All India Radio has opened a window into its treasure trove of archives but the number of albums it has released so far is just a drop in the AIR ocean.
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Connoisseurs of Carnatic music rank T Brinda and T Mukta along with MS Subbalakshmi and ML Vasanthakumari. But elder sister Brinda’s opposition to commercial recordings meant no albums were released during her lifetime. After she died in 1996, All India Radio (AIR) approached sister Mukta for permission to convert the duo’s recordings at its studio into an album, which she agreed to. Thus, AIR was able to release an album of the sisters, indisputably a prized possession for any classical music aficionado.
This album is now available at the counters of AIR stations, and is one of 62 released under the banner of Akashvani Sangeet, AIR’s attempt to commercialise its enviable archives. The list of 62 includes many an album any fan of classical music would be happy to possess, from Bade Ghulam Ali’s thumris and bhajans to Semmanagudi Srinivasa Iyer’s concerts. The tiny counter on Parliament Street in New Delhi thus represents a new window for music lovers. And yet, this would be a mere drop in the ocean of AIR’s archives.
Through its broadcasts and recordings, dating back to the 1930s, AIR has built up a collection that is a veritable treasure trove — running into some 48,000 tapes of 24,000 hours. The spoken word component of the archives (speeches, interviews, debates and the like) include recordings guaranteed to give the listener goosebumps such as Jawaharlal Nehru’s immortal “tryst with destiny” speech and, 28 years later, his daughter declaring a National Emergency, as well as radio autobiographies of greats such as JRD Tata (in his own voice) and Satyajit Ray’s voiceover for a documentary film on Rabindranath Tagore. Equally rich is its collection of music recordings, which includes exclusive performances by the artistes in the AIR studios that nobody else possesses.
Most of the central archives (up to 2004), in New Delhi’s Akashvani Bhawan, has been digitised, as part of efforts launched around 2004 and a separate digital archives library opened to store them. But, as a former employee points out, there are 240 AIR stations in the country, some of which have very rich archives as well, and which need to be digitised on a priority basis. Equally important is the question of accessibility, at a time when archives the world over are making efforts towards this end, and of commercialisation of these one-of-a-kind recordings. In the early ’90s, AIR had tied up with private music labels EMI, T-Series, HMV (now SaReGaMa), INRECO ,and Polydor and released several albums, which are supposed to be available at any commercial outlets.
In the first few years of the Akashvani Sangeet initiative, launched in 2005, close to 50 albums were released as CDs and cassettes. After this, inexplicably, the pace slackened, as a result of which only 62 albums have been released. Contrast this with SaReGaMa, another possessor of rich archives. According to CEO Apurv Nagpal, 100,000 songs have been digitised and are commercially available, both as albums and downloads from the company’s website. “The larger chunk is still being digitised, though I cannot reveal the size. These will also be available commercially as and when the process is complete,” he says.
Another drawback is the marketing of these albums, or rather, the lack of it. For one, they are available only at the counters of AIR stations. “If these CDs could be sold at a Music World outlet, for example, there would be a huge difference in sales. CDs need to be visible in music stores — how else will they enjoy good sales,” says the former AIR employee who was part of the digitisation project. And though the man in charge of the Akashvani Sangeet counter at AIR’s office on Parliament Street is both knowledgeable and extremely helpful, I cannot help but wonder how many people would make a trip to the nearest AIR station just to buy these CDs and more importantly, how many are aware such a facility is available.
