News Broadcasting
CNN’s ‘Talk Asia’with Indian composer extraordinaire A.R. Rahman
Airtimes: Indian Standard Times
Saturday, March 18 at 0930am, 2000hrs and 2230hrs
Sunday, March 19 at 0600am, 1700hrs and 2030hrs
Monday, March 20 at 0900am
Indian composer and musical superstar, A.R. Rahman talks to Lorraine Hahn about his love of music and life beyond Bollywood in this weekend’s TALK ASIA. Rahman has more than 50 movie scores and a string of successful albums to his name and is currently composing the music for a stage adaptation of ‘The Lord of the Rings’. Called a ‘Composer Extraordinaire’ by the Indian entertainment industry, he was honoured in 2002 with the Padmashree title, India’s highest civilian award, for his contributions to the arts.
Rahman started as a professional musician in his early teens in order to support his family. After a chance meeting with movie director Mani Ratnam, his music soon transferred to the big screen for the Indian blockbuster ‘Roja’. With his innovative mixing of technology with traditional Indian songs, Rahman’s tunes created a new buzz in the Bollywood music scene. “I was a big fan of electronics …when computer music, and computers and all this stuff came-it was fun, I was having fun”. His unique style featured in movie hits such as ‘Lagaan’ and ‘Rangeela’.
Collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber then led the maestro onto the stage with the hit musical ‘Bombay Dreams’, acclaimed by London’s West End and Broadway alike. Rahman views the new stage adaptation of ‘The Lord of the Rings’, as “probably ten times more than Bombay Dreams! You have like 18 hydraulics moving on stage…in three and a half hours…it’s amazing stuff!”
Educated in both the eastern and western music disciplines, Rahman sees the two schools complementing each other. To nurture the next generation of musicians: “My biggest dream now is to start a classical conservatory in India, or Chennai. I think the discipline of classical music is very important – and then we can ring in the eastern elements into it”.
AIRTIMES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE
For more program information and details on upcoming guests on TALK ASIA visit http://edition.cnn.com/ASIA/talkasia/
News Broadcasting
News18 India to air Sabse Bada Dangal on 4 May counting day
Channel promises fastest results, live trends and analysis across five states.
MUMBAI: Ballots will do the talking and screens will do the shouting. As counting day approaches for high-stakes Assembly elections across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry, News18 India is gearing up for an all-day broadcast of its flagship election show, Sabse Bada Dangal, on 4 May from 6 am onwards. The Hindi news channel plans to deliver continuous, real-time updates as votes are tallied, combining live counting data with on-ground reporting and studio analysis. With political fortunes set to shift through the day, the coverage will track every swing, surge and surprise as trends turn into results.
The broadcast will feature a mix of senior political leaders, analysts and experts, offering instant reactions and decoding the evolving electoral picture. Expect heated debates, quick takes and detailed breakdowns as the numbers settle across all five states.
For News18 India, counting day has long been a high-visibility moment. The network is banking on its reporting reach, editorial bandwidth and technology-driven coverage to stay ahead in what is often a fiercely competitive news cycle.
With multiple battlegrounds and shifting narratives, the day promises both drama and data in equal measure. And if all goes to plan, Sabse Bada Dangal will once again turn the counting of votes into prime-time spectacle.
