of the campaign, now many know me by my face," said RJ Meera. RJ Suren said that as a duo, they are very regular. "But, when you see your own face on a billboard, things change. You are curious to know why is your face on a hoarding?" he said. RJ Suren still gets embarrassed when his friends ask him to click a photograph of himself with the show's hoarding. RJ Meera said that celebrities like Soha Ali Khan, Parineeti Chopra and Sonu Nigam are of the opinion that the RJ duo is "all over".
'The Meera & Suren Show' sports a tagline "Breaking Music". And, they are in fact staying true to the show's motto. In addition to playing the latest music in the Indian film industry, the RJ duo also talks about the composition of the music for the film. Having played and talked about Bollywood film songs for more than half a decade, the duo has a fair idea of which are the songs that people would want to listen to on their show, and which are the songs they would want to keep on their iPods'.
"When we are given an album, we know which songs the listeners would want to listen to. The first two songs in any album are usually commercial; from song number three is where the good music can be heard," stated RJ Meera. Having had a background in Hindustani classical music, RJ Meera has a keen ear to the classical influence on today's music, while having grown up listening to Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree, RJ Suren is quick to detect the variation in a song's musical arrangement.
RJ Meera further goes on to say that there is a common stereotype that says Bollywood music is not cool and she aims to remedy that. "The people who feel that Bollywood music is uncool are snoots. The contemporary Bollywood music has some exceptional songs. Songs from films like 'Haider' and the upcoming 'Happy New Year' and 'Kill Dill' have beautiful songs," said RJ Meera.
Radio Mirchi‘s Mumbai Cluster Head Preeti Nihalani says that acquiring music content for the show is not daunting, as believed otherwise.
This proposition that Radio Mirchi has undertaken to "break the latest music" is a "virgin territory", so says Nihalani. She also stated that the radio station has promised to get breaking music, though they mean to get good breaking music. To achieve that aim, Radio Mirchi has an entire team of music supervisors who curate the music that plays on the show. And, no, the music management team are not Meera and Suren.