Sixteen-year-old Vijay Ganesan, who started learning guitar only last year, is one of the winners of India’s unique online competition called Fame Music, conducted by SAE institute.
He has been ably supported in his attempt by his friends Hari Hara Sudan (16) and Vishnu Sudan (14).
These youngsters from the SBOA School and Junior College, who are yet to form a band officially, started their journey together last December when the competition was announced.
“It all started when Hari called up one day and told me about the competition. We decided to participate in it in spite of having exams. Then we started a group where I was the lead guitarist and vocalist, while Hari Hara Sudhan was on rhythm guitar and his brother Vishnu Sudhan was pianist. That was when I composed my first track and fortunately my friends liked it,” recalled Vijay.
The Fame Music online competition, which drove the independent musicians to explore a wide range of musical genres, was completely voted by the public and the winners were awarded based on the voting they received for their track uploaded on their website.
All three said that the competition, which took place online from December 2012 to February 2013, tested their ability to a larger extent as it was the first competition they were participating and involved a lot of hardwork for them to achieve success.
“Winning the votes was even harder but yes, we won,” quips Vijay, who along with his friends received a cash prize of `10,000 for ending up third.
Jibin George Sebastian from Kerala received the first prize of `25,000; the second was Megha Girish from Hyderabad, who was awarded `15,000.
The awards were presented by Gnana Rajasekaran, a National Award-winning filmmaker, who was completely in awe with the technological advancement that is accessible to every age group now. He also advised the trio not to lose focus in the process.
Along with the winners, SAE, with AAT Academy, also felicitated their alumni, Rajesh Murugesan (music composer) and Shabareesh Varma (singer), who are now known for their viral hit song Pistah from Neram.
When asked if they wereready to name the band officially after this success, Vijay and his team said: “This competition has helped us to get a lot of recognition as a band, which we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. But since we are all in our Class 10 and 12, we have to concentrate on that for a while after which we are certain of starting an official band.”