Mission Ustaad to sing a social tune

The show is titled Mission Ustaad but its primary mission isn't to unearth the next singing sensation(s) but to create social awareness. Back in 2000, the Indian government had pledged to eradicate poverty, illiteracy, child mortality by the year 2015. The United Nations had bracketed such problems under the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Seven years have passed and the nation hasn't even reached halfway in realising these goals. Now the UN, 9X and Endemol India have joined hands to spread this message via a musical realty show titled Mission Ustaad. Hosted by the good-looking Simone Singh and judged by an eminent panel comprising of music maestro AR.Rahman, lyricist Javed Akhtar and Bollywood superstar, former Miss Universe and UN ambassador Lara Dutta, this weekend show goes on air from 1st December at 9.00 pm on 9X. Four pairs comprising of Roop Kumar and Sonali Rathod, Kailash Kher-Mahalaxmi Iyer, Vasundhara Das-Mohit Chauhan, Naresh Iyer and Shweta Pandit will vie for the Mission Ustaad title. The four jodis will sing popular and especially composed songs based on a theme linked to the UN MDGs. Each week, the pair that gets the maximum viewers' votes shall be adjudged as Jodi of the week while the pair that creates the biggest impact week after week shall be crowned the Ustaad Jodi. All profits from SMS-es will go for the social causes. Endemol India MD Rajesh Kamat explained, "We don't want to claim that this show will help eradicate poverty or other social problems. This will be 0.001 per cent of effort needed to move into that direction. We want to grab as many eyeballs and in the process, we want to send a social message or create awareness." Javed Akhtar said, "We are a country that's living on paradoxes. On one hand we have more multi-millionaires than Japan and at the same time we have the highest cases of child labour, farmer suicides, dowry deaths. This is a way to sensitize people to such problems." Vasundhara Das said, "For me this show is about progressive entertainment as well enlightenment. It provides us with an opportunity to change people's thoughts. As an individual, this gives a sense of empowerment."