‘Soul India’ Music Festival to Take Place from 26th February to 2nd March

Pune, 22nd February 2025: The much-awaited music festival ‘Soul India’, conceptualized by renowned singer and two-time National Award winner Padma Shri Hariharan, is set to take place in Pune from 26th February to 2nd March 2025. This special festival aims to bring various musical traditions to a common platform for music connoisseurs. Organized by Hariharan’s Native Collective Foundation, the festival’s management has been entrusted to SwarZankar, as announced by Violin Academy founder Pt. Atulkumar Upadhye.

The core idea behind this festival is to offer music lovers the opportunity to experience the beauty of diverse musical styles on a single platform. The festival will showcase Indian classical music, ghazals, thumri, and Maharashtra’s traditional musical forms, among others.

Pune has always been known for its open-minded and appreciative audience, especially when it comes to innovative musical experiments. Acknowledging this, Hariharan emphasized that Pune was the ideal city to launch the ‘Soul India’ festival.

The festival will commence on Wednesday, 26th February with ‘Saaz Aur Awaz.’ This event will feature a vocal performance by the renowned singer from the Rampur Sahaswan Gharana, Ustad Ghulam Niyaz Khan, alongside a sitar recital by eminent sitarist and composer Niladri Kumar. This event will be held at Bougainvillea Farms, DP Road, Karvenagar, starting at 6pm.

On Friday, 28th February, music lovers will get to experience ‘Sounds of Maharashtra,’ a grand musical showcase that encapsulates the rich traditions of Maharashtra’s diverse musical heritage. This special program, conceptualized by National Award-winning singer Rahul Deshpande, will include performances of bhajans, kirtans, natya sangeet, bharud, and lavani. The event will also incorporate specially produced audiovisual content alongside live performances. Rahul
Deshpande himself, along with renowned singer Priyanka Barve, will perform at this event, which will take place at MIT WPU, Kothrud, from 5pm onwards.

On Saturday, 1st March, ‘Kings in Concert’ will bring a spectacular musical treat featuring Hariharan and Shankar Mahadevan. This Bollywood music-based program will showcase solo performances by Padma Shri Hariharan and acclaimed singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan, followed by a collaborative act with a grand orchestra. This concert promises to be a feast for Bollywood music enthusiasts and will be held at MIT WPU, Kothrud, from 6:30pm onwards.

The final event of the ‘Soul India’ festival in Pune, titled ‘Shaam-e-Mehfil,’ will take place on Sunday 2nd March, at Phoenix Market City, Viman Nagar, starting at 5:00pm. This special program, dedicated to ghazals and thumri, will feature promising young artists Samrat Pandit and Madhubanti Bagchi performing thumri, while Prithvi Gandharv and Pratibha Singh Baghel will present soulful ghazals. The festival will conclude on a high note with a performance by veteran
singer-composer and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardee, Padma Shri Suresh Wadkar.