Tour Down Under 2007

Another significant milestone:

by Mahes Perera

As you read this today, Bathiya N Santhush must surely be relaxing after their successful concert in Sydney day before yesterday (August 10) the third date of their Tour Down Under 2007, which commenced on August 3 with their opening concert in Melbourne.

Just imagine the scene: Bathiya N Santhush walk on stage and go straight into their hit Nanane Na and the audience scream, with delight with their hands held high they stand and dance to the enticing rhythm which mesmerizes them, the rhythm that undoubtedly has had a major attraction and which makes them go near crazy.

The world knows that Bathiya N Santhush have come to stay in a global scene that has given Sri Lanka prominence, given Sri Lankan music an identity that is unparalleled.

It was a task tracking down Santhush to have a pow wow about the groups tour in Australia and also about their future plans. He with the other members were laying down tracks and filming videos in a night-to-dawn scenario before they took off to Melbourne.

This "Tour Down Under 2007" as we call it, is good. Our opening concert at Melbourne is on August 3. Our next date is August 5 at Brisbane, then we fly into Sydney for a concert on August 10.

We are off to Wellington to perform on August 11 and we will be on stage in Auckland on August 17. By the looks of it all our concerts are sell outs and we are looking forward to meeting up with our fans and being friends again. We will be returning to Sri Lanka in the first week of September," says Santhush.

These were guys who firmly believed in dreams in order to hit the pinnacle. "You have to have a dream in life! "Dreams are possible," "Even your wildest dreams can come true," was what they told themselves and others when started off as fledglings in a controversial music scene in Sri Lanka.

Today their youthful beliefs have achieved a Midas touch reality and the Bathiya N Santhush are a household name in Sri Lanka. They have four albums to their credit - Vasanthaye, Life, Tharunyaye, Neththara, The Re Mix Album and very recently the tally has hit five with their Ayubowan - Namaste (Hindi album).

"We want to establish BNS as a brand in Sri Lanka. We are now a household name in Sri Lanka and we are looking at areas that will help us in our objective. BNS Productions handles all the activities of BNS and the band.

Sarigama Productions is a fully fledged audio engineering house with up dated technical facilities. There is an audio studio for recording commercials, songs, corporate songs, jingles and advertisements for top brands in Sri Lanka. Then we have two studios to record music for films and tele dramas."

Sarigama Productions helps young artistes to record their compositions and are ever ready to encourage their talent to develop. Ashanthi has benefited, now Randir's new CD is in the can. The new artiste Yashan's songs, Dushyanth's music and Umara's too are on track for the CDs to be released shortly.

'Keeping the buzz alive' says Santhush "is a co-ordinating unit which operates our Showtime Entertainment - an event management company which quite naturally concentrates on entertainment.

The Company has handled the Sirasa Super Star event, the launch of the albums by Shihan and Ajith, FM parties in Colombo, the Shakthi Superstar show, many corporate launches and all the Nethra concert. We have a vision and a dream of staging show entertainment abroad. Right now we are preparing for a concert production in Korea in September. Our production staff is working on it."

There must be a new album in the making?

"Basically BNS is working on this and it is going to be an explosive album which we hope to release at the end of the year in December."

BNS must be happy about the Indian project?

"Yes of course! We got the opportunity to sign up with Universal Music and they are doing a great job with the album Ayubowan (Namaste). The video with Sanath and Chaminda has hit the Indian charts which means we are certainly proud to be Sri Lankan."

Stakeholders in Sri Lanka tourism, BNS' spirit strength, quality, aggression has escalated them to their present prestigious position they enjoy. Azia Dauysy opened the doors of fame for Bathiya N Santhush when they won the silver award with Nevanthi and Ranidu, wowing the audience singing their hits Siri Sangabodhi, Life and Manusathakule.

Today with Ashanthi and Randir, the group is on a high enjoying popularity and success never before achieved by a Sri Lankan pop group.

They've composed their own songs and still continue to do so,... are role models for young singers and groups aspiring to become famous... have traversed the globe and performed on many concert stages much to the delight of audiences... are a concept that proved to be successful and completely revolutionised the Sri Lankan music industry...