2013-02-13 — /travelprnews.com/ — The entire 58 minute sound and light show at Red Fort, Delhi is now available for free viewing on You Tube. This has been done on the directions of Shri K Chiranjeevi, Union Minister for Tourism. The Minister had last month directed that the audio tracks of all 23 sound and light shows funded by the Ministry of Tourism should be uploaded on the internet for free viewing throughout the world. This was done with the objective to spread widely the knowledge about our various important heritage sites.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Tourism yesterday, uploaded the first two sound and light shows, both being operated directly by the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). Since You Tube is mainly a visual channel, reference images of both sound and light shows accompany the audio track.
The two shows are the sound and light show at Red Fort, Delhi and the sound and light show at Purana Quila, New Delhi. By uploading the entire audio tracks of these 58 minute and 54 minute shows respectively the Ministry of Tourism has become the first tourism authority in the world to upload its entire feature-length sound and light shows on the internet.
As a search of the word ‘sound and light show’ on You Tube will reveal, all SEL shows presently available on the said website are excerpts of between 1 and 9 minutes length and are not from the original soundtrack. They have perhaps been uploaded by spectators and not by the tourism authority itself.
Because the two Delhi shows have been uploaded from the original 5.1 (5 speaker) sound track, the Ministry of Tourism has ensured crisp stereophonic sound on You Tube. When You Tube becomes ready to host 5.1 (5 speaker) sound, its users will be able to hear the Indian sound and light shows in their full glory.
It may be recalled that the sound and light show at Red Fort, Delhi, which was mounted in 1968, was written by the legendary writers Ali Sardar Jafri, Kaifi Azmi and Khushwant Singh and directed by the renowned film director Chetan Anand. Its Hindi version has the voices of cinestars Meena Kumari and Amrish Puri, the latter then a relative newcomer. The English version has the voices of Kabir Bedi and Pratap Sharma.
The sound and light show at Purana Quila which went live in December 2010 has the voices of Naseeruddin Shah, Mukesh Khanna (Hindi) and Himanshu Sabharwal (English) and the show is visualised scripted and narrated by Himanshu Sabharwal.
Samir/rv
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