Tag: Umang Bedi

Josh conducts India’s biggest online Antakshari on World Music Day

National: Josh – India’s fastest growing and most engaged short video app recently concluded #Let’sPlayAntakshari,the biggest Antakshari ever played in India on a digital platform, during the week of World Music Day 2021. Engaging creators and users across Bharat in a virtual celebration on the app, the online programme was hosted by renowned singer and comedianSugandha Mishra and received participation from ace musicians and singers in the industry including Mika, Shaan, Neeti Mohan, Sukhbir, Ankit Tiwari, Salim-Sulaiman, Neha Bhasin, Mamta Sharma and Abhijeet Sawant.

Bharat’s all-time favourite musical game – Antakshari on Josh, brought together millions of musical souls from different parts of the country, while also giving followers and fans the opportunity to sing along or lip sync with their favourite Indian singers.The epitome of Bharat’s culture and heritage, Josh, with this campaign aimed at infusing every Indian’s heart with music while encouraging them to enjoy several underexplored genres of music like retro, sufi, romantic, emotional, blockbuster on the short-video platform.

#Let’sPlayAntakshari that launched on June 21, 2021 ran till June 27, 2021 in a fun and highly engaging format. Every day, one iconic singer dropped a theme (say ‘Mausam’), a word (say Dil) or a letter (say ‘M’) on the platform inviting wide-range participation and videos from users and creators. What elevated the fun and set this one-week music extravaganza apart, was that thousands of users and creators across India shared exciting videos featuring themselves in duets with celebs. The app’s Antakshari special filter was a hit among users as it made them look and feel like a star. By the end of the high- octane campaign, #Let’sPlayAntakshari clocked spectacular engagement with over 50,000 videos being uploaded by 12,000+ creators, garnering over 2.1 billion views on Josh. The top 5 winners of the online game were rewarded with cash prizes; the top 100 creators and top 100 UGC users were also gratified by the Josh team.

Umang Bedi, Co-Founder, Josh said, “In what has been indeed a challenging year for all of us, celebrations like these bring satisfaction to our hearts and evoke the spirit of oneness in us. While #LetsPlayAntakshari provided ouraudiences with a rich musical week, it was also a step towards Josh’s commitment in giving exposure to budding creators to collaborate with top level artists and showcase their talent.As the famous saying goes– ‘baithe baithekyakarein, karnahaikuchkaam, shurukareantaksharileke prabhu ka naam’ – so we thought why not make use of this opportunity while staying safe at our homes!”

Josh is a made-in-India, short-video app launched in September 2020 by VerSe Innovation. It represents a confluence of India’s top 200+ best creators, the 5 biggest music labels, 15+ million UGC creators, best in class content creation tools, the hottest entertainment formats, and formidable user demographics. Josh has been consistently rated as the leading Indian short-video app in India on the Play store with 100 million downloads. Currently, Josh is the fastest growing and most engaged short-video app in India with 105 million MAUs (Monthly Active Users), 51 million DAUs (Daily Active Users) and 2+ billion video plays per day.

Saregama strikes licensing deal with India’s leading short video platform, Josh

Feb-2021:  Saregama, one of India’s largest music labels, has announced a music licencing deal with made-in-India, short-video app, Josh by VerSe Innovation. Users of Josh, India’s fastest growing and most engaged short-video app today, can now access old and new songs from the Saregama library with over 1,30,000 songs to create innovative content.  As part of this deal, Saregama will license its entire catalogue to Josh allowing users to create content inspired from its robust music library in diverse Indian languages like Hindi, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi and Gujarati, amongst many others.

Saregama is India’s oldest music label and holds the richest catalogue spanning genres like film/non- film songs, devotional music, ghazals & indipop in more than 25 languages. Users on Josh can now create content to songs by legends like Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Gulzar, Jagjit Singh, R.D Burman, Kalyanji Anandji, Geeta Dutt and Laxmikant Pyarelal making their experience on the platform even more engaging and fun.

Commenting on the partnership, Vikram Mehra, Managing Director of Saregama India said “Our partnership with Josh is another example of how more and more people find evergreen music relevant, with age no-bar. Saregama has music to offer to all generations and age groups across languages. It’s great to associate with Josh and see such innovative content getting created.”

Over 77 million monthly active users will now be able to explore the Saregama music library on Josh which celebrates the mahagathbandhan of 200+ exclusive top creators, India’s biggest music labels, the hottest entertainment format, and formidable user demographics.

Speaking on the partnership, Umang Bedi, Co-founder, Josh said“Music is a universal language, and language is at the heart of every endeavor and innovation at Josh. This partnership is a great reminder of that focus – one that makes sure there’s a song for every user, creator and moment on Josh, today. If a 2020 movie could recreate a 1951 Albela classic into a quirky, pandemic soundtrack, who knows of the myriad possibilities when you expose creative minds and souls to an evergreen music library. What better way to celebrate a new decade of creativity, than to welcome Saregama into our vast music library.”

About Saregama India:

Saregama India Limited, formerly known as The Gramophone Company of India Ltd is a RPSG group company owning the largest music archives in India and one of the biggest in the world.  The ownership of nearly 50 per cent of all the music ever recorded in India also makes Saregama the most authoritative repository of the country’s musical heritage. Apart from music creation and licensing, Saregama is also involved in Retailing of Carvaan, Film Production under Yoodlee banner and production of TV serials.

About RPSG Group:

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group is one of India’s fastest growing conglomerates with a significant global presence. The Group’s businesses include power and energy, carbon black manufacturing, retail, IT-enabled services, FMCG, media and entertainment, and agriculture.

About Josh:

Josh is a made-in-India, short-video app launched in September 2020 by VerSe Innovation, as a commitment towards expanding its family of apps focused on Bharat. Josh celebrates the mahagathbandhan of 200+ exclusive top creators, India’s biggest music labels, the hottest entertainment format, and formidable user demographics. Currently, Josh is the fastest growing and most engaged short video app in India with over 77 million MAUs (Monthly Active Users), 36 million DAUs (Daily Active Users) and 1.5+ billion video plays per day. Its users get to enjoy bite-sized videos up to 120 seconds ranging across categories including viral, trending, glamour, dance, devotion, yoga and cooking, among others. The Josh app is available on Android and iOS.