Spice Girls founders on talent hunt for Asian band

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NEW DELHI - FarWest Entertainment, founders of British pop girl group Spice Girls, is planning an all-Asian girls band and is on the lookout for a talented candidate in India.

FarWest has launched a global initiative ‘Project Lotus’, which is a movement to find, train, groom, form and launch a global and international Pan-Asian girl band aka the Asian Spice Girls.

The band will bring together five good-looking, intelligent and talented young Asian women from China, Japan, South Korea and India.

“This is really Asia’s time on the world stage and there’s no better way to connect the world than through music and entertainment. We hope we will build a group that will blaze the way for more talented Asian performers in the international entertainment scene,” Jon Niermann, CEO FarWest Entertainment and former president of Walt Disney (Asia), said in a statement.

Producer Eliot Kennedy, who has worked extensively with the original girl band, said: “We look at this as an opportunity for these girls to become ambassadors of their countries and showcase their talent to the rest of the world.”

A Grammy Award winning songwriter, Kennedy is also known for his works with Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, Robbie Williams and Blue.

The responsibility of finding the Indian contender has been given to Alchemist, a young talent solutions company.

“It would be a challenge and an exciting task to present the best Indian talent to the international jury from which the Indian finalists will be chosen. We are going to audition in four top metros - Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Bangalore - and expect our online partners to do so for all those who cannot make it to these cities,” said Manish Porwal, managing director, Alchemist Talent solutions.

Five Indian finalists will be chosen, who will be flown to Hong Kong to meet and train with finalists from the other countries. The band will sing only in English.

A 14-part series, “Project Lotus” will be aired on Zee Café.

Music composer Shamir Tandon will lead the judge’s panel of the show in India.

The English band members were Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Victoria Beckham.